As a child I asked a lot of questions. My mum was super-patient and always answered as best she could, but did often get exasperated when trying to watch a movie or TV programme and I bombarded her with questions throughout. She tried to tell me that she hadn’t seen the movie before either and so didn’t know what was going on any more than I did, but still I persisted.

Tonight while watching ‘Corpse Bride‘ with Ray for the 20th time she barely stopped talking for a second. It was getting late and the two younger children were in bed. I was trying to read a few chapters of my book before putting Ray to bed, but it just wasn’t to be.

“Why does she say they are perfect for each other mum?”
“What does over-blown mean mum?”
“Why does he say Sacre Bleu mum?”
“Why did the light turn green mum?”
“Is the grandpa skeleton a good skeleton mum?”

The questions were never ending. The best part was that although the kids have watched this movie repeatedly, I have managed to avoid it so far. When Ray pronounced ‘Sacre Bleu’ “sucker blue” it took me ages to work out what she meant.

In the end I gave up on the reading and watched the movie with her. I actually quite enjoyed it, but definately felt a huge wave of empathy for my mum who put up with my endless interrogating for years. She must have had the patience of a saint. I hope I can follow suit!