Dear Guardian of the Medicines

Dear Guardian of the Medicines,

I am not a regular frequenter of your parts. I only come when I have to. Often when I arrive at your barricade I am tired due to sleepless nights with poorly children. I am harassed because I don't have much time before going back to the poorly children. Therefore a smile and a welcome would go a long way to making my experience of your fort a better one.

Although I may enter your fort with bags under my eyes, scruffy hair and maybe the odd dirty mark on my coat, I am not stupid. I have been caring for my children through various different illnesses for 11 1/2 years now. I know what works and what doesn't. I know what I need. It would be extremely refreshing to just be given what I would like to buy instead of being given the Spanish Inquisition in order to buy it. I know, you need to do your job too. But I need to do mine. And mine is caring for my children. Sometimes you prevent me from doing this with your barrage of questions and rules from a higher authority.

Your questions make me wonder if you think I am abusing my children in some way. Are you suspicious of every mother or is it just me? Do I look like the kind of mother who would overdose her children? You might be interested to know that I always follow the guidelines and give the correct doses.

What kind of society do we live in now where mothers can't go with their instincts and do their best for their children? What a world it is where mothers are guilty until proven innocent. I am the mother of my boys and sometimes, not always, I know what is best for them. Why, oh why is this not recognised in our society? Mothers, who love their children with a fierce protectiveness, are not allowed to protect.

So, Guardian of the Medicines, next time I come to your barricade I would like you to treat me as someone who has a brain and is using it to do the best for my children.

Thank you.