My girls

The Teenager and Moss the Collie dog, occasionally I'm out of my depth.

Sometimes I wonder why I feel so exhausted, then I look at a photo like this and I get it. My girls, The Teenager and Moss the Collie dog are full on. Look at them both, there is nothing mild about either of them. Bubbling away is the most extraordinary energy, it’s truly fantastic, but boy it can be overwhelming. We have in effect, two teenagers, The Teenager herself aged fourteen years, and Moss the dog aged sixteen months, a teenage dog.

They do both chill out, sometimes, in fact quite often. For me, it’s the attitude, the intensity and the fact it can all change SO fast which staggers me. My girls are curiously similar, they are both very physical, they are both very quick, and they are both, for want of a better word, dominant. Add to this mix a good dose of hormones and you’ve got a hot cocktail. Yes, we are blessed, I’m just saying, it’s not plain sailing.

I’ve found finding my role within the family quite tricky, it can lead to a lot of argy-bargy and that’s exactly where we’re at right now. It’s messy. In Midnight’s Children Salman Rushdie refers to the, “hundred daily pin pricks of family life.” That rings true to me, we are in the thick of it, pin prick after pin prick and sometimes those pin pricks really do hurt.

From time to time I’m out of my depth with Moss and The Teenager, I’m sure I’m not alone? My challenge is this, not to be drained by my girls’ energy however spiky it might be, but to actually gain energy from them.

AJK