The Natural Sissy and the Gang

Sunday Girls

"Standards are so important, Helen," Mrs Symonds suggested as her butler served her guest with her lunch on the Sunday. "Danielle seemed to think that just because her pacifier had fallen out of her mouth during the night, she was free to gossip like a fish wife? That is quite simply not good enough, and my staff punished her accordingly. If you want to receive my nomination for the chairwomanship of the British Petticoating Association, we will expect you to maintain and promote the highest possible standards...not only are our dear children exemplars of what we are all trying to do here, but we must always be seen...as parents...to demonstrate how the principles of petticoating must be applied, without exception or favour to ensure the standards required are made clear to everyone. This is societal change...our overriding objective is to train the next generation to be genteel, well-mannered and law-abiding members of society and deal with delinquent tendencies before they have a chance to take hold and do any real damage. Parents must take full responsibility for the training of their children and that means being tough on them sometimes...it is for their own good, at the end of the day, after all?"

"I can assure you that my daughter is perfectly well kept, Kirsty." Helen Morton said with a forced smile, as she helped herself to carrots. They were the only guests for lunch, and she had been greeted by the news that her daughter had been paddled by one of the nannies first thing in the morning. And she was furious about it, of course. Not because she thought that Danielle's crime was minor, which she did, because talking quietly in her cot was something that Helen certainly allowed at home, or at least turned a blind eye to like most parents, but because Danielle was well aware that she was expected to fit in with her hosts when she was invited anywhere and not embarrass her. "She has let herself down and I shall deal with that accordingly...I am very aware of my responsibilities to the community and the association and I can only assure you that if you endorse my appointment, I will continue to offer robust leadership in support of your efforts with the ministry?"

Danielle was straining to hear what the adults were saying from the playpen in the corner of the large dining room. The children had been given their lunch first, in the kitchen, and had then been put in their little wooden cage to be seen and not heard. She had her pacifier in her mouth and a bible open in her lap to occupy her, although her buttocks were so sore all she could really think about was the fearsome paddle. She could tell that her mother was furious with her, and she almost started to cry again when she heard that she would be dealt with later. It was so unfair. Every petticoatee she knew lost their pacifiers during the night most nights, and speaking quietly to siblings or friends was fine, as long as they did not get carried away or wake their parents up especially early. It was so unfair, but she knew that she would be spanked again at home.

"This is your fault, you freak?" Darren's cousin Rebecca Nolan snapped as soon as they reached the relative privacy of her lounge, where the three children had been sent to watch Malory Towers on CBBC. Darren, in a royal blue velvet dress, sat down on the sofa, deftly sweeping his skirts underneath him to avoid creases, and stared at his cousins, still not quite believing that they were being petticoated too. Rebecca, who was no longer to be addressed as Becky, and her little brother Andrew, were wearing pink and white sailor suits, from the infamous One Love collection. "Mum would never have done this if it wasn't for you...you are so pathetic?"

"You have to say Mummy, Rebecca?" Andrew murmured, sitting beside Darren, who took the ten-year-old's hand automatically. Darren had arrived with his parents for lunch to find that Auntie Jenny had indeed taken the same path as her sister, his Mummy, for the good of her two children. Andrew would be going up to big school come September, and Rebecca had been displaying far too many signs of teenage angst recently, apparently.

"You were pretty rude to your Mummy last Sunday," Darren shrugged, not arguing about his own response to being petticoated, because he thought that he had been fairly pathetic as well, if he was honest. "I think that might have something to do with it?"