Miss Parker #99WordStories

Posted on April 8, 2022 by Gloria

99-word stories for Charli Mills at Carrot Ranch; April 4, 2022, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story to explain “baby ducks ate my lunch.” How did that happen? Who is the protagonist? Where did the baby ducks come from? Go where the prompt leads!

Miss Parker is a nice teacher. When I told her I lost my coat pockets, she knew I lied. She knew my mammy sewed them up.

When I told her I lost the gloves she knitted for me, she knew my mammy took them.

And when I told her that the baby ducks ate my lunch, she knew I didn’t have any in the first place.

When I told her my mammy was gone away to find my daddy, she knew it wasn’t true. She knew my mother was gone for good.

I like my new mammy, Miss Parker.

The collection of last week’s 99-word stories can be read here; Disappearance.

The First Mother’s Day #100DaysOfOldDays

Posted on March 27, 2022 by Gloria

Day 43 #100DaysOfOldDays

Everything has to start somewhere, including Mother’s Day!

In ancient times, Greece and Rome held a festival to honour their mother goddess—Cybele or Gaia, depending on the culture.

In England, Mother’s Day came about during the Middle Ages. People who had moved away from home developed the tradition of coming home to visit their mother church and their mothers, on the fourth Sunday of Lent. It became known as Mothering Sunday!

Because the first day of Lent varies from year to year, so does Mother’s Day.

In the US, the history of Mother’s Day is a different story.

It’s celebrated on the second Sunday in May each year in the US, and it started when a woman named Anna Jarvis held a memorial service for her mother on 12^th of May 1907.

Her mother had often wished there was a day in the year that honoured mothers, so with the help of others, Anna petitioned to the government to make Mother’s Day an official holiday.

On May 8, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a resolution, stating that Mother’s Day would be celebrated on the second Sunday in May.

Many other countries also celebrate Mother’s Day at different times of the year.

26 years later #100DaysOfOldDays

Posted on February 17, 2022 by Gloria

Day 5 #100DaysOfOldDays

As I was going through old photos on my memory stick, Google photos decided it would be a good time to indulge me with a collection of memories on my phone. As I looked through the past photos I noticed similarities between these that were taken twenty six years apart.

This is me with my eldest daughter in 1987. She was about 18 months old here. — **This is me with my eldest daughter in 1987. She was eighteen months old here.**

These two photos were taken 26 years later: one is of my eldest daughter again, on a beach with her own daughter, aged two and a half (and camera shy). And the other is of me with my youngest daughter, also aged two and a half. Now Little Miss Ten.

The photos are similar but the times were quite different. At 18 I was a teenage mother. At 43 I was considered a geriatric mother—I prefer mature mother, thank you!

Parenting styles were different. I parented like my mother for my first two children. With my third child I relaxed a lot more and did things my own way.

So, did I know it all when I was 43 having my fourth child? God no. It was like starting from the beginning, but because I was more mature I tackled it from a completely different angle.

Now, we all know there are things that never change when it comes to babies: they all cry, they all need feeding, clothing, they get sick, they fall, they poop, they get nappy rash, then they have tantrums when they get on a bit. And they all need love and attention. So no matter what year it is, parenting can be hard work!

I have to say though, my first child had so much more freedom growing up than Little Miss Ten has now.