Charli Mills has another prompt for us
December 2, 2016 prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story about something or someone not allowed. Maybe it’s about gender, race or other intolerance. Maybe it’s the cat who paws at the door, but not allowed inside. Maybe it’s a trail where dogs are not allowed. Go light, go dark, go where the prompt leads you.
There are things that bugged me as a child that I swore, if I ever had children, I’d not do. I’d not stop sport being watched on the TV during the day; I’d not stop a child spending its money on anything (so long as it wasn’t going to kill it) just because I wouldn’t chose it; I wasn’t going to make the child read (I regret that); I wasn’t going to force the child around museums and art galleries (they regret that); and most of all I wasn’t going to just tell them what to do – I would explain why they could or couldn’t do something and the explanation would be logical and reasoned. Never would something would proscribed just on a whim.
That last one probably survived beyond them leaving hospital aged two days but not by much…
As for Mary and Paul and the nativity play at Penny’s school, well they are late and having problems with a seat…
Naivete, Nativity
Mary hurried forward, followed by Paul. ‘If they’d let me park where I wanted… Not allowed indeed.’
Mary stopped by a row of empty seats, guarded by a boy. ‘Hi Tim. Can I…?’
Tim blushed. ‘Sorry, they’re for my grandparents.’
‘Oh of course.’ Mary turned towards the back.
A woman passed her stopping by Tim. She ushered two children forward. ‘In here…’
‘But…’
‘We need these seats. Curtain’s nearly up.’
‘But they’re taken.’
‘Tsch.’ The woman pushed passed. ‘Not allowed I suppose.’
Tim’s family reached the row; no one argued with Alice. Paul smiled. ‘This’ll be the real drama.’
And here is a link to the earlier episodes of Mary and Paul’s family
TanGental 
You just know it won’t end well!
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Some people deserve a good thump! We saw much of that behavior trying to exit the car park after seeing Miss perform at school spectacular last weekend. With over 5000 kids in the show, that was a lot of cars to get out of the car park at once and I swear everyone was simply thinking about their little darling. Parents can be dangerous.
BTW would love you to check out my latest offering of wrist-slashing poetry written during my time in Paris 24 years ago. I re-worked it considerably, but the ideas are much the same.
It might be hard to believe but I was in a good upbeat mood working on this today. Maybe that’s why I could play around creatively with the dark and explore it fully. Hard to do that while you’re in it without falling in.
xx Ro
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Sigh. It takes all kinds to make this world go round. Eke. It takes all kinds to strength not to bop some. 😀 😀 😀
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True
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Will you ever make Mary a full novel? Loved your will and will not do’s in parenting. Not sure I’m as chilled 😂
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You’ll get there
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The season of Good will to all men……….. nd mothers with children!!
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Brings back memories, and seating at US schools for performances are similar. So true — Paul knows where the real drama is about to take center stage!
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Ah, yes. The show’s about to begin indeed. Lovely reminder of the performances we watch. So fun. And the “I won’t do that when I’m a parent…” crap. I don’t know how you lasted so long.
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I know. They should hand out hypocrite badges at the first scan
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Oh, the politics of seat saving! Great flash, Geoff
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True how often have I fallen foul of such social faux pas
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