When Miss Hap returned from school yesterday afternoon, I was really annoyed! It had been raining heavily all afternoon,and she came squelching into the house absolutely drenched! To say she looked like a drowned rat was an understatement. Her hair was shedding droplets like a dripping tap, her school blazer sopping wet, and for some reason, she had draped her new dance hoodie around her neck so that was sodden as well!

The reason I was so cross was that she had been warned that it was going to rain, and that she should wear a proper coat to school (with a hood) over her blazer so she wouldn’t get soaked.It is bad enough that I am already ill and feverish, I didn’t want her to become unwell also. What made me so mad was the fact that she would rather get soaked to the skin than wear a coat that is not the right brand,or considered ‘trendy’ enough for her. She once wore her Superdry coat to school (that is the right brand) but it is not really designed to fit over a blazer, jumper plus shirt, and after feeling bunched up and uncomfortable ditched that idea, but still refused to wear the ‘sensible’ school coat….

I am one of six children, and when I was her age I didn’t have a clue about fashion, or brands or anything like that (according to Miss Hap, I still don’t)! I remember when my sister was 11 and I was 13 we had  crimplene jump suits (mine was red and had a little logo on it saying ‘The Fonz is Cool’ (remember him from Happy Days)?! I thought I was the bees knees in that suit, It was nicer than my sister’s which was green and the logo was ‘Mercedes Benz’. Unfortunately even though I am 2 years older than my sister to the day, we were always dressed in matching outfits as children.

Most of our clothes used to come from the Supermarket when, even then it was not cool, and myself and sister were often called the  ‘Tesco Tearaways’ due to where Mum bought most of our clothes from!  Having said that we did have Clarks shoes, which may have been a bit more upmarket but were clumpy, ugly and worst of all ‘sensible’. (Miss Hap has only just stopped wearing them, as even I know it will kill off any street cred at secondary school)! Oh yes, I know all about wearing the ‘wrong’ clothes but I think I was about 15 before it bothered me not 11!

I was talking about this to Mr Grump, as this has been an ongoing issue between us and Miss Hap, as it is not just clothes, it is phones, and the latest games/consoles/laptops and God knows what else. If Miss Hap feels that she has got it rough then she should spare a though for poor old Mr Grump as he was growing up, He also didn’t have a lot when he was young, and his mum struggled to meet ends meet. However, she was a very creative and clever person, and used to knit him things. I roared with laughter though when he told me that his mum had knitted him a pair of swimming trunks,yes SWIMMING TRUNKS!!! As soon as he went into the water with them on, they went all baggy and saggy, and it was a job to keep them on!

Miss Hap is pretty lucky really, All of her school clothes  had to be bought especially because of the logo that is on each item, except for shoes and coat. I still have an old school photo of when I was about 15 with a jumper on, that my mum had knitted and I’m smiling!!!