Playground politics

I drove home down the M4 from a long day in a windowless room, to pick William up from Taylor's. Dropped him at home to do his French prep and went straight out again to get James from Prep Club.

When I got to Thorngrove I saw a mum I knew, so smiled and said hello. She said hello back, and then the lady she was standing with started talking about prescription glasses to her and the two of them turned away and carried on as if I wasn't there.

I sat on the bench outside school watching them witter, and then saw another friend. So I smiled and said hello. She said hello back, and then another mum came up and started talking about football training to her and the two of them turned away and carried on as if I wasn't there.

James came out and we roared out of the drive in the little red car, which always gives me enormous satisfaction. Unfortunately my elation was short-lived as I came home to find William had spent the entire 30 minutes I was away playing on his phone. The homework he'd done was without punctuation, on a ripped piece of paper. His games kit was strewn on the floor and chair festooned with dirty clothes from the weekend.

I had. Rephrase. Am having. A bit of a meltdown.

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