My eldest daughter, Jean, sixteen at the moment, is a great believer in clothes. In the clothes others wear. She must have the same. This covers everything from underwear to overcoat and headgear to footwear. In addition it is make-up. All shades of all colours. I don\u2019t know why she doesn\u2019t use nail varnish. Perhaps it isn\u2019t used widely enough. My sister had a shock when she saw her recently – at least that was Jean\u2019s impression. She had turned up with full \u201cwar paint\u201d so to speak in a pair of trousers that looked like pyjamas, high-heeled shoes, enormous earrings and I don\u2019t know what else. My sister would never have thought that of me!<\/p>\n
Jean had brought some money with her to spend during her holiday on the Continent. When she came back home, it turned out she had spent it all on clothes. We persuaded her to do a little parade for us and had a presentation of present day fashion.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what it is: fashion, things the others do, the majority, no matter what, most manifest and visible in clothes. Jean who is naturally shy tells me she doesn\u2019t want to stick out and puts on the most daring clothes. She hesitated very much to parade them at home.
\nShe hates humorous comments on her clothes. In the end she was showing the tightest and shortest mini-skirt imaginable. I deliberately sent her to switch off an electric point underneath the desk. I was wondering\u2026 And then said aloud: \u201cHow will you do that?\u201d
\nI shouldn\u2019t have done, because I had hit a sensitive spot. She turned round before having done the job and with a red face marched out of the room. Later I found her in tears, furious tears, in her bedroom. She was most angry with me for being so nasty. She had known from the beginning that I would tease her and had dreaded it. I told her she could wear this skirt whenever she wanted to. She said no, she wouldn\u2019t, she had torn it up already, she had realized it was impossible, but why did I have to do it in this way, so unpleasant and downright hurtful. She accused me of taking delight in poking fun at her. That\u2019s where fun stops. I had not been aware of saying nasty things to her. I hadn\u2019t even criticized her skirt, just asked a question\u2026 She wouldn\u2019t hear.<\/p>\n
I had to think of something to restore peace. Putting on a stern face I expressed my disgust at her most untidy bedroom. All the things I had found under her bed, cupboard and chair during her absence! She stopped her tears and looked sheepish. I left her room to return a few minutes later proposing a deal: I would forgive her, if she forgave me! She accepted, smiling. \u201cAt last you\u2019ve stopped laughing,\u201d she said and kissed me good night.<\/p>\n
I read this piece to her twenty-four hours later. She said: \u201cIf you don\u2019t mind me being like that\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My eldest daughter, Jean, sixteen at the moment, is a great believer in clothes. In the clothes others wear. She must have the same. This covers everything from underwear to overcoat and headgear to footwear. In addition it is make-up. All shades of all colours. I don\u2019t know why she doesn\u2019t use nail varnish. Perhaps […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reading-aloud"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.d-c-k.com\/Readingaloud1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.d-c-k.com\/Readingaloud1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.d-c-k.com\/Readingaloud1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.d-c-k.com\/Readingaloud1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.d-c-k.com\/Readingaloud1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.d-c-k.com\/Readingaloud1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.d-c-k.com\/Readingaloud1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.d-c-k.com\/Readingaloud1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.d-c-k.com\/Readingaloud1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}