This article makes my blood boil...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2052947/Where-did-little-girl-Why-DIANA-APPLEYARDS-daughter-wanted-goth-10-ear-piercings.html

Ugh, this is exactly the kind of middle-class, closed minded, parent who literally cannot get their head round the fact that people may have different opinions to her, and who bugs the tits off me!

If you couldn't use the link, it's a parent in sensible M&S type clothes, who sent her precious little daughter to boarding school, and when she picked her up, she'd become *shock horror* a goth! And this Mother is taking it so horribly personally!

Sure, it may be a phase. But if not, well, it's what the girl wants to do. I'm sure the writer didn't want to dress in the same style as her Mother, and her Mother probably thought her music was to raucous, or raunchy or whatever.

I think myself so so lucky that both my parents are 'alternative' too. My Dad is very into his Vince Ray tshirts, Doc Martens, old cars and rockabilly music, and my Mum has bright orange hair, piercings and lives in vintage clothes. The worst reaction I've had to a body mod was a bit of eye-rolling, which I can totally put up with! My boyfriend's Mum is also into her Cyberdog style clothes and drum'n'bass, and again, I'm lucky there because I have a lot of friends who have to compete with disapproving in-laws.

I wonder if the writer of the article would have been happier if her daughter had bounded out the school gates in a tracksuit and big gold earrings and started calling everyone 'bruv'...? Goth kids generally don't associate with gangs, don't fight, don't go out mugging old ladies, and don't end up getting into drugs all that often (of course there are exceptions, but it's rare in my experience). I work within the criminal justice system and in the grand scheme of all the awful things I see young people doing day to day, wearing black and getting a bit happy with the Schwarzkopf Blue Black is not up there... 

It just bugs me because my parents have always been so good in appreciating how I want to look, and I hope to do the same for my kids. In my mind I pray that my kids won't grow up liking football or R'n'B but I like to think I'd just be happy to see them enjoying themselves. My boyfriend is a massive Warhammer fan, and while I'm not really into it myself, when he's showing me endless pictures of small wizards, I try and at least appreciate the skill behind it and show some interest!

So yeah, the writers daughter may grow out of it, she may not. But the Mum should count her blessings that her daughter is still a friendly, clever girl, and she's not out mugging people and smoking crack like some kids her age are! And bear in mind that she's feeling the same as every Mother in the 50's who was disgusted by Elvis Presley's thrusting and every Dad in the 70's who questioned his Son's sexuality when he stepped out in platforms and glitter....