She tells me off for showing my cleavage

Karla Kay, 39, works in media sales and lives in Salford with her daughter Terri, 24, a nursery manager

Mum will talk to anybody, gets their phone number and adds them on Facebook. I tell her to be more careful

I was only 15 when I had Terri so it’s like we’ve grown up together. She’s est friend as well as my daughter – be more different. I never take life too a saleswoman, I bounce around from y wages leave my account as quickly in. “Worry tomorrow” – that’s my motto. However, Terri is the person who grounds me. Ever since she could talk, she’s been telling me off for driving through red lights or walking too fast in heels. And things haven’t changed now. When we went out for her 18th birthday, she was constantly in my ear: “Don’t leave your drink there, you’ll get spiked” and so on. And she’s always telling me off for showing too much cleavage.

Terri knows exactly what she wants. When she went for an interview at a nursery, she told the boss that she wanted to be a manager there. Four years later, that’s what she is. When anyone asks me what my biggest achievement is, my answer is always the same. Terri. I can’t believe someone as scatty as me managed to produce someone so successful.

Terri says: People always mistake me and Mum for sisters. She doesn’t act like a mum, look like a mum, or talk like a mum.

She’s got a far better social life than I have – she’s out clubbing every weekend, whereas I only go out for special occasions. I prefer to be out during the day, doing things I’ll remember. I’m godmother to my best friend’s little girl and on weekends, I usually take her out so I don’t want to be hungover.

Mum’s boyfriend Tom is just four years older than me and she’s usually out with him. She’ll talk to anybody, adding them on Facebook and taking their numbers to arrange to go out. I keep telling her that she has to be more careful, that she shouldn’t be so trusting. But she never listens. My friends love Mum. On the rare occasions I go out, they’ll always ask her to come too. Then I catch them at the bar doing shots.

And when Mum’s out without me, she’ll call me the next day to tell me the drunken antics she’s got up to and how she can’t remember getting home. “That’s terrible,” I’ll scold her. “You really need to calm down.”

I’ve recently passed my driving test and I want a place of my own. But no matter how wild and wacky she is, I love Mum. Would I change her? Never!