My Mother’s Day card read: IloveyousooooomuchmummyyourthebestbestbestandyoumakemehappeesloveloveloveexraloveBeeee!
I smiled, then frowned and got to work.
I drilled my daughter daily on word spacing and punctuation.
I instructed her on the capitalization of proper nouns.
I cautioned against repetition and hyperbole.
The next year:
“Dear Mother, Enjoy Mother’s Day. Sincerely, Beatrice.”
Success!
Mother to two teens, Joanna Norland feels nostalgic for the early years of creative spelling and free form punctuation. She is a playwright and writing coach based in East Sussex, UK and blogs about combining writing and parenting at mumswrite.com.
ohsogood
thank you very much!
This is marked as “funny” and “amusing” but I actually cried when I read it. It’s sad how we drain the creative spark out of girls to ensure they comply with rigid patriarchal standards. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you very much. I wrote it as a warning/reminder to myself!
I definitely should have multi-labeled it, in retrospect. I guess this just shows what mood I was in when I first read it!
I like how two opposing definitions of “success” are shown here (and whether the second one counts as a success at all!)
Nice story.
Thank you!!
What an incredible reminder to first see the joy! Excellent
Believe me, I need the reminder more than anyone! thank you.