At first, I'll admit, I provoked the embarrassment that has afflicted all my children in their teenage years, or, I should say, deliberately provoked it. They would say with justification that I didn't need to try, and the fact that their mother has been embarrassing as well makes their point, in view of the fact that she has never set out to embarrass them. Of course she was a ripple of embarrassment, I was rolling waves of it.
These days, with just one teenager left, I accept that it is a painful condition and I'm careful to reduce my impact. Mostly. But I still don't understand entirely. At the weekend, for example, I sent a tsunami of embarrassment into my 14-year-old son's sphere by pulling up at the front of his mate's place to drop him off for a birthday party. I'm told, since, that it is common for teenagers to demand that they be dropped off surreptitiously, a few doors down. I don't readily understand this.
Nor do I understand why I was mortifyingly embarrassing when I had an unobtrusive look around the shop while son and I waited a fortnight ago for a new skateboard to be lined.
Yes, I understand why it is embarrassing, and worse, to be seen with your parents (especially your mother) at Charlestown Square of Westfield Kotara. Or at the beach with parents. Who's out with mummy then!
I remember as a teenager being awkwardly self conscious, to the point sometimes where walking in public was a gait that had to be redeveloped. But I don't think I was afflicted by the modern teenager's capacity for embarrassment.
Were you? If there is a difference between teenagers then and now, what is it? And can you throw any light on the particular embarrassment inflicted by parents?
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