Cathy, I really hope you can help… My mum is so embarrassing. It’s like she wants to be my friend. She dresses much too young and even flirts with my boy-mates, which makes me feel sick. My friends think she’s cool, but I can’t stand it!

Elin, age 13

Hey

If you think Jude’s dad in Sundae Girl is embarrassing, you should meet mine. He thinks it’s really funny to wind me up in front of my mates and he has a habit of bursting into song in public. He has a song for every occasion, and he’s not even in tune half the time. I wish he would stop!

Carolyn, age 11

Embarrassing parents… well, I hate to break it to you, but they are a fact of life. Most of us will be embarrassed by our parents at some point, and some of us suffer more than most! You can’t even get your revenge until much later in life when you have kids of your own… and then, of course, the whole cycle continues!

Elin’s mum is trying a little too hard to be her daughter’s friend… but Elin already has friends. She wants a mum! Elin’s friends like her mum, so the chances are she’s not too cringe-making, but perhaps a gentle heart-to-heart would help the two get along a little better. Elin has to accept that her mum is a bubbly, young-at-heart personality, though… and learn to live with it!

Carolyn’s dad is unlikely to change. He probably thinks he’s funny – well, he might be, to everyone but Carolyn! Instead of seeing your parents as a liability, see them as eccentric, unique, interesting. Laugh with them, don’t waste time blushing and wishing you could disappear into a crack in the floor every time they show you up. You are not responsible for them. Smile… it’s not so bad!

… and Parent Problems!

Cathy

Lately, my parents have been fighting a lot and sometimes I get stuck in the middle of it all. Mum has been giving my dad threats about getting divorced. Some nights I cry myself to sleep.

Anniela, age 13

Dear Cathy

In your books the child’s parents are either happy or divorced. My parents fight quite a lot – sometimes, my dad leaves the house and I get really scared. He always comes back and says sorry, but I worry that one day they’ll split up. I don’t think I could cope with that.

Laura, age 11

I feel for Anniela and Laura because my parents argued a lot when I was growing up too. I worried about this and often found myself in the middle of their rows, trying and failing to keep the peace. It really upset me and scared me too.

You know what? They never did break up. They weathered their storms, and stuck together to the end, and I realized that a happy marriage doesn’t have to be one with no rows. Arguments can be a way to sort out problems, or at least a way to battle through difficult patches.