An Existential Question

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

If I wear diapers to bed, and they do not leak; if I wear rubber panties over them and they work right, can it honestly be said that I "wet the bed" or am a "bedwetter" if I wet in my sleep or we while I am in bed if not one drop or droplet gets on the bedding?

[Squishypants]

Do you want to be called a bed wetter? Or would you wet the bed if it wasn’t for the diaper?


Squishypants Out!!!!

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

That would be obvious. If I did not wear a diaper, then the bed would be soaked, right? and we would not be having this discussion

[dyperbole]

Probably not, technically.  Terms like enuresis and incontinent are better for one who cannot control their bladder but do not end up wetting their bed due to protection.

One is not called a pants-wetter if they are incontinent but do not wet their pants due to protection, so it should follow that one is not a bed-wetter if they are incontinent but do not wet the bed due to protection.   

[Bettypooh]

A good question  

I think the term still applies as a common descriptive, even though it would be technically inaccurate. A person is still a driver even when they are not behind the steering wheel of a car, and a pilot even when not flying, so you could be a bedwetter even if the bed doesn't get wet any more. 

Bettypooh

[rusty pins]

I thought of this a lot over the years from the facetious standpoint.  If you wear diapers to bed, wet in your sleep but your diapers hold it all and don't leak, then you are not a bed wetter, you are a sleep wetter.  The difference is you wet while sleeping but you don't actually wet your bed.  You may wet while in your bed, but not your actual bed.  Same as someone who wets their pants.  If they wear regular underpants and wet regularly, then they could be called a pants wetter.  If they wear diapers that do not leak and they wet themselves regularly, they are not technically pants wetters since they never get their pants wet.  They wet themselves, but not their pants.  Instead of being called bed wetters or pants wetters, the proper terminology should be diaper wetters or disposable brief wetters.  Take it a step further.  You are with a friend and you keep smelling a terrible odor.  You turn to him and say, "Did you shit your pants?"  If he was not wearing a diaper and shit himself, then he could say, "Yes, I shit my pants."  Now, if he was wearing a diaper he could say, "I shit in my pants (or while in my pants) but since I'm actually wearing a diaper, I shit my diaper, not my actual pants."

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

 

[dondd]

Semantics, shemantics...

Bed wetter = one who passes urine while in bed/sleeping.  What they are wearing at the time is irrelevant. Otherwise we would be discussing pajama wetters, boxer wetters, brief wetters, diaper wetters, etc.  In those cases the bed being wet is secondary to the undergarments and only one who sleeps naked would be a true bed wetter.  

The same logic applies to pants wetters as well.

The terms are general in nature and not truly specific to the dress/location of the person but more indicative of night wetting (bed wetter) and day wetting (pants wetter) and usually apply to the uncontrolled loss of urine.  Exceptions exist, of course.  For instance if you work third shift and sleep when the sun is out you could be a bed wetter with out being a night wetter.

[vvp39]

I've also seen the term "shit the bed" used idiomatically to indicate failure or breakdown, as in "My truck shit the bed last night, and I had to get it towed".

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

That goes back over 40 years

[dyperbole]

Every action has its equal, opposite reaction
John Adams shat the bed, I love the guy, but he’s in traction
Poor Alexander Hamilton, he is missing in action
So now I’m facing Aaron Burr with his own faction

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

I'll just play a Stones' song; and get some satisfactions

[rusty pins]

I stand by my answer.  Bedwetter is the common and most accepted term we have come to use for anyone who urinates while sleeping in a bed regardless what they are wearing.  It is semantics to argue that term we have all become used to using, but technically, if you are laying in bed and you urinate but the bed does not get wet because you are wearing a diaper, you did not wet the bed.  You wet your diaper while lying in the bed.  If that happened while you were sleeping in your bed, people may say that you wet the bed or you are a bedwetter.  Maybe you could be called a bedwetter technically because you wet whenever you are sleeping in your bed, so the meaning has changed.  Not being good at labeling grammar, bed would be the noun and wetting would be a verb.  I think that is correct.  If you are a bedwetter, maybe that could be a pronoun to describe the person.  Is Plumber a pronoun, noun or verb?  Anyway, in one view if you are a bedwetter, it means that you actually wet your bed, therefore if you are wearing diapers when you are in bed and you wet but the bed stays dry, then technically you did not wet your bed, so you are not a bedwetter.  However, for those who don't agree, there can be another definition to that term.  Take Pavlov and his dog.  Pavlov trained his dog to recognize the sound of a bell with eating food, therefore whenever he rang a bell, the dog would salivate (drool) thinking he was going to get fed.  If a person urinates whenever he is in bed weather the bed gets wet or not, he could be referred to as a bed-wetter.  Not that the bed ever gets wet due to his wearing of diapers, the term bedwetter now takes on a different meaning.  It now means that whenever the person is in bed, he wets, therefore the association is not with the bed actually getting wet, the association is now that the bed is somehow connected to the reason the person wets.  Whenever he's asleep in bed he wets, therefore he is a bed-wetter not a bedwetter.  Lets take it one step further and then I'm done.  When a person sleeps in his bed and urinates weather he is wearing a diaper or not, he is referred to as a bedwetter.  If he were in bed but not asleep, just reading a book or watching his TV, would he still wet in his bed or would he get up to go to the bathroom?  I'm not talking the AB's or DL's who wear diapers for fun, roll play or whatever.  I'm talking about a person who is normally continent but urinates when he's sleeping.  In that case, it's not the bed that is causing him to wet, otherwise he would wet in his bed weather he was sleeping or awake just reading a book or watching a movie on TV.  Normally he does not wet his pants or wear diapers when he's awake, he just has this problem when he's sleeping, therefore he is labeled a bedwetter because he wets while in his bed.  When he wears diapers he wets in his diapers but he does so while sleeping in his bed, therefore he is still called a bedwetter for 2 reasons.  If he didn't wear diapers his bed would get wet, therefore he's a bed wetter.  When he does wear diapers, he is a bed-wetter because when he wet's, he's in his bed.  What about when he falls asleep in the Lazy Boy in the living room?  He wets and aside from the chair getting soaked and all the people who might be over for a visit embarrassing him about it when he wakes up, is he still a bed-wetter?  Well, yes because he will still wet himself while asleep in his bed, but since he never wets himself while awake, only when he's asleep (weather in bed, a chair in the living room or napping in the car on a road trip), I think the proper technical term to use based on his situation would be Sleep Wetter since he wets and always wets only in his sleep and not when he's awake, and will sleep wet whenever he falls asleep wherever he is, not just when sleeping in his bed.  

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

On 8/31/2018 at 5:40 AM, Wet Knight said:

 

In that case, don't you worry you pretty little head about it ,dear.

You're a BEDWETTER !    Period

I do not wet in my sleep or I would be a sleepwetter. although I have had very occasional leaks, so that might make me a bedwetter. And given the color of much of what I wear, I guess I fit the comic interpretations of some of the Right as a "pinko bedwetter"