There are over thirty years between me and our eldest. Perhaps it’s only natural then that as they embark on their exams this week, there seems to be a chasm between us.
If my wife and I had been able to start a family soon after we got married, we might expect our kids to have graduated university by now.
Instead, we’re trying to provide support and guidance long after our own experience. I only recall my own impetus to study: my desperation to leave that school.
To this day, I still don’t know whether my results were truly the fruits of my own labour, or if I benefitted from adjustment marking due to a bereavement just as I sat my exams.
To their credit, our eldest is taking their exams seriously, working hard and trying their best. Less to their credit: how they interact with us.
Perhaps this is perfectly normal adolescent behaviour, and we have simply forgotten because three decades have passed since we walked in their shoes.
My brother tells me it starts to improve once they reach twenty-one, which is both reassuring and a bit depressing. Do we really need to brace for five more years of this?
I suppose patience is in order for the next few weeks, months, and years. To diminish ourselves just as our parents did in their time.
By this juncture, my parents were getting their fourth child through their GCSEs, one graduated, one at university, and me: making a complete pig’s ear of everything.
Reflecting on all of that, I suppose there’s hope for us after all.
Last modified: 22 September 2024
