Dear Susan,
 
I was so pleased to find your pages and can agree from experience that a man takes very naturally to petticoating, after
the initial shock and resistance have been overcome.
 
I met my present husband when I was working as a nurse. The poor lamb had been made redundant three years before and
had suffered some sort of breakdown as a result.  He was living in a small flat and had got into such a muddle with
money that it looked certain that he would have to give even this up.  John was a sensitive and intelligent man, and it seemed
sad that he should suffer as he was.  My children had all left home, I was alone in a large Victorian house with far more
rooms than I had need for , and precious little time for housework, so I offered him the ground floor flat for a nominal
rent and wondered if he would be kind enough to do a little housework.  At first he felt I was being too generous,
and protested, but I told him I found his company very enjoyable and that I had a whim or two which, if he really wanted to
do more for his keep, he might consider.  How quickly he agreed: 'Oh anything!' he exclaimed, 'anything at all. It's only
fair'.  Later he had reason to rue those words.
 
After he had moved out of his flat and was comfortably installed 'below stairs' I started to work out my plan for him.  I
did not want any man to pose a threat to the independence I had enjoyed since my husband had left me.  First I got
John to wear a pinafore and brushed aside his protests as nonsense, explaining that I could subsidise his lodgings, but
not his clothing bill, should there be any chance of his work causing extra wear on his trousers and shirt. He agreed, and,
after a bit more of a chat, saw the sense of  the pinny.
 
About two months later he was running the house singlehandedly and I had never seen it look so clean, nor been so
eagerly greeted when I came home from work.  I commented on this and he smiled happily but shyly, and admitted he
felt it was a 'proper job' and that life had meaning for him again. It was the moment I was waiting for.

'Well', I answered him, 'it is a proper job, hard work in fact, being a maid and you should feel proud'.  He blushed
deeply and said thank you, and taking my cue from his mixture of pride and docility I continued: 'Really I have been too
remiss in only giving you a pinny, I shall have to get you a proper dress and all the rest'.  He didn't seem to hear me right
away as he nodded, but then suddenly went pale and became more embarrassed.  'No, you mustn't buy me any clothes I
have enough trousers and things now, and I don't have to go out...'

I agreed that he had, but that I felt that he wouldn't need them now that he had found his vocation, in fact, I asserted, they were inappropriate.  'And so now you can rest assured that you need never be in danger of being in some awful lodging house or bedsit, and that you have a job for life'. Both the threat and the promise were implicit, and he quietly thanked me and asked what I meant when I had said he would have no need for his clothes any more. And so I outlined his life ahead as I saw it, and although I would
not have sent him packing had he not agreed, he had no way of knowing that.
 
John is small for a man, and so I did not worry about creating a caricature of a woman, but more as subordinating the
male behaviour that he'd been taught to what I discerned was a latent femininity in him. Over the next few days I talked to
him, each time flattering him on his work, making it plain that I appreciated him but, as I put it, did so despite his being
a man.  And so by the weekend I had got him used to me talking about the dresses and other items I would get for him
at the end of the month. He even agreed to wearing the nightdress I gave to him when I said I was concerned for his
warmth and comfort as well as modesty, for until then he had worn only his underpants in bed.  And so the day came
when I took him out with me to Alexandre's ...I will continue in a later letter if readers are interested.
Yours petticoated,

Janet S.

I am quite sure that readers would be interested in another letter, Janet, as this one was very tantalising. I did like your point when you introduced your hubby to the nightie that you were concerned for his 'warmth and comfort, as well as his modesty'. What a good point, and one that really brought home to him your concern, as well as the benefits of any male being dressed in a long, soft, cuddly winter nightie for bed: its delicious warmth, its comforting softness, and its enveloping modesty, which is good for a man anyway.

Please write again. My readers are anxious to hear more about your disciplining and domestic training of your little housemaid 'Pamela'.
Susan