It is a natural maternal instinct to want to protect your children at all times. My boys are 22 and 19 – they don’t need that much protecting, these days, thank goodness. Still, like all of us, they want comfort and reassurance at times, and mostly I can offer it.
But a couple of weeks ago, I couldn’t – and knowing I couldn’t made me feel powerless, but also resolute. I knew I had to accept that it’s okay for your kids to work things out and deal with knockbacks themselves.
Their football team, West Ham, were on the wrong end of a travesty of justice – or an entirely correct observance of the laws of football, depending on where you stand. I’m not a football writer and I’m not going to get into the ins and outs of what was clearly a debatable VAR decision, which is almost definitely going to contribute to West Ham being relegated from the Premier League.
I also know that it’s just a game; you only have to watch Newsnight or read The i Paper to know that it really isn’t important in the grand scheme of things, but it got me thinking about Ollie and Joe’s reactions to the ups and downs of growing up – and how you gain perspective through things not always going your way.
Which means sometimes, as a parent, as hard as it is not to step in and try and fix everything, you have to hang back and let them process whatever it is they’re going through.
