If
you'd have seen Candyflosscloud asking me to write this guest blog
post, you would probably have been a bit confused as to why she would
consider asking a 15 year old girl to write for a parental blog, what do
I know about children? Well, the truth is, I don't know anything about
being a parent or even looking after a baby as my sister is only 2 years
younger than me. And so for this reason alone, I could understand your
confusion. But I know almost everything there is to know about being a
daughter and therefore I also know a lot about being a child. Most
people on parent blogs come up with tips for parents to help them cope
with a young child, but what happens as they get older? This is
something I admit to being an expert in; I know what it takes to make a
child truly appreciate their parent/s. I know that as I got older, I
realised just how glad I was to have parents who could help me with
homework and made an effort to be involved in my life. So although I
understand that for a lot of you, having a teenager is something you
really don't want to think about, I'm going to help you make that
transition a lot easier.
Most
of you reading this will probably be in your thirties, and without
trying to make you sound old, high school was quite a long time ago for
you and it's changed quite significantly in the last few years. I'm in
my last year at high school, and I've felt the true extent of a lot of
these changes.
For
me, a normal day at school involves 5-one hour each- lessons, a 20
minute break and a 40 minute lunch. Here I have chosen 1 day of the week
to hopefully help enlighten you on an average day at high school.
This is my easiest school day, but even though I know it seems like I don't do much, it really is exhausting.
Now
you're probably wondering why I've told you about my school day, right?
Well as parents, you need to start getting used to the idea that as
soon as your child or children reach high school, you're never going to
know exactly what goes on in their lives, even though you might think
you do. When your child is a toddler you can pretty much decide what
they do, what they eat and who they talk to, but that control goes away.
You won't know about that one boy who makes a rude comment every time
he sees your child, how they won't eat much at school to fit in, or how
they have to fight their way through the shoves in the corridors. And
it's a hard thing to accept. But these things do happen.
So
I've told you how in ICT I just gossiped with my friend, but I didn't
tell you that in the next lesson my teacher kept standing behind my
computer, sent my best-friend out for not concentrating and then rang
her mum to complain. I told you that I tried to do as little work in art
as possible, but I forgot to mention that I spend that lesson in
silence because my teacher doesn't like me and sits me on a table of 2
when the other tables all seat at least 6. I told you that I tried to
understand as much as possible in Spanish, but I didn't say that it's
hard to focus in that class because most of the pupils mess around,
start singing and shouting, and get sent out.
I
hope that my point is coming across. As a parent you will never know
what truly goes on at your child's school, which is why the relationship
you have with them is so important. I tell my mum things like my best
friend getting sent out and me having to sit by myself in art, because
I'm close to her. That's the relationship all parents should have with
their children. When I was younger and not as close to my mum as I am
now, I had a big fall out with my best friends which involved a lot of
crying, and my parents didn't find out for months.
It
might seem like I'm lecturing you, which coming from a 15 year old you
might think I have no right to do. But it's important that you realise
that you need to maintain the close relationship you have now with your
child, while they go on their journey through school.
I've
never written a blog post like this, which you may or may not be able
to tell, but I do have a beauty blog. If you've read this and think I
should write more lifestyle posts, please let me know either through my
blog or twitter. Thank you for reading this.
