to slap my teenaged daughter?

[DogsBestFriend]

Excuse me whilst I seethe.

It was 16yo DDs last GCSE this morning at school a couple of villages away. She'd already tried the "School doesn't want us there, says we can't stop there" trick and I'd pointed out that this was bullshit unfortunate and that she would have to wait until 3.30pm to get the school bus home.

So, at 11am she gives me heart palpitations by leaving a "Call me! NOW!" message on 0800 reverse - she's got no credit left for emergencies on her mobile of course. She tells me that she's left school and is walking home (along dangerous A and B roads without pavements). I tell her to get her arse back into school! Madam argues that she doesn't want to be stuck there on her own.

I call the school to confirm that they're happy for her to remain until 3.30pm. Call madam back to say that school suggest the library and use the PCs, you have money, soon it will be lunchtime anyway, it's only 4.5 hours. Nope, she's going to call her father on 0800 reverse (who does sod all and will tell her to piss off). Failing that she's - get this - going to call her friend's Dad, who lives further away than we do and who she knows to be struggling for money, and ask him, as "The two people who should be doing this for me and caring for me won't".

She's right on one of them... but WTF am I supposed to do? Fashion transport for her out of a lawnmower and a few bits of wood?

Her Prom is very much at risk of going ahead without her on Friday, that's for sure. Otherwise, can I slap her please?

:o

Me is good and mine are better :) Check the latest pictures! Can you believe how long ago it was that I wibbled and you hand-held? 10 weeks they are now.

Despite their being no public bus service to her school there's one bus every 2 hours to the nearest city, Majorcacaca, first one gets there in time for the start of business hours so yes, she has no argument there. :)

Good news Pinot but I can't access any pics/info, you've not set your profile up for public viewing!

Oh crap. It's still under my PinotsKitten name. Hang about

Done!

LeQueen, it didn't happen to me when I was a teenager either... because I knew damn well that if I'd spoken to my mother as my daughter did to me today mother would have slapped my face.

Oooooohhhhh! Pinot!

Now tell me.... are you bringing the kittens (and the dogs) to me or shall I collect them tonight from your house? :o

Oh, plllllleeeeeeeease swap your pets for my DDs, pllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaase!

NO.

Well, you can have the Cavalier as she snores like a sweaty trucker.

But the cute ones stay clutched to my breast

OP, glad your DD is home safe and sound.
FWIW I wouldn't be keen on anyone walking home 7 miles on some of the country roads round here where we live.......... where people get killed with monotonous regularity due to blind crests, tight bends and poor driving.
It also seems to me that some people missed a lot of the information you gave - 7 mile walk along narrow twisty roads, no buses except school one home, outrageous taxi fares........... and that most of her friends weren't sitting the exam.
Sorry, but I get annoyed when people don't read things properly and then pitch in

I got home from work tonight to discover that the sirens blaring at 6am were the result of yet another crash on the blind corner not 500 yds from my front door

I don't know if anyone was killed, but DH said that when he went past at 0830 there was a small car (corsa?) on it's roof and smashed to hell. Young, inexperienced drivers take the corner too fast, hit the hump and fly. We've seen a few of them.

Not really relevant I suppose, except for the fact that had it not been pissing down I might have been walking the dog down there around then. Pedestrians and country roads don't mix.

Completely off topic but Maryz you are scaring me. DD is amazing but one of those ds stands for demon...

"In my experience it's the strong willed/challenging toddlers/children who go on to be the wilful, difficult teenagers."

"insomnia I think a child's personality is pretty much formed by the time they reach school?"

I wouldn't be too sure about this one. I was the toddler from hell, the child who had my mother sobbing "I will never raise this child, I will never raise this child". By the time I got to my teens I had morphed into a studious girl who spent far more time supporting my mum than arguing with her. In my twenties I changed once more, from a very shy and self-contained person to somebody far more outgoing and sociable.

The only one of their children my parents had trouble with as a teen was that gentle, sensitive soul my elder brother, the sweetest toddler anyone could remember: he turned unexpectedly defiant.

My own dd was a very difficult toddler/pre-school child: demanding, strong-willed, totally incapable of accepting that mummy might know better. She is a remarkably tolerant and easy-going 14yo.

So I wouldn't count those chickens just yet, LeQueen. If I had believed dd's personality was set in stone, I might have missed the signs of a change coming.

LeQueen, I hate to tell you this but DD1 was the sunniest, sweetest-natured baby and infant ever imaginable. We had another blazing row last night.... :(

DD2, who has E/B issues and who screamed day and night from the moment she was born and was a most difficult child, would never speak to me as DD1 has. She knows it's in her interests to say "Yes Mum" rather than start arguing and that as a result the problem and my admonishment is far lighter and over far more quickly.

This has probably been said as I haven't read entire thread but YABVVU...NONE of our year 11 stay at school after any exam and definately not their last one, yes the school will let anyone stay but

1. All of her friends have gone to celebrate last exam
2. She has nothing to do in school
3. She could walk home or get taxi ( by arrangement that you would pay at later date)
4. She is angry because you won't help her in this situation and probably embarrassed that she is still at school.
5. She's just finished months of revision/ exams - she's probably mentally exhausted- and last exam meltdown happens

She's not right to take it all out on you but your lack of sympathy for her is a bit :( Hope she's going to the prom.

Ok no to walking home and maybe taxi would have cost a fortune- so give her some sympathy instead.