Money talks

If you can t afford more pocket money that. Don , say ’t feel guilty or ashamed – these are feelings we want to uncouple from money”

WHEN I WAS GROWING up, ‘no’ and ‘because’ were complete sentences: ‘Can I…?’ ‘No.’ ‘Why can’t I…?’ ‘Because.’ I can see now, as the mother of a nine-year-old, how labour-saving this was for grown-ups and parents and, in many ways, I mourn that loss. Or I would – if I had the energy.

But, in other ways, I can see that the modern way – explaining your reasoning and contextualising the decisions that have led the pair of you to this moment of – usually – denial, is a better way of doing things. Ignorance is never bliss for the one shrouded in it.

And we did grow up ignorant, didn’t we? The misapprehensions we laboured under about anything that would cause the slightest discomfort in our adults… Sex, of course, is the most obvious. I thought for years that you