Jeremy Kyle’s Abuse of Teenagers! How Dare He!

Daisy Turnip writes.....

Daughter didn’t go to college on Thursday. She had a bad cold and a very very sore throat. I knew she was ill because she came home at 8.30 on Wednesday night and went straight to bed - this never happens. Teenagers do tend to take the attitude of you can sleep when you die – my Daughter lives to this motto with an absolute passion (unless it’s in the morning and she can’t prise herself out of bed!!).

She woke up on Thursday morning, walked into my office (ie spare room) and croaked, ‘I really can’t go to college today, I feel so ill’ and put that, ‘I’m really ill, please sympathise with me’ look on her face.

I sympathised and told her not to worry and go back to bed. No, I am NOT a push over mother. I was a single, full time working mom for years. The child of a full time working, single mother has to be bleeding from the eyes, in order to wangle a day off school. Full time working moms usually have to adopt the attitude of ‘if your child is THAT ill, you’ll get a call from the school to come and collect them’ – that’s easier for your employer to handle! Don’t even go there about the guilt trips we all have to go through!

Daughter went downstairs with her fleecy blanket and lay on the sofa to flick through the 101 Sky channels of absolute day time TV crap. I continued to work.

About an hour later, Daughter came upstairs sobbing. And I mean, seriously sobbing. I knew something was drastically wrong because she came and gave me a hug! ‘What on earth is that matter?’ I said, thinking she must have been in incredible pain with her throat. ‘It’s, it’s, boo hoo, it’s, it’s, aaagggghhh, oh mom, it’s the Jeremy Kyle show.’ I’ve moved from absolute terror to absolute disbelief!! Jeremy Kyle could distress my daughter so much? I know it’s naff TV, but all you have to do is hit the up and down channel key. ‘No’ she said, ‘it’s about people who have lost loved ones and can’t move on with their lives’. I think, for the first time as a parent, I was absolutely baffled as to what to say. I did feel the urge to say, ‘Well, just remember to be nice to all family members instead of your hormonal outbursts’ but I was good, and just stroked her arm and said, ‘awww, don’t be silly’ (well what else can you say?).

She then proceeded to go into her bedroom (fleecy blanket in tow) and switch on her TV. I asked her what she was doing, ‘watching the rest of Jeremy Kyle’ came her response between the sobs!!