Tense parent, endlessly strict, showing authority (4,6)

Times Cryptic #28757 | 18 Across | 2023-11-10
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I haven't cracked this one yet — but the brilliant team at Times for the Times have:

PAST (tense) MA (parent) STERN (strict) without the last letter (endlessly) This took me forever. I immediately thought of the answer, but I thought the definition had to be ‘tense’, and that PA came from ‘parent’. Re-parsed after a nap.

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