Mothers who are “BBF” – best friends forever causing issues…

Though the syndrome can also appertain to boys, girls whose mothers insist they are their daughter’s best friend are subjects of  issues like  depression and lack of performance.  This can include failing to pass job interviews, dropping out of university, developing eating disorders and finding growing up very hard.  This questionable theory is that of Jenny Brown, Head of St Albans High School for Girls, London. The BFF issue has led to a “generation of mollycoddled and spoilt young women who struggle with the roles of modern life” according to an article in a respected British broadsheet. Brown has said she has observed this more in the past at other schools than in the present.

The syndrome involves girls relying so heavily on their mothers they want personal calls to wake them up, cups of tea in bed, girls not being aware of timings and unable to attend interviews on time.  It has been written about before with parents visiting their children at university away from their home and being too intrusive and protective which is a fault the parents have rather than their offspring.

Part of the syndrome is parents wanting to stay feeling “young and cool” for longer. Children need their space when they are growing up and to be equally able to identify with their own crowd and learn responsibilities independently. Of course this is only one person’s opinion. Brown has two teenagers, aged 17 and 15.