On the morning of Peter’s birthday, his mother makes him a special breakfast and lets him open his presents… he gets a book and a DVD, a couple of music CDs, a rather humiliating Hello Kitty bath set, containing bubble bath, shower gel, soap, shampoo, conditioner, a pink puff and a couple of bath bombs. And last but not least, he unwraps another party dress; virtually identical to his pink one only in blue. “Another dress?” he hesitantly asks.

His mother tells him that she’d overheard him in his bedroom, “Wishing that I’d bought you a blue one instead.” she smiles.

Peter tidies up the wrapping paper and takes his frock and other gifts to his room before running the bath. As the tub fills, his mother enters with his Hello Kitty bath set. She removes the lid from the bubble bath and pours a little under the tap. As the bubbles begin to foam a pungent smell fills Peter’s nostrils. “What’s that smell?” he asks.

“It’s it’s nice isn’t it?” she replies as she agitates the surface, creating even more bubbles.

“I don’t like it.” he replies. “It smells like perfume.”

“Well, you’d better get used to it Peter because, after your bath, you’ll smell exactly the same,” she says as she lines up his new Hello Kitty toiletries on the side of the bath.

“I’m not getting in if I’m going to smell like that.” Peter moans.

“Peter I’m getting a little tired of your constant moaning. If you’re going to act like a child I’ll treat you like one.”

This spurs a minor tantrum from Peter, which his mother counters by threatening to cancel his birthday party. “Instead I’ll take you shopping for a new school skirt which you will be wearing tomorrow and every day after that.”

With that, Peter concedes and steps into the bubbles. His mother plunges the pink puff into the water before squeezing some of the shower gel onto it. She then proceeds to bathe him whilst Peter protests he’s old enough to bathe himself. “As I said, Peter, if you’re going to act like a silly youngster  I am going to treat you like one,” she says as she proceeds to wash his body and hair.

Once his mother is satisfied that he’s clean, she leaves him alone to dry himself off. Peter sniffs his skin and screws his nose up as the fruity scent fills his nostrils. He wraps the towel around himself and returns to his bedroom where his mother and his party dress are waiting for him. She passes him his new ‘nice’ underpants, which for all intents and purposes are a pair of girls knickers with lace trim around the waist and legs. They’re blue to match his dress, as is the vest he pulls on. His mother runs the towel through his hair before brushing it. “Mmm… you smell beautiful Peter,” she says. “Are you ready to try your dress on?”

Peter gulps and looks at his dress. He sulks then nods. His mother smiles and picks it up before pulling down the zip, seemingly in slow motion. She holds it open whilst Peter reluctantly steps into it and pushes his arms through the short sleeves. His mother turns him around and slowly pulls up the zip, before turning him to face her. A broad smile beams down on him and he feels himself blush.

His mother places a headband in his hair with a large white satin bow attached, before digging deep into her pocket and removing a tube of lip gloss. “Open,” she says as she waves the wand close to his chin. Peter moans about the ‘lipstick’, but she tells him it’s lip gloss. He drops his jaw and she carefully applies it. Once done, she steps back and grins. “I should have done this years ago,” she says. “I think boys were born to wear dresses… it’s a wonder it took us so long to realize.”

Once Peter has his shoes and socks on, his mother takes him to her bedroom so he can see how he looks in her large mirror. “Doesn’t it look delightful?” she gushes.

Peter gulps as he takes in his reflection. “I can’t believe you’re making me wear this on my birthday,” he says before begging his mother to let him wear something else.

“It’s a party dress Peter… and you’re having a party… it’s perfect,” she replies. “But if you really don’t like it…” she says as he becomes visibly hopeful, “…there’s always the pink one if you prefer!” Peter looks back to the mirror and decides to keep the blue one on.

“I thought you might.” his mother smiles knowingly. “Now you’ve got to be very careful not to get any cake, chocolate, juice or jelly on it… otherwise you’ll have to wear the pink one,” she states.

Come to the party, only two of his six friends invited from school turn up, both wearing party dresses. His cousins James and Michael come too, also in pretty dresses. One of the boys from down the road who often wears dresses is also invited, along with a few girls from the neighborhood, none of whom wear dresses.

Each of his guests give him a birthday card and almost all of them would have been perfect for a girl only a decade ago; butterflies, bows, flowers, and cute animals in pink, purple, and lilac shades. Each of his guests also bears a gift, but these are for after they’ve eaten.

The ‘tea-party-style buffet is hugely uncomfortable for Peter. He’s never seen his two schoolmates in frocks before and although he’s glad they came, he’d hoped they wouldn’t. After some enquiring from the grown-ups, Simon admits he has a variety of dresses, whilst John reluctantly tells them it’s his first one. His mother had bought it especially for the party and he’s clearly just as uncomfortable as Peter.

After the jelly and ice cream, Each of Peter’s guests gives him their gifts. Thankfully they’re all good for a boy and not girlie things like his mother bought him. Then, his mother says she’s got one more surprise for him and presents an unexpected gift. Peter reluctantly opens it, hoping it’s not going to embarrass him. Having a big white ribbon tied around the pink and purple spotted paper he quite rightly fears the worst… but as the paper comes off, his fears are put to rest. “A Nintendo Wii³… WOW!!!” he exclaims as his guests pull similar faces of excitement. From that moment on his dull sissy party became round after round of video bowling, tennis, racing games, and the like… Peter almost forgot he was wearing a dress… almost.

Once the party was over and all his guests had gone, his mother asked if he’d enjoyed himself. “Yeah! The Wii³ is awesome.” he replied, adding a ‘thank you.

“Well I’m glad… and wearing a dress isn’t that bad is it?”

Peter screwed his face up. “Well…” he looked down at himself. “I’d have preferred it if I’d worn my pants.”

“Then you’d have been dressed like one of the girls.” his mother smiled before saying, “Plus once you were playing your video games you’d forgotten all about your dress.”

“No because when I was bowling it kept getting in the way,” he replied, miming the action to demonstrate how his voluminous skirt gets in the way.

“You soon managed to work around it.” his mother grinned. “And you did get plenty of strikes.” she reminded him. “And next time you wear it you won’t feel quite so self-conscious.”

“Next time?” he frowned.

“You didn’t think you’d only have to wear it today did you?”

“Erm…. yes.”

She grinned and shook her head at his ignorance. “I didn’t spend a fortune on dresses only for you to wear them once Peter,” she told him, before explaining that she wanted him to wear one every Sunday. Peter moaned but his mother warned him. “Some boys have to wear them every day Peter, so think yourself lucky it’s only once a week,” she asked him if he understood and he nodded. “Come on, I’m sure you’re just dying to get out of it,” she said with a smile.

He follows her to his bedroom and suspects something as she pauses at the door. “Your Auntie Jo has one more birthday surprise for you,” she says before gesturing him inside. Instead of one of his usual duvet covers, his bed is clad in a new one; baby pink with butterflies on it. “Isn’t it lovely?” she asks. Knowing it’s a gift from his aunt he has no option but to appear grateful. “There are some new Jim jams under your pillow,” she tells him.

Peter hesitantly lifts the pillow to reveal a pair of pale purple pajamas with frills here and there and flower-shaped buttons. “Are these from Auntie Jo too?” he asked

“No they’re from me,” she replies. “I thought you’d prefer jim-jams to a nightie.”

“Oh mu-um!” he moaned as his cheeks blushed to a deep rouge. “You’re turning me into a girl.”

“On the contrary Peter…” she replied as she picked up his new pajama top, holding it by its short puffed sleeves, “…I’m turning you into a boy. Girls don’t wear things like this anymore.”

When Peter awoke the following morning, he thought for a split second that he’d had the most peculiar dream. But as he pulled his eyelids open and his vision cleared, he realized it was all real. Sitting at the kitchen table wearing his girlie pajamas was humiliating beyond belief, but that was nothing in comparison to the reception he got at school. He was teased by many of his classmates for having a sissy birthday party and no matter how much he wished, he could not deny that fact.

One of the girls asked him what color his dress was. “Blue,” he replied. Then she asked him if he liked it. “No!” he retorted. “My mum made me wear it!”

“And good for her!” his teacher said in a loud voice. “Like it or not boys… we’re living in an age of change and before long you’ll all be in skirts and dresses.”

As most of the boys were yet to be introduced to the new trend, they denied that day would come. But Peter, along with a handful more had first-hand experience of how the times were changing and quite rightly believed otherwise.

As usual, his mother asked him if he’d had a nice day at school. Peter said it was OK but added that some of the boys teased him about his birthday party. His mother insisted they were simply jealous because they can’t wear pretty dresses, but this, Peter could not believe.

He went to his room to change out of his school uniform. His heart sank when he opened his bedroom door. “Why this is supposed to be acceptable for boys I’ll never know.” he thought as he sat down on his new pink duvet cover with its frilly lace trim and butterfly pattern. On his pillow, his mother had neatly folded his new frilly lilac pajamas ready for tonight.