Millie & Molly and the Broken Swing

A children's story for twins, about learning to share

Millie & Molly are two little monkeys who love to play in the jungle.

Today, they are off to the lagoon, where daddy says they have a special surprise waiting.

‘What is it?’ cried Millie.

‘Please tell us!’ begged Molly

But daddy just smiled and told them to wait.

Finally, after impatiently swinging through the trees, they reached the lagoon.

‘Surprise!’ said daddy monkey.

It was a swing, set up between two trees.

‘Wow!’ said Millie.

‘Amazing!’ said Molly.

‘Now remember,’ said daddy monkey, ‘this is for both of you so you must take take…’

But before he could finish, Millie and Molly rushed forward to the swing.

‘Me first,’ said Millie, pushing her sister out of the way.

‘No, me,’ said Molly, pushing back.

They each grabbed one side of the swing and tried to pull it away from the other.

‘It’s my turn!’ screamed Millie.

‘No, mine!’ exclaimed Molly.

And as they tugged and pulled, daddy monkey saw what was about to happen. He just started to say, ‘Girls, be careful, it’s going to…’ when suddenly the ropes broke away from the trees, the seat snapped in two and the two little monkeys fell to the ground with a thump.

Millie sat looking at her broken piece of seat. Then, she turned and said angrily to her sister, ‘Look what you did Molly. You broke it!’

Molly jumped up and shot back, ‘No you broke it!’

‘No you,’ said one. ‘No you,’ said the other.

Finally, daddy monkey had heard enough. ‘You both broke it because you wouldn’t share. Now you are both going to miss out.’

‘But, but, but…’ stammered Millie.

‘Can you fix it?’ asked Molly.

‘No,’ said daddy monkey firmly. ‘Not until you two can learn to play nicely together and share.’

And with that, Mille and Molly climbed up into the trees and swung off in opposite directions.

Later that evening, back at the lagoon, Millie jumped out of the trees. She had found more rope and ran over to where the swing had been. What was she up to?

She was just about to tie the rope to the trees when Molly appeared. She was holding a short plank of wood. What was she up to?

‘What are you doing?’ Millie said.

‘I came to fix the swing,’ said Molly.

‘You can’t, I’ve come to fix the swing,’ said Millie.

‘No me,’ said Molly.

‘Me!’ said one. ‘No me!’ said the other, until finally they both stopped. They looked at the broken swing and then at each other.

‘I’m sorry I broke the swing,’ said Millie.

‘Me too,’ said Molly. ‘Let’s fix it together.’

And so together, they tied the rope back around the trees and around the plank of wood until finally they had it set up just right.

‘You go first,’ said Millie.

‘No you go first,’ said Molly.

‘You!’ said Millie.

‘No you!’ said Molly.

And then they both stopped and started laughing at how silly they had been.

‘I will push you first, and then you can push me,’ said Millie.

‘Okay,’ said Molly and jumped onto the swing. ‘Whee!’

‘Your turn now,’ said Molly, jumping off the swing to push her sister.

‘Whee!’ squealed Mille with delight. ‘Sharing is fun.’