22 January 2011 The Army

Sam has a cold. So what does she spend her Saturday doing? She sets up an “army” of bears and Dorbies and toys to defeat her mother. The open book on the floor is meant to be a trap: I walk past the book, get distracted reading it, and then the army attacks. The brightly colored scarves are a “ring of fire.” And the Dorbies are archers. The Dorbies are always archers, because, as Sam says, that’s the only thing their arms can do.

Why does my daughter want to defeat me in battle? Because I “tell her off too much.” (That’s Brit speak for “getting scolded.”)