Emma’s horrible family

Press, 16 August 1988, Page 26

Emma’s horrible family

By

Anna Delany of Rangiora

Emma hated her family. She said she hated them because they were not fair to her for — her father only gave her one dollar for her pocket money and she wanted three, because her big brother, Andrew, got that much, because her mother didn’t let her have a bought lunch once a week, and her big sister, Jackie, was allowed to chose her own clothes, and Andrew could drive her father’s car to town.

But most of all she was the youngest child. Next Tuesday it was her birthday so she had forgotten all about her mean family but when the day came she did remember her mean family because they didn’t give her any presents. By the next morning she still hadn’t had her presents so she got up out of her bed and went grumpily into her mother’s and father’s room. But there she got the fright (or should I say surprise) of her life. “LATE HAPPY BIRTHDAY,” yelled her family and then they gave her presents. From Jackie she received the skirt and top she had always wanted, from her mother some money for bought lunch, plus two pairs of earrings. From Andrew, a bike so she could get to town as he did in his father’s car, and from her father a note which read “your pocket money is two dollars a week.”

And, her mother said, “I’m to have a baby, so you won’t be the youngest any more!” And from that day on Emma never thought her family as mean — because, well, she was a lot older.