Cruel, cruel mummy.

I am in trouble with both my daughters, though for slightly different reasons. Let's start with Ditz.


Queensland has been on school holidays. Whoever taught Ditz to read should be shot. {Yes, I know it was me, but now she can read she knows when the school holidays fall & insists she's entitled to holidays; I don't necessarily agree,} Normally I keep Ditz's music going because...well, it's music & she needs the practise & she told me this week music is no fun unless you've got someone to yell at you. ??? I think she likes being held accountable but that statement was so off the wall I'm not going there. Anyway, for one reason or another all her music was cancelled this week. No piano. No violin. No choir. No flute. No band. By Wednesday the child was moping round with a long face. By Thursday she was climbing the walls. Friday saw her deep in a depression. Saturday she was anxious to be out the door before Sian could ring & cancel piano again! Naturally this musical deprivation is all my fault. What was I thinking? Hush, hush, dare I even suggest she's missing her schoolwork? Don't know about Ditz but I think I will be glad when Monday arrives & we start back up. I can't stand her like this!


Then there's Liddy. This too is all my fault. Naturally! Saturday arrives & Liddy knows perfectly well Ditz has a piano lesson. It is a good 15 minute drive & she has her eye on her hours. I quibble. She hasn't got L~Plates. {Ditz made Liddy a set better than the real thing} No way am I driving through the middle of the island on a Saturday morning {our busiest time of the week} with a driver not competant in traffic; with a driver who has never had another car come towards her, ever. Liddy had a backroads route worked out. No way was I going on dirt roads with a driver with so little control over her vechicle. All bitumen. I caved.

Ditz was told to open her mouth under peril of never being able to open it again & belt up. We did pretty well till the first T intersection where Liddy promptly stalled & we sat patiently for 10 minutes while she kangaroo hopped her way across the intersection in a jerky series of stops & starts. I finally got through to her it is really hard to take off in 3rd gear!


This was Liddy's first longish drive & I kept her to about 40 K. Anything over that & I can feel the car start to drift so I know she's not really got control. She wasn't real happy. She likes to test her limits but I so wasn't happy in the passenger seat & she's pretty good about trying to follow instructions. We had no real trouble until about 1/3rd of the way home. Another T intersection. Liddy is really starting to hate these. She'd just rounded the cornor a little wide when a whole series of cars converged on her. I could feel her freezing up & then she realised one of them was her boss. Total panic. She was all over the road & pressing down on the accelerator! Yikes! 'Brake! Brake! BRAKE!' I said, careful not to scream in case I sent her completely loopy but an edge of hysteria was creeping in. I eventually got her calm & we toddled down to the shop, parking in a side road as I didn't think Liddy was up to the vagaries of parking spaces.


Liddy orders some crispy chicken bites to calm her shattered nerves & hands me the car keys. 'You drive the rest of the way home, mum.' Tempting. My nerves weren't in good shape either. I thought about it but the best thing to do after a fright is try again & regain confidence so I handed those keys right back. Liddy nearly died on the spot. 'Muuuum!' she wailed. I insisted. Nothing for it; much better to finish on a positive note & she drove the rest of the way home really well.

Both my girls think I'm really, really cruel. Good thing I'm not always a total pushover.