GD1 is 16 and has finished GCSEs and it's the school prom this Friday. It is costing a fortune. The Prom ticket is £30. Two dresses are needed - the Prom dress (which I have shortened to save the cost of an alteration shop) and the dress for the after-Prom party plus shoes. There is the cost of two make-up sessions with a beautician. GD and some friends have had a practice make-up session with the beautician and she will do their make-up before the Prom. This will involve DD taking an afternoon off work because GD cannot get to the beautician's village on public transport. GD is today buying a clutch bag and possibly a necklace. Some of the girls are talking about a spray tan.
DD and SIL are not at all happy about the scale of the expense but there is so much peer pressure. For parents on a low income this must be really difficult. It's DD's first big 'do' so DD and SIL are grinning and bearing it because they don't want her to look back in future years and feel that she was the odd one out with her friends. What do other grans think?
Elderly fellow gran has become loudly racist
Nicola Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell re-arrested over SNP finances.