The Utlimate family day out with a teenager - by Dea Birkett

You might not even know if from this blog, but I have a teenager. And the reason you don’t know it is because she doesn’t like going with me anywhere, anywhere at all. So when I’m writing about my family’s travels, it’s usually about the nine-year-old twins. Teenager rarely gets a mention.

But I’ve found a trip  - well, an outing really – that we can both enjoy. It only lasts a day, so the chance of developing a full blown fight and not speaking to each other for the rest of the week is lessened. And there’s no overnight involved. If she comes with us to a hotel, the first argument is always about which bed she gets. As a family of five, we usually have two rooms – one for the kids, one for the adults. But the teenager insists she’s too old to sleep with her siblings, demanding our room with its big double bed. I do wish hotels could figure out some clever bit of design that took into account families these days can have quite big age gap between their children, often due to a second relationship. There must be some way in which ‘family-friendly’ could take this modern family into account, and not presume we’ve all got two kids with just 18 months between them.

But back to going out for the day with the teenager. We’re going to the Clothes Show. It’s been in Birmingham and now it’s coming to London next month. As well as loads of fashion and cosmetic displays, there are catwalk shows and appearances by famous people in the fashion world. We went last year, and it’s a great day Mother and Daughter day out. It’s also good for the generational balance; my daughter was the knowledgeable one, as I’d never heard of half the brands of designer make-up we could try out or the names of celebrities who were giving expert advice. She knew them all.

But this year I might have the upper hand. This year’s show will recreate Carnaby Street to celebrate the iconic street’s 50th anniversary. I bet she doesn’t know anything about that. Not that I want to have a fight….

Clothes Show London 25-27 June