View from V2 Radio - Growing Up – By V2 Radio’s Simon Rose

Throughout your life, there are a number of ‘benchmarks’. Those significant life events that mark big changes. Passing your driving test, your first home, first job, kids maybe, and so on.

But some life-changing moments happen earlier, especially around the age of eleven.

As adults, we may forget these moments and the impact they have when they happen in our younger years. It’s been a few weeks now since the kids went back to school, and for some, this meant moving on to secondary school. And this year, my granddaughter was one of them.

It was a huge change for her. Her primary school was a fantastic place, with an amazing team of teachers (they all are). But it felt like something out of a Sunday afternoon British romcom. Set in the Sussex countryside, down a little lane, and surrounded by fields. Any new school after that will seem like a small city.

But it's not just the change of school; it’s the other things that come with it—the slow, or not-so-slow, progression into an adult world. After the first day at her new school, I got a text from an unknown number: ‘I have a phone’, it said. And a tablet, and pretty soon a laptop too for homework, I suspect. Expensive times!

And stressful times for you too. On their first day, you’re constantly thinking, ‘I hope they are OK’. And they are. When you pick them up, and they walk out of school laughing with their new friends. That’s a relief!!

Now, after school they are going to a friend’s house, or to the park to play with their friends. Literally the week before, they had never been further than the walk up the drive from the car to the house on their own.

I remember this one, when my daughter wanted to go into town with friends on her own for the first time. Caroline gave them a lift in. It was all part of a plan: drop them off, say goodbye and then initiate ‘Operation Mall Shadow’. This was a careful, coordinated surveillance plan involving sunglasses, a baseball cap and a raincoat. And it worked. It also made me question whether my wife really worked in a bank for all those years.

And the progression into adulthood will continue at a pace. This is a good thing; they rely on you less, and you get some time back. But you’re still a parent, regardless of their age. That is why I always wonder how the kids are, even though they are adults leading their own lives. I guess that’s also why my mum says, “Call me when you get home,” when I leave her house.

Simon Rose can be heard on V2 Radio presenting Sunday Breakfast on DAB across the South, online, and on the V2 Radio APP.