Last weekend I went to see The Perks of Being A Wallflower with my daughter and her friend (no, this is not a sponsored post, I just wanted to see the movie). I had only just bought the book for her that morning as she wanted to read it before seeing the movie (which I always like to do as well, if possible, it's like doing a background study and the book is almost always better than the movie). Well she got halfway through the book before we left so had no idea what the climax or the ending was going to be like.
Without giving anything away, let's just say two teenage girls needed a few more tissues than I had stuffed in the bottom of my bag.
The movie was brilliant. If you have the chance and you want to relive the early '90's, take your teenager to see it with you. It's rated M and it does have some sensitive subject matter like suicide, child sexual abuse and homophobia, but nothing graphic is shown. There is some teen snogging but no sex scenes. But I was concerned for the little girl in the row in front of us (she may have been about 7 or 8) when the heavy emotional scenes were on. As we came out she was looking a little pale and shell-shocked.
Afterwards, the girls and I went to dinner and talked about the movie, boys, sex, girls at school and my teenage years (I didn't tell them everything of course!).
It was good to hear that even though Miss Chicken has just met a boy at a party and he asked her out, she is not obsessed with him. They chat (online) occasionally and of course I checked him out on Facebook. I'm still her mother! And there's a reason I don't tell her everything about my teens!
Mr Moneymaker has been shaking since hearing about this boy and though I'm nervous about the next phase of my girl's life, I'm also a little excited for her.
The scary teen has actually been pleasant to live with (most of the time) and we've been able to talk openly about most things. I just hope she doesn't go all serious with this "Summer romance", as she calls it. Everyone remembers their first crush and that lovely feeling of jitters when you find out he is actually interested in you. But some of us let it override everything else and suddenly you realise you've let opportunities pass you by just because you were living your life for somebody else.
But I've got confidence in my Chicken, she has a much smarter head on her shoulders than I ever did as a teen. Thank goodness this generation of girls seem to have a whole lot of good sense and a well deserved dose of confidence (even if it does drive me crazy sometimes).
If you have a teenager, have you found they are much more confident than when you were young?
*Joining up with Essentially Jess for IBOT!
