"I am not the enemy"

One of my favourite cups to drink from has "I am Not the Enemy" printed on it. Tea taste so much better when served with a wonderful memory.
 'I am Not the Enemy' cup is a treasured souvenir from a show my no1 daughter took me too a couple of years ago. Mums the Word 2- Teenagers, was a hysterical laugh, almost as hilariously funny as it's predecessor, Mums The Word, 10 years earlier.

Darling daughter having saved from her first earnings, purchased 2 tickets for us to see the play. I don't know how she managed it but we had the entire front row to ourselves. I remember sitting down, looking around as the seating filled to maximum capacity, but there seemed to be no one joining us in the front row. I said to my daughter, "Wouldn't it be great we had this entire row to ourselves, it would make me feel very VIP, special". Darling Daughter smiled with a wink replying "Lets see, Happy Mother's Day Mum" she planted a rather large noisy smoochy kiss on my check while wrapping her arm around my neck, bear hug style. It was just us and we were making the most of it.
We spent the night in the city at a 'posh' hotel all organised by hers truly, after a sushi dinner. We watched in house movies on the triple king size bed till late into the night, that's after we played pillow fights and used the bed as a trampoline. It was so much fun. The memory of my mum & daughter weekend date will warm my heart always.

10 years earlier, when I saw the original 'Mums The Word', the night was well, also memorable but in the opposite way.
I laughed so loud through out the play, as did 99.9% of the audience, all bar one, the one that happened to be my date.  I had been single for quite some time, deliberately, so I was a tad rusty in the do's & dont's of dating. My date was childless and utterly hated all things children. I never understood why he was so interested in a divorcee with 4 children. Maybe the fact that I was blond and booby might have had something to do with it.
An argument erupted in the car park about his disgust of the play. His ranting rambled on and on to the point were I just saw his lips moving, but could only hear 'blah, blah, blah'. His self professed 'I am very intellectually openminded' quite quickly turned to look more like stubborn, stupid sour narrow mindedness as he drove off in a gruff huff with my bag & jacket, minus me.  Definitely qualifies as a "date gone really wrong" or 'Type of men women shouldn't date" situation.
I came to the cold realisation amongst an audience of curious onlookers that in my bag was my wallet and mobile, also no means of getting home. Oh crap! Rubbing my bare arms for warmth, I went on the hunt for a rare commodity, a necessity in times like these; a public phone that actually works. Eventually I found a pub, called the ex hubby reverse charge, "Um, can you pick me up please? and can you bring a warm jacket pleeease?". Ex hubby arrived an eternity later, with a pipping hot coffee from a Mcdonalds drivethru, a warm jacket and a smug look on his face. Silent embarrassment ruled to the trip home, I was sure the word 'idiot' was clearly emblazoned with glowing fire across my forehead. Ex broke the silence at my front door, "By the way, I wouldn't stand on the corner out the front of a pub late at night next time"
Lets make that blonde, booby and naive.
I also made an oath never to date any childless bachelors ever again and that I would drive my own car.  Maurie spent 6 months stressing the point he was a parent to a dog, and that was parent enough, of sorts, not completely childless. I finally caved in and agreed to a date after he spoke about a play he saw that was the funniest ever called 'Mum's the Word'. Ironically, he was there the same night. He has a dog, loved my favourite play, I guess it was OK. We married 8 years later, it was the best wedding I ever had.