House Rules
Aunt Katinka was always
a staunch advocate of petticoating and claimed that it was
commonplace in ‘the old country’. It’s not at all common here
in Blighty, apart from at Aunt Katinka’s house. My mother used to
send me to stay with her a few of times a year as a child and
spent every moment having to abide by her unusual house rules.
From the moment I
arrived I'd be buttoned into a dress and if I showed even the
slightest hint of objection, she'd swap my knickers for a nappy which
wouldn't be changed until bed time. She didn't make me wear girls
clothes every day. Some days I wore my own clothes but always over my
knickers, or if I’d been disobedient, over a nappy. To begin with I
suffered terrible nappy rash but I soon learned to shut up and put up
as I'd rather spend my days wearing a pair of knickers than a nappy.
My mother knew exactly
what went on but insisted that petticoating was harsh yet
harmless. At least my mother didn't petticoat me at home, nor did
she ever threaten me with it. However if I ever played up or got in trouble, my mother would threaten to send me to stay with Aunt
Katinka when school broke up. “She'll happily have you every school
holiday and half term if need be!” I recall my mother saying. The
visits to Aunt Katinka's stopped when I left school and so did the
petticoating... thank god!
Now I’m an adult and
I'll be staying with Aunt Katinka again for a few weeks, but only
until I sort myself somewhere permanent to live. The last thing I
expected was for her to pick up where we left off all those years
ago!
My First 'Mixed' Girl's School
Having grown up in
Ashford, where one school on the far side of town had adopted the
policy of 'educational petticoating' several years ago, I knew that
some schools were less desirable than others, especially for boys.
Educational Petticoating schools (or 'mixed' girl's schools) are
becoming increasingly popular these days, with seemingly every large
town or city having at least one, so when my mother booted up Google
Maps to show my sister and I the location of a our new house and our
new school in the new town we'd be moving to, I asked “It's not one
of those schools where the boys wear the same uniform as the girls is
it?”
“Nooo.” my mother
replied. “The boys and girls have separate uniforms.”
“Phew!” I replied.
“Told you!” I cockily said to my sister who, only a few days
previously had claimed that our new school is a 'mixed' girl's
school. I was 95% certain that she was only trying to wind me up
because she knows how much I'd hate it.
“Told me what?”
Julia smugly asked.
“That it's not a
mixed girl's school.” I retorted.
“Actually Matthew, it
is a mixed girl's school.” my mother stated.
“What?!” I blurted
as she clicked on the school and followed a short cut to its website.
“But you just said...” I stammered as she clicked through to the
uniforms page and...
