I’m already a day late, but to kick start me getting used to blogging again I’m going to do a 31 days of writing prompts challenge! For December 1st, the prompt was “Hear no evil – Tell us about a conversation you couldn’t help but overhear and wish you hadn’t.”

Isn’t it odd that something popped into my mind straight away?

For this, we’ll go back to the halycon days of my childhood. It was actually a lovely childhood. My parents were (and still very much are) loving and supportive and although we weren’t the richest family around, we had a roof over our heads, food in our stomachs and clothes on our backs. Both of my parents worked hard to give us everything we wanted and I’m very grateful for their love.

We always went abroad on holidays, mainly because of my mother who really loves travelling. We couldn’t always afford fancy places, but we were in another country, which was what mattered. To be honest, as a kid, I couldn’t have cared less that we were camping or in a self catering apartment – being abroad was fun!

We were in Spain, I remember that, and it must have been in early May because my father’s birthday falls then. I can’t quite remember exactly what happened that night, but I do remember being in a big double bed with my younger brother – something neither of us liked, despite the novelty of sleeping in a double bed! It was dark in the room, and very warm. I don’t know if I was awake the whole time, or if my parents arguing woke me up, but I remember my father sounding very angry. He was trying to contain his anger, but it leaked out of the edges of his voice, and he used the worst swear word my young self knew. He just wanted a good night out on his birthday, that’s what I remember him saying, and my mother was crying and trying to explain something.

I can count the number of times I can remember my parents arguing in front of my on the fingers of one hand, and I still have fingers left over. Each time it was because my father lost his temper about something, a nasty trait I recognise in myself. I work very hard to not take my temper out on people that don’t deserve it because I remember how upset my mother sounded that night. Please don’t think badly of my father – every couple argues, usually about silly things. My parents didn’t let it affect their holiday and I don’t remember any other unpleasant moments.

The next day it was as if it hadn’t happened, but I remember it because it was the first time my father showed that he could be bad tempered, snappish and mean. I love my father so very much, but that was an eye opening moment.