Anything you want 💕

I promised my daughter she could have five things for passing her GCSEs.

“Anything you want.”

Those were my exact words.

No budget. No sensible list of options. No carefully considered terms and conditions. Just a very proud momma making an impulsive promise. 🤦🏽‍♀️

You’d think I would have learnt my lesson.

The last time I made a reckless promise like this, my other daughter chose a family trip to Korea. 😅

I’m still saving for that one. And trust me, she has NOT forgotten.

So this time, I braced myself.

A new phone? A new bag? Concert tickets? Some crazy expensive thing I’d immediately regret offering?

“Breakfast from McDonald’s!” she shouted, her eyes lighting up.

“Wait… WHAT?”

Surely she had misunderstood. It couldn’t be!

“You can have any five things you want. Is McDonald’s breakfast really going to be one of the five?”

“Yep!”

Then came the condition.

“And we have to go in. No UberEats or Deliveroo delivery.”

Before I could process the absurdity of sacrificing one of five completely unrestricted wishes on a McDonald’s breakfast, she flung my duvet off me.

“Chap chap, Momma. Get ready, let’s go! Oya!”

And standing there, half asleep, I felt an unexpected mix of things.

Pride. Relief. Amusement. Confusion. Humility. And then even more pride.

Because sometimes you look at your child and suddenly catch a glimpse of yourself.

And sometimes, just when you think they’re becoming terribly grown-up, they remind you that they’re not quite there yet.

GCSEs finished. Making plans for her future. Growing increasingly independent before my eyes.

Yet one of her five anything-you-want-in-the-world rewards was breakfast at McDonald’s with her mum.

At the end of the day, grown as she may seem (especially lately), she’s still a child.

A simple, happy-go-lucky child who can still get ridiculously excited about the little things.

MY child. ❤️