Portrait of a very modern 14 year old

[TheDevilWearsPrimark]

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1330689/Portrait-VERY-modern-14-year-old-Tattoos-piercings-drinking-alcohol.html

As always, apologies for the Daily Mail link.

I've only just read this and am pretty much speechless at the moment. Why on earth do people parade their ridiulous ideas of 'parenting' in the press? Does she hope it will further the girls career or something?

Do you really need to ask?
Tis sickening the obsession with making one's fortune thru fame.

Accurate reporting as ever. Couldn't even agree whether the mother is 39 or 39.

so emrm - that'd be 39 then kreecher

Interestingly if you look at her youtube channel (she's not a bad singer actual - not sure why her mum wants her to be portrayed like she is) she's not half as tarted up when she's sitting in her bedroom singing her songs.

Oh how lovely - they're "more like sisters" than mother & daughter. [boak]

She's already got that soulless look in her eyes. :(

they both have unnaturally black hair

How very sad. It's one thing to support your daughter's ambition but this mother is irresponsible and putting her daughter at risk by her neglect. As Sophie is having under age sex with her mother's knowledge, I think it is a case for the social services.

who the fuck tattooed a 14 year old???? no place I know would.

I really doubt that Social services will be bothered that her mother is facilitating her sex life by letting her have her 4 lovers (so far) in the house.

Apparently if foster DD took up smoking before 16 it would be unacceptable of me to make her smoke outside the house as it's 'cold'. And to say no smoking in the house is 'reactionary'.

I said I wouldn't be facilitating illegal activity in my house.

The under-age sex, tattoos and piercings aside (though still ), I am shocked that the mother says they have not decided whether she will sit her GCSE's!

How is she supposed to get a job to support herself through life with no qualifications? The odds of her music "career" being successful enough to support her for the rest of her life are very slim.

LaurieScaryCake Did social services tell you that? Outrageous.

Yep, sometimes the stuff they come out with is beyond stupid. When I look aghast at stuff like that they look at me pityingly and say "You do realise other carers have far more pressing problems like drugs and stealing from the home".

I get more and more disillusioned as time goes on.

I was really angry and upset after reading this article.... It is exactly the same way I was brought up and has been affecting me ever since, I am now 27.
My mother was an extremely liberal head teacher and I was allowed to drink, smoke, take drugs and stay out all night & sleep with men from the age of around 14. I had a tattoo and piercing on my 14th birthday. I had no boundaries and ended up getting raped by an older man, sexually assaulted by another and ended up with a bad drug and alcohol problem which went on until I was around 23. I have been in counselling on and off ever since and can happily say I now have my life back on track, 2 wonderful children and another on the way. I think the way this mother is raising her daughter is unforgivable and 14 is way too young to be allowed to have free rein, she is still a CHILD ffs.

lollypop on the otherhand I was given pretty much a free rein from when I was 14 - my parents went away most weekends leaving me to play house Friday through to Sunday night. I drank, smoked, took drugs had sex and went to school as and when I pleased (which because I was motivated to get away from my parents and have a real life was actually quite often)

I went to university, travelled the world, came back, purued a sucessful professional career, got married had my children and my life is now the epitome of MC normality.

Some children handle freedom differently to others and although I accept 14 is still a child they should have some responsibility for the way in which they live their life and the consequences of tehir behaviour.

It's not a gamble I'm willing to take with my own children

My view is that raising children is a gamble full stop.

Certainly many of the people that I have known who have really gone off the rails or suffered because of their up bringing are those that had very strict, prohibitive upbringings with unapproachable parents.

My halls of residence were full of 18 year olds who had never been allowed out past 11pm and simply lost it when they had to make their own choices.

The article is typical DM bullshit - the tattoos aside the dress/hair/piercings/DM's etc were pretty standard fare when I was her age 20 years ago, as was the fact that the majority of the girls in my school were sexually active by 15 yrs old. And I went to a lovely school in the home counties.

The only thing I could disaprove of is the concept of no formal education because the DD has decided she can't be bothered to get up and that has been spun so fast that it is making me dizzy.

But does she do these things because her mother lets her, or she was doing them anyway?

diddl and that's the crux surely.

The relationships board frequently has threads running re underage sex. the majority of posters seem to think that teenagers will do it anyway and better to be done safely and discussed - a view I share.

Teenagers rarely don't do something because they are told not to.

"Teenagers rarely don't do something because they are told not to."

Well of course.

Equally I think that there are some things you should try to talk them out of rather than accept it as inevitable.

My view is that raising children is a gamble full stop absolutely agree but I also think condoning underage sex, drink & drugs during childhood is, in an awful lot of cases, just asking for trouble. I feel either extreme is a bad thing. My step sister was terribly over protected and her mother is paying the price for it now sh'es turned 18.
I think kids need clear bounderies, fine they are going to rebel and do these things but I think condoning it is wrong.

Cavemum didn't you know? She's gonna be famous who needs education eh?

Her mum is a mug. Lots of teens do what this daft kid is doing, they did 10 years ago when I was this age. But advocating it is just wrong. Doesn't her mum ever wonder what she will/has already done, to rebel

It's quite sad that her mum clearly has no life of her own so she has to be mates with her daughter. "do whatever you want! just please be my friend! I wanna be cool and popular like you!" It's sad to act that way at 16. It's plain pathetic and deranged when you're the wrong side of 40 and the popualr girl is your own daughter.

The mother is only 39 - I do wonder if she wasn't popular as a teenager herself to be living so vicariously through her daughter

39? Really?

Btw that kid has to the trashiest, most elderly looking teenager, bar Cher Lloyd from the X Factor, that I have ever seen. She is an advert for how not drinking and not using permanant make up can be really beneficial for your looks.

DD'S bf is 12 and is allowed to drink by her mum. Her mum is only 26 and I am actually older than her grandmother.She had a party the other week with lots of older teenagers and whole poing of the party was to get blind drunk with the mum there getting drunk alongside them, it's quite sad.
DD has another friend who is 12 and has her belly button pierced. Thankfully DD is very level headed and is not interested in getting drunk and didn't want to go.

The girl in the article has already been on tv a few times in programmes about beauty pagents, they seem desperate for publicity, but surely this is the wrong route.

Oh dear Why do some women want to be their dc's coolest friend instead of a parent? It almost never ends well in the long run.