George’s Marvellous Medicine…or, as I like to call it ‘stuff and mess’

When I was young, there were certain books that were banned in our house.

Not because they were lewd, or shocking. But because my mum was concerned that ‘they might give us ideas’.

Yes, I’m talking about that great children’s classic ‘George’s Marvellous Medicine’.

The banning MAY have had something to do with the fact that we’d recently read and enjoyed ‘The Twits’, and could often be found even weeks later contemplating exactly how to get our furniture to stick to the ceiling, or where we could find worms to put in the pasta (my mum really, really doesn’t like worms…).

But it was probably more to do with the fact that actually, we didn’t need much encouragement anyway to find anything gloopy, liquidy or powdery that we could get our little hands on; and then mix them together to make a big sticky mess.

Talcum powder mixed with shampoo, blue minty gel toothpaste and a good dose of bubble bath? It’s a winning combination! Especially good for lobbing at your sister, wrapped in sheets of wet toilet paper…

But anyway, it seems that someone else is following in my squelchy sticky footsteps.

Bubby D, like her mother before her, is simply FASCINATED with anything she can make a big sticky mess with.

Baby shampoo at a friend’s house…

All my expensive conditioner…

Chocolate milkshake…

…even, on one really horrible occasion, her own wee and poo (I still gag when I think of that clean up job).

She seems to have some kind of liquidy sticky messy stuff radar! If there’s something she can grab and spread around wherever we are, she’ll find it, and get going.

So I tell her.

‘One day, you’ll have a little girl of your own, and she’ll waste all of your lovely conditioner/milkshake/shampoo and then you’ll know how sad it makes mummies’.

In fact…just like my mum told me…