We reluctantly pulled on our nappies, followed by the rubber knickers, then our cotton over knickers and finally, we pulled our nighties over our heads.

Mum made us say thank you to Mrs Brown for helping, and she left. We watched girlie TV until 8pm. Peter said he didn’t need a clean nappy. I did.

I felt more ashamed than ever as we entered our classroom for the following morning. Mrs Brown cast us a knowing smile as we took our seats. Not only had she seen us wearing dresses, she’d also seen us naked, and wearing nappies and nighties.

The same routine went on for the rest of the week, only Granny helped us with our nightly bath from Tuesday to Friday. We took it in turns choosing which frock we wore after school, but weren’t allowed to chose one we’d already worn. On Saturday morning, Mum said we were allowed to bath ourselves, but as it was the weekend, she’d choose our dresses… and she chose the prissiest and frilliest monstrosities we had. On Monday after school, it was a relief to be able to choose our own dresses again.