Clare can’t hit ‘pause’ as her son grows up

HE had only been away for a week, yet he had changed. The whole family agreed he had changed.

Picking my son up from summer camp on his 13th birthday, I saw in the way he strode towards me, the confidence of his smile, the way he presented the little gift he had bought me. He was different.

He had started to walk that bridge between childhood and adulthood, and we were entering a new era of our relationship with him as parents.

The week since has been more harmonious than ever before, funnily enough.

It’s been filled with stories of his time away, the things he loved and hated at camp, the friends he made.

I showed him on YouTube the hilarious moment when Harry Enfield’s character Kevin becomes a teenager – well worth watching again. There must be reflections of Kevin in just about every adolescent.

The image consciousness, the street talk, the complaining about being made to go places they don’t want to (which they usually end up enjoying in spite of themselves), the hours spent in their bedrooms listening to music and watching videos.

But what pleases me more than anything about my son is that he is turning into a considerate young man – easy going and accepting of new people, interested in the world around him as he finds his place in it.

When we spend time together now, there is real friendship there – something that has grown over the last year or so and is now a feature of our relationship. These are the things I hope

will endure in the years to come. Now, as we plan a family holiday, the thought runs through my mind that there may not be many more where he’ll definitely want to come along. I think of those mothers with older children who used to say to me when the boys were babies: “Enjoy it, because it goes so fast.” This is the point when you want to apply the brakes a little, to savour these years. Eke out the time together as a family. When the new term kicks in, there is no stopping the clock as we race to the October break, then to Christmas, Easter and, before we know it, another year has passed. And with all this comes the realisation that as he ages, I do too, and in a few years time, I will be the mother of an adult. But as I plough through the wrinkle creams, count my daily steps, chew raw broccoli and do whatever it takes to stay younger for longer, there is a creeping recognition that resistance is futile – and the passing of time is best embraced.

With all this comes the realisation that as he ages, I do too