Looking back now I could see my mother was disappointed but at the time she never said anything. I never showed any interest in clothes and my mother chose all my clothes. I do remember having to wear a dress on certain occasions. We always went out for a family meal of my father's birthday and mother always bought me a new dress. She loved dressing me, putting my hair to a fussy style usually with a ribbon or bow. I did feel uncomfortable and did have a few tantrums as kids do but she always stayed firm. When she finished dressing me she would call dad into my room for an inspection. He always complimented me and hugged me tightly. This was one of the first times I recall that girls had to dress up to please the opposite sex!
I had to wear a skirt for school, but as all the other girls wore one I didn't really complain that much.
When I was about 8 I went to my first pony club and loved it. My parents could of never afforded to buy me a pony but they did pay for me to have a weekly lesson which I loved. The one down side to this was that my mother was desperate for me to start dancing. She had danced as a child and signed me up for Irish dancing lessons.
Although I didn't like dancing I was quite good. I would never of deliberately been bad at dancing, even as a child. My mother would of known straight away if wasn't putting in any effort. I hated the costumes. As you can imagine they were very girly but just had to put up with it. I couldn't wait to take them off. The opposite of going to the pony club, I loved wear jodhpurs.
Anyway although I was a tomboy most of the time I was made to go dancing and wear girly clothes. I continued with both dancing and pony club and then horse riding for most of my childhood. When I wasn't dancing or horse riding I just wore jeans or shorts around the house. In the school week I wasn't allowed to change out of my school uniform. Mum would go mad saying it create more washing and ironing. My brother had the same rule as well.
So although I hated dresses and skirts and the rest of the accesories that go with it I did have to wear girly clothes at times. Not by choice though.
When I moved to high school the uniform was very strict. It was still a skirt, but a blazer as well and the skirt had to fall on the knee. It you wore it too short you would get sent home. Not that I ever wanted to wear my skirt short.
Wearing a school uniform didn't really bother me. Everyone had to wear one so it was no problem. The uniform had the option of knee socks or tights in the winter and ankle socks in the summer term. I hated wearing tights. I had to wear tights sometimes for dancing and mum always made me wear them when we went out for family meals. Whenever my mum made me wear tights it would always end up in a row.
As more girls started to wear tights I thought I would have to start wearing them soon, simply to fit in. I suggested it to my mum expecting her to be pleased. How wrong was I! She said tights were a privelage and that I would have to continue to wear knee socks to school. She was pleased that I had accepted I had to wear tights but the school uniform was not a fashion statement. I think she was getting back at me for all those arguments we had had. To make matters worse she said that I should wear a skirt and tights all weekend now that I had finially given up my tomboy days. I hadn't! All I wanted to do was wear tights to school, I still hated wearing them. The whole thing had back fired. I didn't wear a skirt and tights that weekend and mum couldn't stop teasing me about how I had gone about wearing them.
There are lots of other silly stories about my childhood I will share when I get chance. When I left school I ditched the skirts and lived in jeans and trousers. I had given up dancing as well and turned back into a die hard tomboy. I loved my jeans and t-shirts and jumpers. I suppose I used those clothes to hide away. I was and I not very confident and the thought of wearing skimpy dresses or skirts horrified me. I looked a mess but I didn't draw attention to myself. Perhaps it all comes down to confidence? Perhaps!
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