AS I was taking the Teen riding yesterday, we passed a group of six miserable and exhausted youngsters, weighed down by their rucksacks, which were the size of six small Barratt homes.

And as we drove further into the Forest, we saw another group of six teens ... and another, and then another – all with misery etched on their faces.

And then the Teen spotted one of her friends and we realised they were on their Duke of Edinburgh expedition.

It suddenly dawned on her that she too will be trudging through the New Forest, with just a compass and Kendall Mint Cake for company, when she takes part this weekend.

I am being cynical of course. I probably mistook gritty determination for misery and concentration for exhaustion. And once realising what they were doing I peppered our conversation with things like: “They look like they are having fun” and: “Oooh, I bet they have some nice snacks in their kit bags.”

The thing is I was the first in line to applaud her when she was chosen for the award, which aims to encourage independent learning, self-reliance and self-motivation.

However, in the last two weeks I have got married, the Teen has been to Berlin and now a list as long as my wedding bar bill featuring the entire contents of Millets must-haves for the Teen’s expedition this weekend is hanging on the wall.

Then there are the bills which have flooded my house since my nuptials, and when I look at my new spouse with expectation he just shrugs and shows me his empty bank balance.

Coupled with the usual pet demands, work demands, domestic chores and a calendar chock-a-block with appointments, I feel like chopping off my own head with the stress of it all.

And definitely before the Teen tells me – as she almost certainly will, just before she is due to leave – that she doesn’t want to go now.

She will go, of course, I will make her. And she WILL have a good time.

I may just need to bake mint cake and make her waterproofs from an old tent and some sticky-back plastic first.

Where is Valerie Singleton when you need her?

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