Once upon a Christmas....

Not very long ago, just recently in fact, a Fairly Good Mother sat and thought about how she could make things a bit happier, not just for her kids, but for herself too. In fact, quite possibly for the first time in many years, she was thinking a lot about other children's dreams. After-all, her own children were practically grown up now (although she still wasn't convinced that 'grown-ups' really existed as fact at all).

First of all she considered all the obstacles that she had to overcome, there were quite a few!

The first thing she considered was, "Do I need to limit my use of 'fact's", she was a very practical woman with a weird sense of humour. For example, a few years ago she'd persuaded her youngest son (who was about 12 years old at the time) to announce loudly and in public - frequently - and 'on cue', that she was, "..the Best Mum in the World!". 

She'd never told him that she'd been planning to buy him that particular games console before he'd asked, but she'd figured it would be fun and a good lesson (as a reminder) to get him to agree to that condition before she bought it for him. 


Now this Fairly Good Mother was both gifted and cursed. Most Mum's are but in a few ways she was different from other Mum's. Oh she still had lots of plates to wash and loads of ironing. Her children didn't tidy up much and she hated having to tell them. No magic wand (apparently) could resolve those particular problems.

This Fairly Good Mother also happened to be a Witch, which was supposed to be the good part, but listen to this..... the curse was...... no one believed her!

Apparently, according to everyone else, witches only exist in fairy stories and 'the movies' in the 21st Century. In many respects this wasn't a bad thing for the Fairly Good Mother, it meant that people weren't scared of her and generally considered her behaviour to be traditionally English (that is to say, eccentric, or - in words that we can both understand - a bit daft).

That isn't to say it wasn't a problem. Witches in movies and fairy stories get to be respected, for a start. They also have special effects which are conspicuously absent in real life. Plus, in movies and fairy stories there's generally a happy ending. The Fairly Good Mother was seriously considering this.

The problem was, she decided, in being a witch you can't dictate, even if you're in some ways able to predict, there are rules that state you can't influence the outcome if it's in any way disadvantageous. That's a rule, no witch can break.

However, and fortunately, she didn't have a huge nose and her skin wasn't green. Although she did have a few warts, you'd never notice them. She also wasn't mean, possibly it was a problem, but her flaw was generosity.

Oh and she liked to bake.

Actually, she baked really rather excellent birthday cakes too, but that's incidental.

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