I read with interest Jaycee’s story When Girls Fight. When I was 10 ,my father and the next-door neighbour’s husband both ran off with two ‘cute young things’, meaning my mother had to support both of us and the neighbour, a Miss Johnson, a nurse (who had re-assumed her maiden name), had to support herself and her daughter Lisa. A monthly sum for maintenance was usually granted to custodial parents at that time, but it was a pittance.
My mother got a decent job, but it required her to travel round the country doing presentations. When she would be away for a night or more, she sent me to stay with Miss Johnson and her daughter. Lisa and I had played together as children, and our mothers had explicitly granted each other spanking privileges over us. By the time of this incident, Lisa was then 17 while I was 13. Another girl, Tara – a friend of Lisa from school – was staying with Lisa and her mother that week as well. Tara was also 17 and at the same mixed-gender comprehensive school as Lisa and me.