I was a new teacher and she had much more experience and I was looking forward to learning from her. She was the head of department and was overseeing my training. She tried not to treat me differently but she found herself not being able to stick up for me.
She'd ring me in the evening, I'd think she wanted to talk about school so I stopped answering the phone. We ended up not being able about to talk about anything other than school and the kids and it drove me mad. In the end, we stopped communicating completely. At weekends I stopped dropping into see her.
I used to sulk in the car and ignore her in the office which was awful. For about 18 months we seethed with anger - I went through my second teenage phase, I think. I found it very difficult - was it my mum telling me off, was it my boss giving me helpful instruction...?
My dad said it was hell for him being caught between us. He just backed off, sensibly. I think we were trying so hard to be professional at school and not let anyone see there was a mother and daughter relationship which might affect work. But I saw how hard she worked and how difficult it was to be a senior teacher, so she got more respect from me.
It's great now. Towards the end of my time at that school, my mother and I were asked to chaperone a group of sixth formers in Portugal. We used that week to start again and we had girlie chats and went shopping. I suppose I'd better say it was a learning experience. I put her through the ringer and probably shouldn't have.
