‘Show me a young Conservative and I’ll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old Liberal and I’ll show you someone with no brains.’ So said Winston Churchill. Having recently spent the weekend with teenage cousins I’ve realised just how conservative I’ve become.
‘What are your plans for next week?’ I asked 18-year-old John.
‘I’ll probably just recover from this weekend,’ he replied. This was an improvement on his mostly monosyllabic replies but still left little room to continue in the way of conversation.
‘He’ll be helping me out soon with some work,’ his father added hopefully.

‘Is anyone hungry?’ I asked as we left the Rijksmuseum. Shoulders shrugged.
‘Not really,’ was the resounding response.
‘Thirsty?’
‘No.’ I thought about the cold bottle of wine waiting for me in the fridge at home…

It wasn’t until I relayed the weekend’s events to my mum that I realised that I hadn’t so much turned into her but turned into the kind of person my mum had avoided becoming throughout her entire life. I’d forgotten that the only reason I had gotten a part-time job in my teens was purely for the money (to spend on clothes) and my interest in going to university was probably more influenced by avoiding growing up than planning for my future. And what were my interests back then? Going to clubs and hanging out with my friends.

Sixteen-year-old Caitlin, who was chatty and interested in fashion reminded me of my younger self. ‘Dad doesn’t believe I don’t have a boyfriend,’ she said as we queued for the Anne Frank House. ‘He keeps bugging me about it. It’s really annoying.’
‘It’s probably because he remembers what he was like at your age,’ I said. ‘That’s why he worries.’ Caitlin grimaced. I decided not to add a quote from musician Bryan White – ‘The problem is that we never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.’ Of course, sometimes we forgot how to act in public (those cringe-worthy rows with Hot Danish, for example) and I have enough material to dedicate a blog (or many blogs) to just how much growing up I have to do…