Tenacity

Two years ago Blossom received an award for ballet which cited 'tenacity of purpose' as one of the reasons for the award.

Tenacity is the bane of my existence at the moment. Blossom has the jaws of an African Wild Dog and the energy of a Kelpie.

The early signs were always there. At her birth the midwife said she could tell the personality of a child by the way they entered the world. Blossom entered the world with her eyes open, took one look at her surroundings and bellowed at the top of her lungs. The midwife looked at me and said I had a wild one.

Blossom presents as being quite shy with those she doesn't know.

But once she decides what she wants she locks down with her African Wild Dog jaw and hangs in there until the bitter end.

Example 1: The Red and White Border Collie

Blossom wants one of these.

I grew up on a farm and know a little about Border Collies. Like that they need to run about, oh, 14km a day. That they herd stuff. That they are tenacious.

Oh, I see why she wants one now.

Blossom is obsessed. She's researched. She's presented counter-arguments to all our reasons why this would be an entirely inappropriate dog for inner-city Sydney.

She talks about red and white border collies incessantly. She truly believes that we will get one, and that it will be soon. Apparently her name will be Bronte. I would not be surprised if I drove home from work one day to see Bronte sitting on our front porch. I believe Blossom is tenacious enough to convince someone to send down a dog 'on approval'. It worries me.

Example 2: Pierced Ears.

Blossom has only been talking about having her ears pierced since 2005. Some weeks she doesn't mention it. But that's only because she's too busy providing additional evidence why we'd be crazy not to get a red and white border collie.

I know many parents couldn't care less whether their daughters had their ears pierced young. In some cultures it's de rigeur. But I just have a thing about it. I'd prefer that Blossom waits until high school. Why? Don't have an answer.

I'd say "how can I convince my mum to let me pierce my ears" would've been a top Google search in our house over the last couple of years. Blossom knows where to get them done, how to look after them and to counter-act my last argument found out that her future high school does allow pierced ears provided that small silver studs are worn. Sheesh.

To top it off, the girl she shares a Clarinet lesson with can get her ears pierced if she gets an A in her exam this year.

Example 3: You Owe Me Money

According to Blossom we always seem to owe her money. She gets an allowance each week. While there are weeks that we forget to pay her the allowance, mostly I'd say we are up to date.

I'm sure Blossom keeps a ledger in her room. I'd like to think it is a leather-bound ledger book written in with a Quill and ink. Every week she presents an argument why it is that we haven't paid her for the 2-3 weeks previous. The money we allegedly owe is always in $10 or $20 lots.

This week she claims we owe her $10. Despite explaining that we do not owe her $10 she is holding onto the hope that we will be worn down and pay her out of exasperation.

Not only is the $10 slipped into most conversations (eg. Mmm, yummy dinner, you owe me $10.) but a reminder is written on our white board and last night I went up to the office to find "Dear Mummy" note about a completely different subject which contained in small letters at the bottom of the page:

PPPPPPS: You owe me $10.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAArgh!

I know that I'm being played and yet why do I get the feeling that in the not to distant future I will be sitting on our front porch patting a red border collie called Bronte while an 11 year old with pierced ears is tucking $10 into her wallet...

I really need a manual on how to survive the teen years.