Actually, with two girls in College uniforms now, it’s a wonder I’m allowed out of the house to make public appearances at all any more.

Katianna said to me one day late last week, as we exited the car and walked up the street in town, “Can you please try not to act like one of those weird crazy mums when we get there?” 

The comment stopped me in my tracks.

It stopped me because I am her weird crazy mum, and there is no way of getting around that.

I consider coping with your parents in public as a teen to be a wonderful character-building gift for developing human beings.  

It seems to me though, that my eldest child did make a very good point at the time.

I was walking her towards the location of her first ever paid employment.

Read that again.

Yes, one of my daughters is old enough to be employed outside the home and just like an expectant learner driver booking to sit the driving test on her birthday, Katianna had been counting down until the day she was 14 years and nine months old.   

As soon as she possibly could, this slender blonde girl inquired after work at her chosen establishment.

One resume and job interview later, she powered through her online training requirements and was suddenly walking up the street beside me, asking me not to act as if I was the one turning up for my first day at a new job. 

To be fair, it was a bit of a first for me too.

I was extremely nervous, which may have accentuated my weird craziness. 

We didn’t cling to each other as much as we did on her first day of Prep, or take any photographs like I did on her first day of college, but it was definitely right up there on the milestones chart, and I certainly hadn’t seen it coming.   

Actually, having a kind-of grown-up daughter does make me feel a bit weird.

That’s not too crazy is it?

 - Yolande Grosser

The column, A Mum’s World, appears in the Monday edition of the Wimmera Mail-Times.