 |  Dear Ola,
My daughter will be sixteen years old next year and as part of her studies she's expected to do a week's work experience in the industry of her choice.
She is interested in advertising and wants to work in London. Through my own work I could help her find a good company to do her work experience in. However I am worried at the thought of her being alone in a foreign country even for a week.
Am I being too over-protective? Whatever happens my daughter has to do her work experience somewhere but I don't want her to go away.
How can I get around this? Ralf Zinnie, Italy
Trisha Kreitman, Counsellor
Well I think there's a natural concern for any parent, and I have to say this, being aware that my own teenage son is about to disappear for six months to work in the Far East.
So yes I feel panicky as well, but he has to go and he's ready to go.
Now in Ralf's case, I'm slightly concerned that his daughter is sixteen, she's going to do this work experience which is great. She wants to come and do it in London which is also great for her but I'm not sure that the two things are not going to cancel each other out.
She needs to do work experience but if she's here in London doing it she won't be able to concentrate very much on the work, she won't actually get very much experience in a week in a strange country, and she won't see much of the country because she'll be going to work. So I would think it might be more sensible to separate out the two functions.
Find the work experience closer to home and then if she wants to come to London, come and do a trip there, or a study visit, or whatever, but if she's set her mind on coming I think Ralf is going to have to do his best to accept it. |
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