There’s so many different calls you hope you will never get as a Mother.
Today I got one of those. And all things considered, it was one of the possibilities that I could cope with, with some level of calm.
My eldest Ms Z calls me in a panic and puts her (new) boyfriend on. “Hi! We have a big problem and need your help”.
In a flash of a few seconds the possibilities going through my brain were endless, and one darker than the next.
“Please pass the phone to my daughter” I said, and so he did. She then explained, knowing full well that a sermon was coming next, how they had a mishap during sex and the condom broke.
It’s hard enough accepting that your daughter is sexually active! Having to face the possibility of an unwanted pregnancy at this early age, it’s bloody awful!
She had already phoned her Dad, who lost it with her on the phone, before she called me. I tend to be the last resort in the resolution of problems. In fact, when it comes to my eldest, the only time the phone rings is when she needs something, most of the time – money.
There isn’t ever so much as a “hello, how have you been?” in the conversation.
I ask myself why we have to go through the teenage years… we become despicable little monsters, who think they know it all, need no-one and the world will be ours.
And then we finally grow up. At some point.
And so I managed to have a conversation with my daughter… without her hanging up on me. Not sure if that was out of respect, or sheer necessity.
She heard the sermon, before she got the help she needed.
And the boyfriend got a sermon too. He seemed pretty freaked out. Not sure if sufficiently to be responsible for the both of them… given that my daughter isn’t responsible at all! But at least he heard me and apologised.
As if being a Mom isn’t hard enough… you then have to face the prospect of being a young GrandMa! God, please no!