How my daughter taught me to practice what I preach

Some people are lactose, some people are gluten, but me, I’m cringe-intolerant. I can’t shake off an embarrassing or awkward moment like other people can. I wear the humiliation like a rash for weeks, which is why I’m still seething with my daughter for her latest stunt.

There’s nothing I loathe more than being put on the spot by my pre-teen girl in front of her friends. I don’t know how many times I’ve reminded her of this, but she continues to do it and her most recent one, while not a big deal to most people, left me feeling ever-so-slightly rattled.

My darling daughter decided the best way to convince me to let her go to the local disco - something we’d battled over for weeks - was to introduce me to a few of her friends' parents when myself and some other mums were collecting our girls from a sleepovers in a pal's house. None of these mums had any problem letting their little ones hightail it off at the weekend, all glitter eye-shadow and winged eyeliner and my daughter clearly hoped they might work some magic on me.
 
The mums, who I’m sure thought I just needed a little reassurance about the big weekend event, made a not-so-subtle production of explaining why the girls just had to go to the latest shindig. Their kids and my husband’s daughter (I always call her that when she’s up to no good; she’s mine when she gets A’s, is kind to old people and tells me she loves me) giggled on the sidelines and watched me squirm.

Here’s the thing; I had made my decision about the disco weeks ago and my daughter knew this. Feeling that I need to justify myself to my own daughter is one thing; feeling that I need to justify myself to a group of other mums is quite another. Hearing myself explain, in what can only be described as an apologetic tone, why I wouldn’t be allowing her to go thoroughly embarrassed me. Knowing my daughter put me in this position made the irritation all the more acute.

I’ve always taught my daughter to stand up for herself, stick to her guns and not to bow to peer pressure and here I was shuffling awkwardly and trying to ignore my flushed cheeks, while explaining why my daughter’s non-attendance at the disco was no one’s business but mine and hers.

"Why, oh why would she put me through that", I thought to myself. And then I realised there was a method to her madness. She wanted to see if I could truly practice what I preach, didn’t she? She wanted to see if I'd be able to stand my ground, stick to my guns and not bow to peer pressure. Well, she got what she wanted; she’s still not going.