As a dad, how much say should I have in my daughter’s GCSEs?

It’s time for my daughter to pick her GCSE subjects – but I wasn’t prepared for the questions it would cause me to ask about my own parenting choices, writes Will Gore

My daughter may be slowly moving into a different phase of her life; yet as a consequence, so am I (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

We all make hundreds of life choices. Some we know are critical at the time; most only reveal their significance in retrospect. And there are many others which cause a ton of stress, but which turn out to be utterly inconsequential.

Children make fewer choices than adults. It’s one of their perennial complaints – although, seeing my son’s emotional distress this week when he had to decide which curry to have at my parents’ local Indian restaurant, it’s clear that eight-year-olds don’t always cope well with multiple options. At least his anguish over a chicken bhuna was unlikely to have major long-term ramifications.

By contrast, choices made by my daughter this week may be the start of her life’s future course. Along with thousands of other children in year 9, she has spent the last few months being prepped by her teachers to think about her GCSE choices – drama or art? Cooking or engineering? History or RE? This week, it was crunch time.