You can't go out dressed like that!

So it's mufti day at school (that's 'home clothes' for those of you who went to a comp) and my eleven-year-old daughter puts together an outfit that makes her look something like Jodie Foster in 'Taxi Driver'. And before I know it, the words are coming out of my mouth; the words that bang another nail into the midlife coffin; the words that officially make me my own mother: 'You can't go to school dressed like that!'
'Why not? It says wear "summer clothes", for goodness sake,' comes the reply, followed by the inevitable huff. For unconsciously, she too has slipped into petulant pre-teen cliché mode, even though she probably doesn't even know what a cliché is, and certainly not how to spell it.
'But you'll freeze to death!' is my next involuntary spasm. It's like I'm watching a low-grade ITV drama where I know what's coming next but am powerless to rewrite the script.
In the end, we compromise with a pair of tights under the shorts, and a cardigan in her bag, and though I try to tell her to be careful coming home on the bus on her own, she's still too young for me to explain exactly why I'm worried.