Why I'm terrified of my teenage daughters. They're blonde, high-maintenance and glamorous - but it's their judgment that's really intimidating
I have an embarrassing confession to make: I am terrified of my teenage daughters, Beatrice and Florence.
I have an embarrassing confession to make: I am terrified of my teenage daughters, Beatrice and Florence.
At 16 and 14, with their long glossy blonde hair, they are effortlessly glamorous, chic and stylish.
And yet they also have the attitude to match – their mascara-clad eye roll is a regular feature in our house, while my friends find them so intimidating, they admit to crossing the road to avoid them.
What has happened to teenage girls, that they have become so unnerving even to their own mothers?
This year their Christmas presents cost in the region of £350 each, which seems to me a sizeable amount – especially as they have three other siblings – but seemed barely to scratch the surface of what they’d had in mind themselves.
Weeks earlier they’d compiled a Christmas wishlist PowerPoint presentation, in which the gift total totted up to an eyewatering £3,000. ‘Just some ideas for you,’ noted Florence.
A red hoodie, ‘perfect for cosy nights by the fire’, was priced at £85. The make-up alone came to £600, and included items not even a well-deserving perimenopausal 45-year-old like me would dare to ask for.
None of it is the cheap stuff, mind you. In our day, my sister and I made do with Superdrug and Woolworths, but today’s teen girls accept nothing less than Charlotte Tilbury or a Space NK voucher. Forget popping into H&M for a top – it’s Brandy Melville and Minka Dink as entry-level buys.
Sybilla Hart with her teenage daughters Beatrice, 16, and Florence, 14
What has happened to teenage girls, that they have become so unnerving even to their own mothers? asks Sybilla Hart
On some level I admire this. We are constantly told that teens lack self-confidence but my girls have no trouble voicing their ‘needs’. They are untroubled by the concept of martyrdom and show no sign of conforming to the stereotypically female trait of ‘putting themselves last’.
All well and good, were it not for the relentless judgment that goes hand in hand with it.
For example, my girls despair of my own attempts at getting ready for a night out and are constantly giving me advice on ways to look better. They are very bossy about eyelash curling and the importance of highlighter. To their genuine bemusement – cue hard eye-rolling – I had never heard of setting spray until last year.
They have even resorted to doing my hair and make-up for me. I have to admit they always look so perfectly, exquisitely made-up – all teen girls do nowadays – I am happy to let them try their techniques on me.
We live in a tight-knit, friendly village on the Essex/Suffolk border, where many of my friends have known the girls since they were little. Yet a school mum recently confessed that whenever she spotted them getting off the school bus, she’d hide behind a hedge or dive into her car as she was scared stiff of the pair.