THE trouble with having children is that they turn us into parents. And we all know what parents are like, don't we? Boring.

Yes, even raunchy rebellious parents, even parents who lived only for sex, drugs and rock and roll. Yes, even a Rolling Stone.

Mick Jagger has spent a great deal of his life, whether married or not, leaping in and out of bed with women young enough to be his daughter.

But now his daughter Elizabeth, who is 18, has been spending a lot of time with a renowned womaniser, Michael Wincott. Mick is said to be furious. Suddenly he's seeing things from another perspective.

Yes, it catches up with us all - though clearly with Mick, some of us later than others - that moment when you realise you've crossed that great divide from rebellious youth to fuddy-duddy parent.

You look in the mirror and see your mother. You open your mouth and your mother's words come out.

Or for me it was the time I complained to my sons that their choice of music was ridiculous "because you can't hear the words". And I swear, up there on his cloud, I heard my father snort with laughter.

Back in the 60s my friend Liz - 5ft 10ins, with legs up to her armpits -

wore a mini skirt that was no more than a pelmet, a tight T-shirt and no bra. Her own mother refused to walk down the street with her. The last time I saw Liz she was plunged into deep gloom. She had actually said to her own teenage daughter "You're not going out dressed like that!"

Oh it happens to us all...

The wildest rock stars often turn into the strictest, most supportive dads, and are probably as shocked as the rest of us. Before she flipped back across the Atlantic, Madonna was researching the strictest most traditional boarding schools for her children.

That's what parents do - act like grown-ups. Even if they only just beat their children to it.

When Bob Dylan was young and pretty (now that was a long time ago), we sang defiantly with him: "Come mothers and fathers throughout the land, your sons and your daughters are beyond your command. Don't criticise what you can't understand. The times they are a-changing." And we thought we were so brave and bold and our parents were so dull and boring.

And now we realise that we're the ones who don't understand, and it's our sons and our daughters who are beyond our command. And it takes some getting used to.

Even Mick Jagger might eventually realise that even nubile young women are some daddy's little girl.

And what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the Little Red Rooster too.

THE rights and wrongs of a war against Iraq ping-pong across newspapers, TV and radio programmes. I hear the arguments for and against but they barely register.

What does stick in my mind are the pictures of all those bright-eyed young soldiers and sailors getting ready to go half way across the world and fight in a war that the rest of us aren't sure about. I just hope Mr Blair and his colleagues have the same picture and the same thoughts.

EVEN though I use it a dozen times a day, the Internet still blows my mind. Don't know about high tech, I just think it's plain old-fashioned magic.

The latest delight has been re-discovering a best friend from primary school days, more than 35 years since we last met. (Thank you Friends Reunited). Wonderful that messages and photos can flip instantly across the world. What's more, from her home in the middle of rural New Zealand, she's been logging on to read this column on the Echo website.

So this morning, Dr Susan Macpherson of Alexandra, Central Otago, this paragraph is especially for you.

HOUSE prices are falling. Could someone please tell me why that's bad news? Cheaper house prices means it's easier for first time buyers to get a foot on the ladder. And for those of us who already own homes and want to move, it shouldn't make much difference - sell more cheaply, buy more cheaply.

The only people it matters to - apart from those inheriting property - are those who are in the business of buying and selling property just to make money. And as they have probably helped to push the prices up in the first place, we can probably save our tears.

TODAY'S FINANCIAL TIP: Pick a horse, any horse, put a large amount of money on it. Even if it comes in last, it's probably performed better than your pension fund.

BACKCHAT

Dear Sharon, I never had the chance of going to university. I left school at 15 and went to work in what became Vosper Thorneycroft. We had classes for apprentices, but apart from one afternoon a week, they were conducted in our own time. I went to other evening classes after a day's work. I would leave home at 7am and get back at 9.30pm but I didn't mind as I was moving on.

We worked hard because we knew it would help us get on. Youngsters these days seem to go to college because they can't think of anything better to do. It would be good if university could be free but perhaps students will appreciate it more and make more effort if they are paying for it.

Dear Sharon, Michael Owen and other footballers earn, as you say, "silly sums" of money every week. Meanwhile our universities are apparently desperate for more cash.

When the present government were students, with free tuition and a maintenance grant, high earners were taxed at 19/6d in the pound. Isn't it time we brought in another higher band of taxation? 95 per cent might be too much, but putting up to 60 per cent for people who earn those ridiculous wages might even things up a bit. I thought the idea of a Socialist government was to rob the rich to feed the poor. Blair seems to have got it the wrong way round.

Published: 29/01/2003