Steps

I've become the accidental owner of a Fitbit. I never wanted one. In fact, I'm allergic to quantify exactly what I do all and night. Even after Suzy from https://theairingcupboard.me/ enthused about it, I still wasn't drawn in. My daughter asked for one as a last minute Christmas present. She's not greedy, her list was tiny, and we bugged her into it, ie say it now, or it'll be too late. I reserved the Alta Hr, but it turns out you need to be over 16 to set this up unless you were going to lie about your age. She would prefer to get the correct data for her age so we will be getting the Fitbit Ace on Thursday. In fairness, she wasn't too disappointed. I think she's accepted at this stage I'm going to make mistakes. From what I could see is that it changed due to data protection. My Mother wants one too.
I've been wearing it for the last 5 days taking it off to shower and putting it back on again after if I remember.10,000 to 12,000 steps a day is the recommended amount. I presume that's to do with my height/weight etc. I've been hitting about 5,000 on average and not running the 30  minutes of moderate activity as it kicks in after 10 minutes. And yet I'm burning calories.  My sleep is averaging 7hrs 30 minutes. It vibrates to remind to move if I'm awake but haven't got up.
Most of this due to  'pottering around' which they mock me for. I usually prep vegetables and whatever else is for lunch and dinner during the days I'm not in the Glasshouse or getting ready for Airbnb. This means I'm active but probably not taking very many steps. Same if I'm cleaning down the worktop in front of me, the oven-which still isn't fixed, the microwave or fridge. Or I'm stocktaking the presses or freezer.
I fidget a lot. If I sit down, I'm usually popping up again to check saucepans aren't boiling over, if the washing machine id nearly finished etc. This makes me sound very domesticated, I'm not. If I upped the pace, I'd probably have it done faster and add more steps. I have been going for more walks though. Short but often up slopes, so it makes my heart pump. I wouldn't care to take a beep test though.
I think I've written a list of things to try to convince myself that I'm actually doing something. I've been looking for ways to help The School promote itself, attract new pupils for next September, messaged a local beautician whose involved on committees in my local town to see if she can get more businesses to accept One4All vouchers and done a few more surveys so can redeem more One4All's. See I wasn't entirely altruistic.
And I did Morning pages for the first time in ages. My daughter is off from school today due to teacher training. We spent time together, sometimes ignoring each other on our devices. Companionable silence is something I seldom feel with people. I appreciate it even if it doesn't look like 'quality time' to the outside world.
It's the accountability I'm pushing back against. If I wasn't moving what was I doing? It comes up when it comes to writing. Have I actually done any today, good, bad or indifferent?
TV has gotten good again. New Luther's, Silent Witnesse's and Vikings. For a pacifist slash coward, I like really dark, violent shows. Living vicariously I suppose

Hiding

I've been reading  Marianne Cantwell's ( Free Range Humans,http://www.beafreerangehuman.com/) tips on blogging. Think my biggest stumbling block is putting a pic of myself up and writing the About page. So then I can be formally identified, which is a bit scary if my blogs don't measure up...But we all have to start somewhere. That's how Marianne ended up getting her book deal and Tilly ( Tilly and the Buttons). Well, it did help that Tilly ended up on the Great British Sewing Bee around the time her book was released and that there has been a resurgence in all things crafty of late. The timing couldn't have been better, yet it might not have happened.S he was approached twice before about publishing a book and the deals fell through. The third time was really was lucky for her
https://www.tillyandthebuttons.com/

The above is a post from another blog I started a few years ago. I published about 3 posts, had about 2 views in total., which were probably my own. Marianne recently sent out an email asking if people who had done her course would send in a short piece on what had changed with them since they had participated. I sent something in but have a feeling it will be culled. It wasn't very well written or as transformative as Stacey Sarginson Shawe who has become a financially successful Life coach
https://www.facebook.com/StaceySargison/ . Or Maria Watson  @ The Ideas Director'
https://www.facebook.com/thedetailsdirector/

I screwed up and am glad she gave me another chance. I didn't pay attention to the pinned posts on the rules of her group and posted info on other coaches. It was stupid and out of character for me. Not the stupid part-I have done plenty of stupid things. It was my lack of care in adhering to the group rules. I've often thought about others conflagrating rules in other pages and gone to myself ' Why don't they just the pinned post? '
I didn't know this was the definition of conflagration: a destructive fire, usually an extensive one. I knew it meant something destructive and still fits in the sentence. I often can use a word in a sentence because I have a sense of what it means or how it fits from my previous obsession with devouring books. Yet I still would struggle to give a definition if put on the spot. I have taken to looking things up frequently as I'm paranoid about posting something that was in common use but now might be regarded as offensive.

I was fortunate that Marianne kindly sent me an email about it and was very understanding of my embarrassment. She did not have to be, she could have kicked me out and possibly taken legal action. But she didn't. I was allowing a family members action to stress me out and posting as a form of distraction. Yes, I can be self-destructive when I'm feeling powerless but generally, it's to my own detriment and not others( I probably didn't need to add 'own detriment' as it's already implied in 'self-destructive' but I felt like writing it).
I'm still allowing that family member to impact on me. To a lesser extent but it's still happening. I have taken action that I would not have thought myself capable of. I've gathered the outlines of a book on the history of my local area which ties into family history. This is my own project-I can' see there being an audience. I like the idea of self-publishing a copy and putting it away for my daughter to find after I die. I've bitten the bullet and sent a rough draft to a local man who grew up in the area who can fill in the gaps which will die with people as they were never written down. I did ask my Grandmother but she said she didn't know or couldn't remember. Her Mother died when she was young. She herself worked hard farming, baking bread growing up. I think don't think she liked to revisit the memories

Wrong audience

My Mother went to a poetry night with her friend. Her friend is one of the nicest genuinely positive uncritical people I know. She goes to all kinds of social events, engaging with so many people. She and her husband retired here and interact far more with the community than I do. She wanted to go to this as one of our local storytellers was making an appearance. She liked his piece in a local social night and thought this would be much the same. The first mishap was that the brochure said 7.30, Sue is prompt, so they were there at 7.15. The poster said 8 -it started at 8.15.

They were happy enough in the front bar, drinking coffee and people watching. It turned out the event was part of a nationwide action to do with mental health. The comedian Joe Rooney was in the lineup. He had had a panic attack before so was sharing his experience and doing some of his sketches. He said to my Mother 'You're not enjoying this'.She replied 'I've no sense of humour'.She doesn't find much of what the rest of my family finds hilarious funny. She laughs at things I think are slightly racists or memes saying things in pidgin Chinese. He quickly changed tack. She presumed it was because he thought she might have mental health issues. She didn't care.T he next bits he did still didn't entertain her, but they suited her better. She liked poems a lady with additional needs wrote about her cat and Brian Sheehan( a local Gaelic Football player). But that maybe someone else could have read them out as she was hoarse from getting over the flu.

Séan was on after the after the break, so they toughened on. The interval lasted 35 minutes. They were about 2 hours in the night, plus the hour they had been early. They liked Séan but couldn't really get the theme of his story .  4 Farmers trying to marry off their son's to one woman. They vied to impress her by bringing a tree, a rock and a bull from different provinces. But the Portmagee lad was a cute hoor and kept quiet about what he had. Somehow the beast fell over the tree which broke the rock. Then the Portmagee lad took an acorn out of his pocket and said it was 'Hope'.

The MC was a very excellent portrait artist who doesn't excel at organisational skills. Says the wan-my own efforts at organising anything leave a lot to be desired. They weren't impressed with the giving of small prizes leaving the biggest hamper until near the end. Maybe she thought it would increase the suspense? A basket was given out to the wrong coloured ticket holder. That was a big indiscretion. Even though a raffle is just a bonus chance to win something. You're not guaranteed you will win or even win something you like. Irish people enjoy this form of gambling. It won't break you, and the odds are high enough of winning.

A performance piece about breathing followed. My Mother and Sue didn't realise that at first. Sue was genuinely worried about the performer. It turned out he was just demonstrating what it can look like when someones having a panic attack. Sue starting laughing, with relief, that he was actually alright. I think my Mother found that the funniest part of the night.

She said she was glad she wasn't looney and them people probably needed something more uplifting. I'm not sure that's how mental issues work.Basically, she thought something lighter might help. She told my daughter she was there for 5 hours-excluding travel time. My daughter said 'Mental health is time-consuming'.

 Maybe I'll entertain myself in the New Year buying her tickets to events I'm not sure she will like but will feel obligated to go to.I've started with 'The Matchmaker'.

Do you want to be buried with my people?

'Do you want to be buried with my people?' a chat up line I haven't heard for a long time, and the completely un PC 'Do you want to go halves on a bastard?'. I can 't imagine the second going down well at all in 2019. Nor can I imagine dating like an American. They seem to be ok asking people out on a date. The person being asked out may not be that into the person that asked them on the date, will go, see how they get on. They can have multiple dates with the same person, other people, until they mutually decide to be 'exclusive'. Mutually does seem to be key though. Otherwise one is daydreaming about their future babies, and the other is scheduling them in between other dates. Or maybe I've been watching too much American TV.

I'm not sure how Irish people actually get together. First, they seem to be 'meeting' or 'shifting' each other plus a few others. Then they seem to forget about other people but just 'meeting' each other, they are still not a couple. I'm making complete generalisations here. This seems to go on -on and off, throughout the teens/the twenties. It seems to culminate in ultimatums of marriage or babies. I have no idea if its similar for Queer teens.

I was very bad at all of this as a teen and up to my late twenties. My last two, what I would call serious relationships were sort of drifting into. I brought clean laundry to both their places as one lived near the laundrette and the other time I was working where laundry was done so brought my clothes with me. Much of it stayed in their places . Even though  I still had my own home.
The first was free accommodation over the Irish Pub. It turned out that lots of people had the code to the access pad . I didn't realise this for ages but never felt unsafe there.
 I'm pretty sure money went missing from my bag at some stage. But  I was ditzy and couldn't be 100% sure of how much was there in the first place. I didn't bother reporting it to anyone. It was my own fault for presuming. I wouldn't go into someone else bag so why would someone else do it? Things like this did happen before, but like that, I wasn't paying as much attention to my finances as I do now.
 I did catch a family member once who had taken a tenner.I had just thrown it into the wardrobe on the left side. That was my filing system at that time. I wasn't a spindthrift but I wasn't materialistic either. I liked having some money but I was living at home, not internet shopping, didn't have a car etc.
 I had gone back in shortly after for something else otherwise I genuinly probably wouldn't have notice. I said it to them , they denied it, I insisted and threatened  to involve our parents. They relented saying they needed it but I actually forced them to give it back. I probably would have loaned it to them but have a feeling I would have had to fight to get it back. Thats if I remembered. I really used to live in my own head , with very little 'street smarts'. I'm stilll a bit that way.

 I digress. I had a baby when I was 21 with a man I had been seeing for two years. The relationship didn't last. We didn't fall out but he stopped contacting me when she was two. I'm 35 and havn't had anymore  children since. I'm ok with that. In fairness, it had crossed my mind that maybe I couldn't or wouldn't have them. He had an apartment near the laundrette and walking distance from the Irish Pub. He was earning but not great with money. I'd say he moved out independently from his family sooner than I did , got a car , had to pay for accomadation.
I had to pay for accomadation when I went to UL at 18 for about a year. I was working at weekends and had being doing some sort of paid work since I was 14. Of course, I spent some but still saved a bit. I was been given food going back to college every weekend. Generally, I wasn't great with money I tended to only spend some of my cash after all my bills were paid. He was a business analysist and worked part time in the Irish Pub I waitressed at in Germany. I met him the first night I was working when he was bartending the lower bar. He continued to pay bills in the flat but I contributed food shopping paid for laundry to be done etc.
We moved to England, where he was originally from , before I had the baby. I ended up spending more and more time in Ireland visiting. He was out alot working. In retrospect, I had some form of depression not necessarily post natal . Later on, I went to my childhood doctor in Ireland who gave antidepressants as I was 7 and a half stone with thining hair. This helped hugely and I only took one course of them. Later I got diagnosed with a Gastric Migraine which ment I got heachaces and vomited due to low serotonin. Drinking aloe gel and life generally becoming less stressfull helped alot.I'm closer to ten stone now.
 The Organic Farmer doesn't tend to procrastinate. In fact the only time I've really see him do it was because his Uncle got annoyed at him for not wanting to stay over night at a family wedding. I had posted the invite back, last minute as he hadn't decided on whether to go, I forgot the airmail sticker . It arrived ten days late. His 80 something year old Mother had sent an email response . Why did I not do that? I held back as it was his side of the Family and I didn't want to cause him extra stress. Regardless, I did anyway. His Uncle was not so happy with us when we arrived .We didn't improve it by saying we weren't staying that night. He hates wedding as he find them too long , he has a cousin who tends to start fights but still gets asked again to everything and he , like me, likes people but we need time on our own to recharge.They used to ring eachother once a week but havn't since then. Neither will give. They are quite similar in lots of ways.
I hate the going on and on about what you are going to wear by my Mother and her friend. They can't understand it make us uncomfortable or they don't care. I can look ok when I have to.I go to very few. It's because of this but also the cost. I'm trying to drink less, don't need a man and I don't really dance, even the 'shake your tail feather ' version as one of my Brothers Black American girlfriend described the actions in the Harp one night. He's married to someone else whose lovely too but we did like Iota.Maybe I'm just becoming more boring or just need to made adaptations for myself so I can enjoy it more. Maybe booking a room in the hotel so I can be up and down to it if I need some quite time. It embarrasses me as most people sort of humble brag about 'having' to go to so many weddings. I really don't get invited to many though. If he was into going I probably would end up at more but be drained by the organisation of it all. It make me sound ungratefull and I really don't want to come across that way. I may just be antisocial but I think theres more to it . I've been thingking again about but not yet booked an Aspergers assesment

 I've since lived back  to Ireland, rented a house and moved to my Grandmothers house in the last 10 years. And I spend time at The Organic Farmers house. He is very tolerant , good but not a bit tight with money. He pays his bills, I pay mine. I cook a good bit at his house so I get alot of the food shopping. He loves my daughter. As does her Father I'm sure but he needs to find a way back. He procrastinates because it's uncomfortable. He used to do that . Devon Price has a wonderful piece 'There's no such thing as laziness ' which explains what I think is going on with him far better than I can. Generally I never talk about or write about money but I'm more aware of it. Constance Hall has posted about being paid and valued for so called 'unskilled 'work , Denise Duffield Thomas has built her whole buiseness around it. But it is interesting how they all seem to feel or people feel they have the right to ask them to explain themselves. They get questioned far more than a man about how much they are earning, who does the housework, childcare, exactly what percentage of the profict are going to charity.

 Sure when 'Part Time Working Mummy' got a Conservatory make over sponsored for advertising she only took part of and had a competition for her followers. People made comments about her being a 'sell out' etc. even though they know she does a vast amount for Domestic Violence Charaties, has five kids -one on the way , works part time and a policeman husband who works shifts. She couldn't enjoy her bit of a reward. She feels she has  to give away things she's been given because some followers make her feel she doesn't deserve it. There was a comment removed by a poster about how they had expected her book 'to be better' somehow. It was essentially a collection of pieces from her blog and her story from what I understand . The poster was ok reading it for free on her page but didn't like when she paid for the book for some reason..Hey I've  been bought another bloggers book which had rave reviews. I read it in one sitting. I thought it was light and funny but would have got them same enjoyment form her free posts. But I did not post this anywhere as I didn't think it would be fair. It was my opinion and nowhere did the author say it would be in a different style.
I find that on alot of these blogs people seem fine when the blogger is posting for free and just begining to become well known. When it takes off and the Blogger  understandably tries to monetise it (as it takes a huge amount of time and you ahve to put up with Trolls) their own followerss eeem to turn. I tend to read mostly blogs by women  so not sure if this phenomenom happens to male bloggers. I have a hunch that it doesn't.
And I've gone off on another tangent. Basically, The Organic Farmer seems to be 'The One' and some of his people are buried near some of my people so we might all end up together in the end. It's equal to us-my daughter can be deciding.

Dropped

The Organic Farmer frequently asks if I was dropped on my head. He means it affectionately, it's his own way of trying to figure out how my head works. I entered a competition with Dropchef during Christmas for the makings of a Christmas dinner delivered to your door. I didn't win but instead got a runner up prize discount of 50% off. The company is based in Dublin I explained to them I was in rural Ireland, the opposite end of the country fully expecting to hear 'Sorry, we don't deliver there'. But they didn't. I ordered on the Friday the 3rd of Jan and got it the following Tuesday.

My daughter thought it was weird 'getting our dinner in The Post'.
It actually came via courier, in a cardboard box with a cooler bag & packs which I can reuse plus mostly recyclable packaging. Eggs were each in their own tiny box with some shredded paper for padding.

 Its supposed to be for a family I ordered so I'm presuming 2 adults and 2 children. I didn't see the number of people on it. They have options for a single person or a couple also.
https://dropchef.com/sign-up/

It would have cost €83.40  full price @ €6.95 per person for 3 days worth of dinners. It's subscription-based, but you can pause and restart it anytime. In a Community Centre, I worked in subsidised meals cost €7, that's with tea and scones around 11 and tea, dessert, cake and biscuits after. The Dropchef meal just includes the ingredients for your meal and a recipe card. They have red wine and a white you can add on for €9.99 too.
 I didn't execute it very well the first night. Someone visited in the evening, and I was slightly embarrassed about getting my dinner delivered, so I hid it. He had been there another day when I had food delivered from the Supermarket to The Organic Farmers house. I was attempting to be more efficient.
 They start joking about me 'Not even wanting to go to the shop now' .I'm not sure what he'd make of this. This is rural Ireland so generally, if you want food you have to go get it yourself, inner-city Dublin they would probably take no notice. He was distracted by whatever topic of conversation that was going on. I got away with. See how grown up I am?
By the time he had left my daughter had been dropped back after football, and I started prepping with frequent check-ins from both of them. I hate people looking at me doing things in the kitchen especially if I'm not sure what I'm doing. The first recipe was Vietnamese Meatballs -I had presumed they would come made and I would just have to cook them. They didn't. I made many tiny ones instead of two golfball sized ones as suggested. The recipe had said put them in the oven. I had forgotten both his ovens weren't working. Frying pan it is. Rice Noodles came with it. My daughter thought they looked like a bag of cable ties. I over boiled them. The Organic Farmer liked the meatballs but not the noodles, bread was had with them. My daughter must have got a lump of chilli pepper in her first bite. It was a no from her. She had my back up a portion of pasta with a stir in.

My cooking is hit and miss anyway so usually there's maybe one new thing and the rest is familiar, well-liked. Then if we can't eat my creation, we just eat the rest. I try not to waste food as it's like throwing time and money in the bin. I console myself that it does feed the birds. I throw it far out into the field and so far have had no other visitors for it.

The next day went better. I cooked up both meal options that were left. The Organic Farmer suggested using the grill as a mini oven. I took out the grill tray, turned it on and closed the door. I had marinaded the chicken earlier and only used some of the chillies and peppers suggested in the recipe. They will eat them, not loads. I baked the salmon in the grill oven using my own herbs as The Organic Farmer doesn't love the sundried pesto that came with it. I put it on on the table with the wraps, veg and new potatoes that were for the salmon meal and we picked whatever we wanted. This worked better. There's enough left for today,  maybe we were greedy when it was all out. The portions will be small. We are going to lunch today so small is good. I'll be using the extras left over for a curry tomorrow. I think the I'll keep the recipe cards, they will give me ideas I can adapt. I think tis a far cry from Jack Monroes living on £10 a week for food but it is an option for people who are cash rich and time poor. They essentially save you the shopping and thinking the time of what to cook. In theory, there should be no waste as you get exactly what is required, so that is money saving if you generally overbuy or throw things away due to spoilage.
I have photos of my attempt, but my phone won't let me upload so I'll be adding that later
                                                           Dropchefs Photo

                                              Ahem, what I did to it...

Bootstraps

I've been watching Cooking on a Bootstraps Jack Monroe on Youtube. I've seen some of the videos before and am looking through a different lens this time. The aspect about her I find most interesting at the moment is her Autism (she doesn't mind 'she', quite happy with 'Them/They '). She lived on €10 sterling worth of food at one stage due to having her son, becoming a single parent, not being unable to continue working at a fire station and having benefits delayed. She didn't tell her family or friends about much of what was going on. I do like her but she seems to attract an awful lot of vitriol because people can't pigeon-hole her. She tends to understandably emotional about what she speaks. She has also said things publically, which she has since apologised for, about David Cameron that even her biggest fans didn't agree with. So you can imagine the field day her opponents had. Here's her Ted Talk based on her 'Poverty Hurts' blog post that went viral. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueew8giHXM4

It has since been used on a test in a GCE English paper. She wrote it from the heart with very little editing. At the time she was not in a good place and had very few readers. She's seems delighted it has turned up in schools but would love to edit a bit. I'm wondering if they even had to ask her to use it? Maybe not if it isn't copywrited .To be honest I don't really know enough about it but believe you are allowed to quote from others work without asking once you give them credit.

Now she's gone mad for the slow cooker. She has done cooking with a microwave and hotplate cooking for those living in bedsits previously so not sure why this seems to surprise me. She has 2 triple ones and a large which has been experimenting with. She does seem to get really focused on a particular way of cooking and how to get around issues with it before moving onto the next thing. I can be a bit that way but it tends to veer towards binge reading blogs I've found and not much action.

The 'pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps' analogy always seemed a bit strange to me. I mean what are you supposed to do, tie them onto something and pull yourself up? Up to what? Or tie yourself onto someone or thing that's more successful than you and get pulled up that way somehow? I don't really get the imaginary but I do understand the sentiment. The notion 'if you just worked harder had more ingenuity you wouldn't be poor'. But it doesn't work like that, unfortunately, some people start off poor and manage someway to make it, others do it illegally and yet others get rich off being inflammatory.

Speaking of inflammatory, Jack won a court case against Katie Hopkins. This has lead to Katie being very close to bankrupt.
 https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/tv-radio-web/is-it-too-much-to-hope-that-this-is-how-it-all-ends-for-katie-hopkins-1.3633160

Jack is glad that she won but still able to empathise with the financial fallout for Katie. She acknowledges she too has been nasty on the internet and paid for it for it, metaphorically and financially.
 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/28/katie-hopkins-mail-online-jack-monroe

It's all a bit cautionary. The tables can turn very fast in real anonymous life or have real-life consequences. If you put your head above the parapet you may be rewarded or get it blown off.

Mirror , Mirror on the wall

There's another odd thread on the Unmummy Mum. They get sent into her by her followers. This time its a rather skimpy bikini bottom from Beginners Boutique(Beginning even). The comments are funny. I do feel lousy laughing as some are personally mocking the model who was paid to pose in them. It's garnering massive attention for the brand, so I'm sure their sales, not necessarily of this item have rocketed. Some have even questioned are they for real with some of the clothing posted as they get trolled massively. But maybe the jokes not on them and their marketing team are genius.
The clothes are not for me to be honest. Their demographic would tend to have alot less body hair
and be much better at personal grooming. That said I really wouldn't be bothered commenting on the clothes or that the photos are photoshopped. I always presume that the images have been altered and that the models don't wake up looking like that that. Yet, I'm saying it here

 Even before this Ted talk, I had an understanding of it. When I was younger, the internet existed . We didn't get the dial-up version for ages. I did see images on Tv, in magazines and have relatives who 'helpfully' told me what I could do to look better. I love that she acknowledges she won the genetic lottery, which comes with many perks and  still can be insecure

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM4Xe6Dlp0Y
 It shouldn't matter how we look but it does impact on how people respond to us. Its theme of the more traditional version of Snow White, she is beautiful but not very clever and loved for it. Her Step-Mother is aging, clever. Jelouse of Snowwhites beauty and naivety wants to kill her for it. Its an exaggeration with an element of truth. Maybe we all feel a flicker of it when people look at our daughters instead of us. It's uncomfortable for them when people say things within earshot about how they are developing. Which is also down to the genetic lottery

My daughter said 'It looks like a saddle for horses with their legs cut off'. That's how her friend described our neighbours new Shetland ponies to me

https://www.facebook.com/BeginningBoutique/photos/a.270254122636/10156282765772637/?type=3&theaterhttps://www.facebook.com/BeginningBoutique/photos/a.270254122636/10156282765772637/?type=3&theater

Scary Mommy has got hold of it now.
.

House

Houseboat

One New Years, an accidental tradition was started. My daughter and The Organic Farmer began building a house from all the random bits of Lego leftover. They have been much bigger in the past with gardens, lego is getting scarce. He does most of the building while she finds the pieces.

The New Year's house ended up being a Houseboat this year with a net, Áine out with her Samurai sword and her driver( might be Andrew). Lego Friends used to be a favourite of my daughters several years ago. She has about 5 Kate on a jetski's as she seemed to be the first one any relatives came across when they wanted to get her something.

                                                                                                                                                                  I think he was surprised she still wanted to make it as she is getting all the 'feelings'.One minute she loves us next everything is wrong. I empathise with her -I do not think I would like to go back to being 13. As bad as my frontal cortex is now it's a thousand times better . Or maybe I'm just deluding myself.

In the past, they didn't have a term for a teenager. You went from a child to an adult at whatever predetermined age was decided in your culture. Now technically it is 18, but really some are grown up long before that and others never will. I still like the element of whimsy that shines through elderly people who still retain an element of curiosity they had as a child. An interest in something ages them more slowly.
I mean I don't think it's a bad thing that child labour laws were introduced and people generally don't try to marry their kids off anymore. Obviously, that doesn't apply throughout the world. It would be better if places legally hire younger teens. It's more difficult now for them to start earning money and I really don't think it goes as far. I'm hoping that while living with me, i.e. not having to pay all the bills, my daughter will be able to build a bit of wealth before heading out into the world. Otherwise, she might have to live in one of her Lego Houses