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Mother may I? is a children's game, [1] also known as "captain may I?" and "father may I?".
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Mother may I? is a children's game, [1] also known as "captain may I?" and "father may I?".
One player plays the "mother", "father" or "captain". The other players are the "children" or "crewmembers". To begin the game, the mother or father stands at one end of the room and turns around facing away, while the children line up at the other end. The children take turns asking, "mother/father, may I ____?" and makes a movement suggestion. [2] For example, one might ask, "Mother/Father, may I take five steps forward?" The mother/father either replies "Yes, you may" or "No, you may not do that, but you may _____ instead" and inserts their own suggestion. The players usually move closer to the mother/father, but are sometimes led astray. Even if the mother/father makes an unfavorable suggestion, the child must still perform it. The first of the children to reach the location of the mother/father wins the game. That child becomes the mother/father, and the original mother/father becomes a child. A new round will then commence.
Some suggestions[ according to whom? ] that fill in the "mother/father/captain, may I ____?" blank include:
If the "children" are reaching the "mother" or "father" too quickly, the "mother"/"father" may reject the child's suggestion by replacing it with "No, you may not do that, but you may ____ instead." They may reduce the child's original suggestion (for example, reducing five giant steps to three giant steps), or make a different suggestion, such as:
A common alternative gameplay is for "mother" or "father" (who can be facing the children) to begin each child's turn by issuing the instruction to be carried out. The child must reply, "Mother/Father, may I?" before carrying out the order, to which Mother/Father always consents. However, if the child omits to ask permission, he or she is required to go back to the start. Children who have advanced a long way towards the goal are thus brought to ruin; instructions to go backwards must also be asked for lest a worse fate awaits. The art to being a good mother or father is to bring everyone as equally as possible.
Other variations of this kind of crossing-over game are "what's the time, Mr. Wolf?" (sometimes called "old Mrs. Fox, what time is it?", although this version is slightly different), "grandmother's footsteps" and "bulldog", played in Britain. In the first of these, gameplay is similar: Mr Wolf faces away from the children (or Mrs. Fox faces the children), the children together chant in a well-known[ according to whom? ] fashion "what's the time, Mr Wolf?" (or "old Mrs. Fox, what time is it?"), and if he or she replies with 9 o'clock, the children move 9 steps forward. Should anyone reach Mr. Wolf, he or she becomes the new Mr Wolf. Alternatively, however, should Mr. Wolf reply to the question by saying "dinner time!" (or in the Mrs. Fox version, "midnight!") he turns and chases the children back towards the start. If he catches one before he or she reaches safety, that child is the new Mr. Wolf.