Robyn's Blog

An article in the Independent (online) today about the benefits of texts between teenager and parent as an ice-breaker reminded me of a few situations that my daughter and I have had.

Street dance is one of the most exciting things to have developed over recent years for teenagers and it's absolutely brilliant for girls who may be apathetic when it comes to sport and PE.

Like many parents I'm sure, I have struggled with the decision about my daughter being immunised against the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). There are risks and benefits to all medicines and vaccines and the best we can do is try to make an informed decision.

Parents often worry about when they should broach the subject of periods with their daughters. Here at PoGo, we think that no time is too soon.

Many girls will naturally become more self-conscious about their bodies the older they get. If you can start a conversation about puberty before this stage is reached, much of this embarrassment can be avoided. At a young age, your daughter is more likely to be fascinated about subjects such growing breasts like mum than being repelled by, or giggling at, such information.

I've just finished the annual stock take and it's been a huge job. Although I'm competent enough at maths and can do the business figures well enough, I don't particularly enjoy it. If I'm tired, it all seems to go a bit haywire – as was demonstrated over the last couple of weeks.

I did all my calculations for the stock take over two days, only to realise the next morning that some of the calculations were complete nonsense. What was I doing? What was I thinking? I would have to spend inordinate amounts of time recalculating everything.

Sometimes my work papers and files get a little out of hand and I begin to sense that I'm just not functioning well. It's the end of a busy week and I have made time to tidy up my work space. Within half an hour, I can see clear spaces all around. It's quite uplifting.

Several years ago I heard about Feng Shui, which I thought sounded intriguing but implausible. Browsing through a book shop one day, I spied a compact book called Clear your Clutter with Feng Shui. It was the word "clutter" that grabbed me. "Okay," I thought, "I'll give it a go."

I consider myself to be a reasonably friendly person. I get on well with our post lady, and have a good relationship with my neighbours. I enjoy a little banter with the owner of the corner shop and I'm happy to give a smile to someone walking past me in the street. I will always make a bee-line for someone at a networking meeting who's looking uncomfortable, and say hello to break the ice.

My daughter is busy doing homework on the book by Willy Russell: Educating Rita. Having been captivated by the film in the early 80s, I suggested we get it out on dvd, to which she agreed happily.

I was reminded of my days at secondary school, and how the critique of literary works was the highlight of my English lessons. It was always fascinating to me that so many different points of view on one book could be contained within one class of students. I enjoyed hearing their views and having my own perspective broadened and stretched.

Listening to Arabella Weir and Viv Groskop discussing children's demands for particular school equipment on Radio 4 this morning was uncomfortable. I was quickly thrust back to my daughter's preparation for Year 7.

We had similar tussles. The big one for me was her schoolbag. I was not going to let my daughter carry all those heavy books in a handbag. She had a half hour walk to and from school and someone needed to protect her spine. That was going to be me.

Sitting back this morning, looking over PoGo's new website, I revelled in the newness of it all. It's taken many weeks of hard work on the part of my web developers and me. The teamwork was great and we all feel we've produced something of quality and value.

I then emailed Sue of Positive Parents = Confident Kids, who contributed to the first feature. She emailed back: "Now how are you going to celebrate?" That really took me aback. It got me thinking.