Teen daughter spent a great deal of half term sitting on the sofa watching back to back episodes of Friends. One day instead of moaning at her to go out and do something, I rather decadently took half and hour out of my day to watch an episode with her.
Later in the day walking round the supermarket we chatted about the usual stuff, GCSE’s, potential careers etc and as she talked me through who she thought she might share a flat with, what it would look like and what job she would be doing, I was instantly transported by to my own 13 year old self and how the long, sometimes boring days of the holidays were spent planning my future and imagining how exciting my life was going to be.
Dreaming of the future takes up a lot of time when you’re a teenage girl (I think boys do it too, but it involves fast machines and sporting triumphs, so not the same) and nothing sums up that feeling more for me, than watching the opening sequence of the Mary Tyler Moore show. My once a week insight into Mary Richard’s life in Minneapolis, the trials and tribulations of sharing a flat with Rhoda (how much did we love Rhoda’s mum, Ida) and negotiating her way through her first job in the TV station newsroom, were my first taste of another world. A world of independence and exciting opportunities, new friends, boyfriends and a potential career.
Maybe those episodes of Friends provide that for todays teenage girls and perhaps I’ll stop nagging, as it’s good to dream.
