Uncle Mark

I do get annoyed the way single mums cop the blame. "The only single mum in the village" is a story in The Guardian from a mother who recently moved to the country and became embroiled in a child abuse investigation when her son exaggerated a story about something that had happened a a family party. Her brother, Uncle Mark, had stopped the cousins chasing each other around trying to grab underwear in their tracks by showing half of one buttock and saying the game was over. This was particularly serious because Mark is a teacher.

After the police investigated criminal charges were dropped, but social services needed to carry out a report. At the end of the interview Ruth suddenly twigged it wasn't her brother they were interested in but the 'real' perpetrator. "It's the word 'uncle' in the context of a single mother, isn't it?" Ruth asks the social worker who nods and leaves.