24/7 startups, and unexpected pitfalls?

[Stroller]

1 hour ago, Little Sherri said:

And I felt exactly what you described when, a few years ago, I discovered that Rearz had a (now closed) storefront about 45 minutes from where I lived. It took me weeks to summon the courage to walk in there, and when I approached the counter, holding a package of Bambino's and a couple of pacifiers, I could barely speak. 

Well that brought back some memories.  The sheer terror when buying things over the counter.  Brrrr!  All gone now though - I just do it and don't give it another thought.

[sparklezBear]

13 hours ago, Stroller said:

Well that brought back some memories.  The sheer terror when buying things over the counter.  Brrrr!  All gone now though - I just do it and don't give it another thought.

This is something I would like to test following my transition to 24/7, however none of the stores around sell any nappies I wear. Even if they did, it would probably be emergency only as chemists are so much more expensive than online stores usually. ABDL stores don't count for there's no hiding the fact that I prefer to wear nappies, and I've never had issues buying from them.

[Little Sherri]

I conducted an experiment yesterday that, in the end, was somewhat pointless... I decided to wear one of my medium-sized Lil' Splash diapers with a booster in it. Basically, what I got out of the deal was a "medium-weight" daytime diaper that converted itself into a very bulky, "heavy-weight" diaper throughout the course of the day. I definitely got extended range out of it - I was in it from 10 PM until about 5 PM - BUT, by the time I decided to change it, my walk had a distinct "waddle" to it, because of the 8 inches or so of inflated diaper between my thighs. To its credit, the tapes held firm, and it didn't sag too badly, but, it did let me down in the way all medium-sized diapers have (except the Megamax, which is slightly bigger than most). What I am referring to is wicking or leakage at the top, at the front - my medium diapers, once they have some weight in them, pull down low enough, and tend to fold forward, so that my shirt or onesie ends up in contact with the interior, which slowly and insidiously dampens first the bottom of my shirt, and then the beltline of my jeans. The large size of most of them sits high enough at the front to be constrained by my onesie and the waist of my pants, thus tending to stay firmly compressed, roughly at my navel. 

I have resolved never to buy diapers in medium again, except for the Megamax, because I have established in any case that I can wear the large comfortably under my clothes during the day - the slight "bulk advantage" that the medium offers is more than offset by the inevitability of needing to change my outfit at some point. 

On a separate note, I have been cogitating for a couple of days on a question asked elsewhere on this site - who, if anyone, "knows" about the AB &/or DL side of you? The immediate answer for me was "nobody except my wife and a bunch of patient and well-meaning strangers [you]."

However, that's not quite true. I have regaled readers here before about the time when my step-father found my stash of homemade diapers, when I was about 13, and waved one of them about while yelling at me, in front of my whole family. Now, that was 30 years ago. And, I have no idea what my brother, my sister, my mom, or my step-dad made of that monumentally humiliating situation at the time, so I don't know if they "know", or "knew", or not. 

Scenario 1 is, some or all of them immediately understood that I was a kid with a weird diaper obsession, a burgeoning fetishist who didn't yet know that a well-populated category already existed for him. However, I don't think that my siblings, or possibly my parents, knew, or know, that "this" is a thing. 

Scenario 2: they knew that I had been wearing diapers to bed, and sometimes in the car, up to only a few years prior to that, so, perhaps they thought that I was wetting the bed again, and THAT was why I had concocted diapers for myself out of linens and plastic bags, and that was why my step-father was enraged. 

The latter scenario is the one I prefer to imagine. 

[oznl]

On 4/2/2021 at 1:43 AM, Little Sherri said:

Scenario 1 is, some or all of them immediately understood that I was a kid with a weird diaper obsession, a burgeoning fetishist who didn't yet know that a well-populated category already existed for him. However, I don't think that my siblings, or possibly my parents, knew, or know, that "this" is a thing. 

Scenario 2: they knew that I had been wearing diapers to bed, and sometimes in the car, up to only a few years prior to that, so, perhaps they thought that I was wetting the bed again, and THAT was why I had concocted diapers for myself out of linens and plastic bags, and that was why my step-father was enraged. 

The latter scenario is the one I prefer to imagine. 

Occam's razor says "Scenario 2"...

[Little Sherri]

I'm composing a little ode today to the Northshore Megamax. I've been contemplating adding them in as permanent members of my lineup for a while, so, in the interest of science, I decided to spend this past weekend in them, exclusively, day and night. It was a busy long weekend - I assisted with a basement renovation at a buddy's place that ate up about 16 hours on Saturday, I did some yard work, and we had friends staying at the house. Beer and wine flowed. I needed a diaper that would reliable, robust, and, discrete. 

Well, the Megamax (in medium), was up to the task. I reflected last night as I got ready for bed that it felt like I had spent the weekend with a good friend. My diaper was always there, in the background, totally reliable, never demanding attention, but, comfortingly present, as well. They never leaked, and, like a good set of performance tires, they telegraphed that they were reaching their limits long before there was any real danger. I had no spots on my trousers. I carried no vague olfactory signature, other than maybe baby powder. I worked hard, climbing ladders and stairs and crisscrossing my lawn, with no chaffing, and no concerns about the immanent disintegration of my underwear. No tabs slipped or stretched. 

I spent much of the time in the company of other people, and I never wondered if my diaper was detectable, a consideration which can have a notable effect on my social demeaner. One of my concerns when I started on this 24/7 path two years ago was that I wouldn't be able to relax and just "be myself", socially, because, at first, I was very self-conscious about being in a diaper around other people, even a slim one. Some credit for this also goes to my t-shirt style onesies, which keep everything bundled together, resistant to the pull of gravity, and, which protect against "toddler's crack", which is the diapered version of "plumbers crack". 

All told, my third Easter weekend as a 24/7 diapernaut went well. 

 

[oznl]

14 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

I'm composing a little ode today to the Northshore Megamax.

Not sure I'm up to an ode.  Maybe more of a Haiku:

Megamax legend

We yearn your warm embrace, but

Not found down-under.

I'd like to try them but even if they DID make their way here, I'm not sure that they'd financially stack-up.  Recreational nappies seem to attract recreational prices here.

 

[Little Sherri]

10 hours ago, oznl said:

I'd like to try them but even if they DID make their way here, I'm not sure that they'd financially stack-up.  Recreational nappies seem to attract recreational prices here.

I like your Haiku. 

They used to be hard to get here, and, as you note, only available at "recreational prices", but a local home healthcare supply store that carries a lot of incontinence-related products listed them a few months ago, and, mercifully, they treat them just like any other product. They haven't imposed a "we know you really want them" tax, so far, which makes them competitive with nappies that have similar attributes. Rearz is still the DL value champ around here - when they have their warehouse sale, their pricing generally causes me to risk the ire of my beloved, and buy at least a couple of cases. Now that I've sewn my wild oats and tried nearly everything I could easily get my hands on, I've determined that I don't require continual access to 18 different models. So, I'll probably order a "bring the truck" amount the next time they have such a sale. If I can get Lil' Monsters and/or Lil' Splash for $2 CAD a diaper, I'm going to want to stock up. Those plus a couple of cases of Megamax, and I'm ready for the end times. Although a towering stack of diaper cases offers my wife both mute, and immutable testimony to my intentions, wardrobe-wise. 

[Little Sherri]

Well, I unexpectedly have some data to add to the age-old debate about how age relates to diaper size; I have heard people say, and have wished myself, that Pampers or Cuties or someone would offer a size 8, however in my opinion, it isn't very likely, because, realistically, their size 7's fit kids that are well into the age where most of them would prefer to wear pull-ups, so the manufacturers would essentially be competing with their own, more expensive and presumably more profitable products. The customers - the parents - might prefer diapers for cost and capability reasons, but the users - the kids - generally have opinions and input into what they wear by they time they are past preschool age. 

My further "data" came by way of friends of ours, who are staying at our house this week, running out of pull-ups for their 7-year-old daughter. The mom asked me if we had a pull-up she could use, and we did have some - however, they were Goodnites in L/XL, way, way too large for their petite 2nd grader. But, I did have some Cuties and Pampers Baby-Dry's in size 6, so I offered her one of the Baby-Dry's, because they stretch a bit more than the Cuties do. I gave the wings a good stretch, and handed her the diaper. Long story short, they fit their daughter fine, and were able to keep up with her activity level, as she jumped on and off the couches and chased the dogs around the living room, without dislodging the tabs. A size 7 might have been a better fit, but even the 6's, rated for 35 lbs, fit her ~45-lb frame without being overstressed. 

Thankfully nobody asked why I have size 6 diapers readily available... the answer to which is, from experimentation with using stuffers, a concept that would be difficult to explain to the uninitiated...

[Little Sherri]

Well, I have my office to myself again for the first time in about two weeks, and I'm enjoying the feeling of being in a diaper. I am pretty much always in a diaper, mind you, other than when I'm in the shower, and even then, I try to minimize the gap - generally the last thing I do before I step into the shower is take off a diaper, and the first thing I do after I towel off is put one back on - I typically leave my towel and a diaper on the countertop, because running water can have an effect on me - it's unpredictable, but, sometimes, while standing in front of the sink with the water running while I shave or brush my teeth, I'll get a sudden trickle that didn't, or only barely, announced itself. 

But back to the topic at hand - today for the first time in a couple of weeks, I am not wearing a pair of jeans over my juvenile undies, because there's nobody home this morning except my wife, so, I am wearing a light pair of Adidas athletic pants (I'm sure they'll appreciate the mention). Certain articles of clothing make me more conscious (or self-conscious, depending on the circumstances) about being in a nappy than others. Under a onesie and jeans, or a pair of khakis, I can pretty much forget it, whereas wearing shorts or track pants in a lighter material means that the primary feedback one gets from below is the snugness and bulk of the diaper. Pajama pants also give me that feeling, and I think that I enjoy it because it harkens back to my childhood, wherein I was most often wearing pajamas over a diaper, and second to that, probably shorts, because other than maybe a road trip or two around Christmas, the only time I ever really wore diapers out of the house was in the summer, when we were embarking on a 4, or 8, or 20 hour drive somewhere, in an un-airconditioned 80's heap of American iron generally. So, shorts were called for, but, I always had reservations about following my family into a gas station or restaurant thusly clad, because I felt like a spotlight was coming down from the ceiling and illuminating my derrière.

Similarly, when we stopped somewhere, and my parents would tell us to "go play" while they pulled out the cooler or queued up to order lunch, my brother and sister would scamper excitedly off to the playground, or a strip of grass, or wherever road-weary kids were being sent to burn of some of the energy they'd stored up while being forced to sit still for a few hours between fuel stops. Whereas I would amble over somewhat reluctantly, and often sit at the perimeter, uncertain if my plastic underpants were going to give themselves away at some point, as had happened from time to time, usually when I forgot about them and climbed or dangled too enthusiastically, allowing my shirt to come up and reveal the telltale white plastic waistband. It was never the noise or the bulk that got noticed, generally. 

So, now, four decades later, I put myself into that situation again, in a controlled fashion (no risk of public humiliation), in an attempt, I assume, to work through the dissonant feelings that I couldn't really name back then - shame, but also excitement, anxiety, sometimes outright fear, but also, a feeling deep down inside that, for some reason that was, undoubtedly, abhorrent, weird and unspeakable, I "liked" being in a diaper, even if it came packaged with the potential for humiliation. 

[oznl]

It may be a function of growing up in a warmer climate but for some ineffable reason, I quite like just wearing a nappy, plastic pants and a t-shirt.

This is a challenging sartorial choice and it’s therefore rare that I make it although I’ve slept most of summer thusly attired.

With the bitter chills of what passes for autumn here now upon us (mercury fell below 20C the other night), pyjamas are again a thing.

I've yet to read a convincing (or even in any way truly resonating) explanation as to the origin of these fixations.

 

[Little Sherri]

I saw something interesting, at least for me, at the local superstore - Pampers Baby-Dry size 7. Up to now I've only seen Cruisers in size 7. The packaging says "for active babies"... active 41 lb+ babies, apparently. The package held 72, which is more than I can likely ever get through, but if I find them in a smaller quantity, I'll probably buy them, just to have a look, and keep them in inventory for the rare occasion when they might come in handy. Although I've had Baby-Dry's in size 6 for ages, and I can't imagine that these are THAT much different. But that's like asking a comic collector why they need the same edition with two covers. Because they exist - that's why. And the Baby-Dry 6's did come unexpectedly in handy last week when my buddy's daughter was here late and wanted to go to sleep. 

Similarly, I'll probably buy the Goodnites new larger XL size, if I come across them, just because I used to squeeze into Goodnites L/XL size once in a while before I figured out how to get "real" diapers. Although they'd be of no use to me now - they're only good for a couple of hours I'd imagine. And they'd be too big for my younger daughter - even the current L/XL size is big on her. My older daughter gave up on diapers when she was about 2 and never looked back.

In other news, I had another slightly-disconcerting confirmation that my control isn't what it used to be. There's a long preamble to this that I won't bore anyone with, but basically I found myself on my driveway having a socially-distanced beer with a friend who was borrowing a tool, and I was, at the time, in a terminally-wet Rearz Lil' Monster. It was about 9 PM and my plan had been to go inside and have a shower and put on whatever I was going to wear overnight (ended up being a Rearz Essential). So, I'm chatting with my buddy, and I feel the urge to go, and as usual, without thinking much about it, I waved to the guard booth and a transfer commenced. However, I then realized that the diaper I was in had about 9 hours on it and was seriously weighty already. Although I was standing on my own driveway, soaking through my pants would not have been the preferred look, so, I decided to rescind the authorization I had given - if I could hold it for a few minutes, I could return to safety and all would be well. 

My desire for a change of plans went entirely unacknowledged by the Department of Fluid Management. If anything, trying to cinch up actually caused the release to speed up. I just had to let it play out, while shifting slightly into the shadows on a pretense of needing to kick some of the landscaping stones back into place. The transfer ended, my friend left, and I headed inside. My jeans survived the moment, but, when I unfasted my diaper, I had drops running down my legs - it had been very close. If I'd sat down, I'd have squeezed out a few ounces, for sure. 

I'm curious as to what, if any, look crossed my face, when I decided to pull in the reigns, and got "no" for an answer. 

[oznl]

41lb babies?  I’d call them “pre-schoolers”.  What is this?  Anthropometric enlargement due to better nutrition?  Over-feeding?  Or is this just commercially-savvy diaper vendors making it as convenient as possible for parents to defer their child's abandonment of diapers thus expanding the addressable market?

Assuming the latter, where will this end?  Soon those “babies” will be driving themselves down to the mall to buy diapers for themselves.

Actually, I guess we are already doing that.  At least we had a few years’ time-out in-between though and can slate it back to some kind of parenting defect rather than slick marketing.

I’ve been paying scant attention to “fluid management” lately.  What happens, happens and as I’m now home all the time, leaks are easy to manage although I will make some kind of range assessment before social engagements.  I haven't felt "the urge" for quite some time.  It's unclear if this is because something has changed or I'm automatically not giving the opportunity for "the urge" to arise.

[Stroller]

17 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

My desire for a change of plans went entirely unacknowledged by the Department of Fluid Management. If anything, trying to cinch up actually caused the release to speed up.

I haven't made any attempt to stop anything in the past 2 1/2 years.  Judging from your experience & oznl's, there wouldn't be much point in trying to now.  It's funny - I feel like I've still got the capability to stop the flow starting, or to stop it in mid-flow, but I probably haven't.  Just hope I never find out...

[Little Sherri]

Well, I've violated my self-imposed moratorium on buying diapers until I've burned through more of my stash. My supplier of choice for Northshore sent me a coupon for free shipping, and that was all it took. I crumbled. They're a great diaper, the price isn't too bad, and with free shipping... I had whittled the basement stash down to four cases, and now it's going back up to five, apparently. At least I'm still reducing the number of individual models I have in inventory.

I also have to once again press 'pause' on trying to burn (well, flood..) through my oversized overnight diapers, because due to surging pandemic numbers and an underwhelming vaccination rollout, they've elected to close the schools again, which means that my ability to wear, say, a Rearz Barnyard or Alpaca to bed, and then, to operate in the same diaper for a good portion of the following day, has been curtailed. I can only get away with wearing those bigger diapers when the house is empty, save for my long-suffering spouse. Once they reach 50% of capacity, the swelling is hard to conceal, and at 80%, they're visible from space, and they produce a "straddling a dead racoon" waddle. 

9 hours ago, oznl said:

Or is this just commercially-savvy diaper vendors making it as convenient as possible for parents to defer their child's abandonment of diapers thus expanding the addressable market?

This, I believe, is entirely it. As they've introduced larger sizes in both diapers and pull-ups, and made them easily attainable and readily available on the shelves of supermarkets and superstores, the sales of these larger options have exploded, totally eclipsing the market that specialty diaper manufacturers were serving through home healthcare stores and such. Yet the "medical" youth diaper market has barely contracted in the face of the flood (sorry...) of additional retail options in larger sizes, which suggests that, for the most part, customers with profound incontinence continue, wisely, or through bitter experience, to rely on specialized products, while most of the "new" customers to these sizes would, in the past, simply have foregone using anything, and would either have slept on rubber sheets, under damp comforters, or, would have been browbeaten into nocturnal continence. 

I'm sure the obesity epidemic in the US is fueling a bit of this sizing arms race, but an 18-month-old who weighs in at over 41 lbs is at the far, far end of the bell curve and can't be the primary impetus for these things being stocked from coast to coast. The product weight ratings become less of a reliable bellwether for age appropriateness as kids grow - they tend to expand much more in height than they do in waist size over the first 10 years of life. I consulted an age/waist chart on the back of a packet of girls' briefs that we have in stock, which suggests that an 8-year-old would be expected to weigh 50 - 60 lbs and to have a waist size of 23 inches, whereas a 4-year-old would weigh an average of 32 to 40 lbs, and have a waist size of 21 inches. A size 7 diaper rated to 41+ lbs, or an equivalent pull-up, would easily fit either of them. 

As an aside, this made me curious about Pampers introducing a size 7 in their Baby-Dry line - previously this size had been available only in Cruisers. Presumably a portion of the people wearing them are going to be old enough to note, and perhaps, not appreciate, that the box in their closet says "Baby-Dry". Whereas "Cruiser" is maybe a bit less of a direct accusation. I speak on this from experience, because when I was a kid wearing diapers to bed (in the pre-pull-up era), the box on the floor in my closet had an image on it of a reclining infant sucking its thumb, even though the product it contained was being stretched over the squirming form of a 7-year-old, sometimes with the help of Scotch tape. 

[Little Sherri]

In my ongoing campaign to simplify my diaper inventory, I am wearing one of my medium-sized Rearz Elites today. They're a very comfortable diaper, and in medium, conceal pretty well for daytime wear, but, their subtlety declines as they swell up... and a Rearz Elite can hold a LOT. They also suffer from the same issue that all my medium diapers do, save for the Megamax's, which are a bit larger: the front of them dips low enough once they start to gain a bit of weight, that incidental material contact, or outright "over the bow" wake generation can lead to unexpected loss-of-outfit incidents, even when the diaper still have lots of useful life left in it. I have resolved to stop buying medium diapers (Megamax excepted), and, the large size of the Elite, while an Olympian of a diaper, is only of use to me under circumstances where I have 18 hours that I can spend very obviously in a diaper... IE, not that common an event right now. Maybe once the kids can go back to overnight summer camps and such. 

In other "news", I spent some time in a Depends last night. I was in a Rearz Essential that was at the end of its life, and I had some dusty outdoor work to do, so I knew that I would want to shower afterwards. I don't put the same diaper I was in back on after a shower, so I didn't want to sacrifice a good diaper to a ~2 hour assignment. I would have stayed in that Essential, except that I had a neighbour helping me, and I was worried that my by-then very saggy diaper would either reveal itself, or, would leak. But then it occurred to me... a 2 hour assignment? This sounds like a job for Depends! And, indeed, they did the job - their capacity was just about reached (I'd have tucked a toddler diaper into it if the timeline had been any longer), and, when I pulled the tabs off, they of course shredded the cover, ensuring that the diaper would never be put back on. I assume they integrate this "feature" because, for the most part, they tend to be put on people with only a few hours to live. 

However, in the midst of deciding what to do after the Essential, I lost track of the fact that I had pulled out the Elite, and then, had slung it over a towel rack, before digging up the Depends...  So, when I came in to get showered and ready for bed, my wife said "I like how you decorated the bathroom..." somewhat sarcastically. At first I had a thought - did I leave that used-up Essential sitting on the floor or something? Thankfully not. But, I had left the Elite slung over a towel rack. A heated towel rack. There is nothing more decadent than putting on a preheated diaper after a shower. 

[Little Sherri]

The pandemic numbers have once again taken on a skyward trajectory, and our vaccination rate, meanwhile, has a slope like a wheelchair ramp at a nursing home, so, the kids are now taking school from home for the next few weeks at least, thus rendering my most capacious products essentially useless; I can't walk around in giant diapers during the day, and I don't produce enough overnight to justify wearing them to bed. Truly big diapers used to work well for me when put on at 10 PM or so, and discarded at noon or 2 PM the next day, so that the only person who had to put up with seeing me waddling around was my wife. However the kids would definitely pause and squint if I tried to wear a 50%-used Alpaca or Barnyard under anything other than maybe a bath robe. And the robe itself would also produce the same disturbed squinting. 

I spent another weekend wearing primarily Northshores's Megamax, confirming again that they are truly a premium product. It was another high-activity weekend, lots of yard work, plus some outdoor social interaction, and I never had to worry about my diaper either failing me, or giving itself away. Although they do swell up impressively with use, they have one of the larger dry-to-wet expansion ratios, I'm guessing due to containing more polymer, so, at the start of the day, they are actually reasonably slim for a heavy-duty diaper.

They are also pretty quiet; one of my gauges for a diaper's decibel output is walking along the side of my house late at night, when there is almost no background noise worth noting. I was wearing a Rearz Essential late last week, under athletic pants, and I could very clearly hear the "crunch crunch crunch" of my diaper. Whereas doing the same thing in a Megamax produces a more muted sound. Under jeans, they go pretty much silent, whereas I was reminded that the Essential, while fairly quiet, does occasionally speak up; I was wearing one under jeans in my living room, and the TV was off - my daughter and her friend were actually, physically playing with Lego, rather than doing it digitally - and I was tossing a ball for the dog. He was dropping it at my feet, requiring me to bend over to get it, and I could hear... something. I knew what it was, because I knew what it was, but nobody else, I believe, would really have given it a thought. Still, absent much background noise, it was notable, at least to me. 

In other news, my wife swatted me on the derrière again this weekend, in response to some smartass quip I came up with, and said "Shut up, diaper boy!" It was a solid smack, right on the diaper, and I have to confess it turned me on a little - not the spanking part (that's never been a thing for me), but, her actually physically interacting with my diaper, because, 99% of the time, she basically ignores them, and, she's only very rarely made contact with them, even accidentally. 

[Little Sherri]

There's been an interesting further development on the spousal front; in reality, it's probably only interesting to me, because I can read something into anything on this topic, but, here goes: beloved found a half-used roll of floral-patterned Duck Tape in a bag with a bunch of other tape, and without comment, she pulled it out and handed it to me. I said something like "Oh, nice, thanks", and took it upstairs to put in my "diaper repair kit" in a drawer in my bathroom. I've had a roll of clear packing tape, a role of white duct tape, and a pair of scissors in a bag in one of my drawers pretty much since I started wearing diapers. I used to also have a small stapler in there, back when I sometimes wore Goodnites pull-ups, because, not having been engineered for my bulging middle-aged frame, they tended to start to fray at the corners where the elastic side panels meet the main body of the diaper. However, I quickly realized that, while cute, I don't have the budget to be swapping a Goodnite every two hours or so. 

But back to the kit - when I used to wear drugstore diapers like Depends with greater frequency, I needed packing tape to create a "landing zone" on their front panel, so that the tapes could be repositioned. Also, it was not uncommon for a tape to tear off, or detach itself, from the body of the diaper, hence the white duct tape, which has a little more "grab" than clear packing tape does. My wife knows that I run a secret diaper repair shop in the bathroom, because on a couple of occasions, she's offered to help me secure a run-away diaper, when she saw me trying to hold it closed on one side, while executing the tearing off of a piece of statically-charged tape with the other hand. Once, she laughed, said I was making things way too hard on myself (perhaps she meant in general...), and then she seized the tape and unceremoniously ran a strip of it from one hip to the other, thus imprisoning me in the diaper - I had been trying to recreate a tab, complete with the "finger grab" section at the forward edge, so that I could open the diaper if necessary, without eviscerating it. 

So, her handing me the pretty tape, off-handed and without comment, seems like some sort of tacit endorsement or acknowledgement - there were several other rolls of packing tape and grey duct tape in that bag, so it wasn't a case of "put this away, oh keeper of the hardware". Maybe I'm reading too much into this.

On another topic, I had a moment today where I could have made a tactical error with potential for long-term consequences. I was in a meeting, wearing a nice golf shirt up top, over a Rearz Lil' Splash below - I'm over in my office and I felt like being in just a diaper. Life is short - how many times will I have the opportunity to wear just a diaper? Anyway, I was in the midst of a meeting, cameras on, and all of a sudden I heard the door to the garage open (my office is above the garage), and I wasn't sure who it was. If it was my wife, I might have got an eye-roll out of it, but, if it had been one of my kids, I might need to now budget for therapy to try and dull the sharpness of their mental image of their dad, conducting business while wearing a pink and blue nappy. I needed to stand up and pull on some pants, STAT, but, there was the small issue of being on-camera. Luckily, fate intervened, and someone took control of the screen to show a slide, so I used that as an opportunity to shut my camera off and quickly pull some pants on. The intruder in the garage never came upstairs in any case. 

Thinking about that situation has me composing a story in my head about myself as a kid, attending school from home, as never happened in real life, still dressed in my pajamas, which, for me, as often as not, meant a long t-shirt and a diaper, and then forgetting what I was wearing and getting up to retrieve a notebook or something, and realizing that I've just stood up in front of the whole class, with only a diaper on below the waist. While that scenario is pure fiction, the number of sternly-worded emails we're received from the kids' schools about the requirement that students not attend classes wearing "nightwear" suggests that there have been "incidents". And adults are not immune to these types of gaffes - we had a federal MP leave a meeting last week and start changing into running clothes, camera still on. What he did was accidental, but, someone took a screen shot and, of course, distributed it, which was entirely deliberate, and probably more career-endangering to them than to the poor bugger who, essentially strode stark naked through a Parliamentary budget meeting. 

[oznl]

12 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

we had a federal MP leave a meeting last week and start changing into running clothes, camera still on. What he did was accidental, but, someone took a screen shot and, of course, distributed it, which was entirely deliberate, and probably more career-endangering to them than to the poor bugger who, essentially strode stark naked through a Parliamentary budget meeting. 

That actually made the news in Australia!  If it had of been an Australian politician, a hyper-partisan political bun fight would have ensured replete with offense, outrage, accusations of misogynist misconduct, contributions to global warming, demands for resignation, blah, blah, blah...

Stripped of this dimension, the general reaction appears to have been dialed down to "OMG!  There but for the grace of god go us..." along with some degree of sniggering sympathy.  It's nice to see we can still be human when dealing with politicians, just as long as they aren't OUR politicians.

It can't happen to me now because I'm not working but even when I was, it wasn't really a risk.  The lay-out of my study is such that even when standing, my belt line was below the camera and as my desk was against a wall, I couldn't move far enough back to bring the nappy-zone into the field of view.

There would have been quite a few zoom calls in the warmer months with me in nothing but terries and plastic pants south of the Mason-Dixon line...

[Little Sherri]

I read an article recently about a woman's court battle with a physician and a medical device company over a botched procedure that rendered her urinary incontinent, and I felt badly for her. She described her situation as "deeply humiliating", and said that she had to wear diapers that were very uncomfortable, and that prevented her from being able to leave the house, describing the situation as having ruined her life.

Now, don't get me wrong - were I rendered incontinent via someone's error or incompetence, I would undoubtedly be deeply vexed, and in a litigious mood. But, at the same time, I had a thought: we, collectively, could help this woman. Personally, I've been wearing diapers, 24/7, for two years now, and while it hasn't all been a walk in the park, I am, in retrospect, somewhat amazed (and delighted) to have discovered (with a lot of help & advice from people here) that I am able to wear diapers all the time, under all circumstances. So far, there hasn't been any situation I've elected to avoid - I've travelled trans-continentally, I've engaged in all manner of physical activities, I've been in every description of social situation, while wearing a big plastic diaper. 

Again, I want to state that I am not comparing my situation with that of someone who has been thrust, through no fault of their own, into living a completely different lifestyle. I am not currently "into" wheelchairs, for example, and if, say, my treadmill malfunctioned, and put me into one, I might, eventually, go looking for a community of people with similar challenges, and might, in that quest, meet people who were in wheelchairs voluntarily for whatever reason, but, I would not, I imagine, be very inclined to take cheery advice from them. At least not at first. 

Also, I have to note as well that, prior to putting myself back in diapers, leggings, for example, snug jeans, or short skirts, made up zero percent of my wardrobe. Being a middle-aged man in a diaper is easy at least partly because there are a lot of dumpy middle-aged men out there who look like they're wearing a diaper, even when they're not, in their ill-fitting trousers strained t-shirts, and oversized sweatshirts. While not exactly a physical specimen, I have, historically, tried to stay in shape, so I had to step back from any clothing that conformed to my form, because my form now includes a puffy equatorial zone. But that's a small sacrifice - there wasn't that much to see in any case!

Women have wardrobe options that could work well with diapers - relaxed-fitting dresses or skirts, for example. I'm not oriented toward cross dressing, generally (although pink diapers have a place in my heart), but, if I ever have occasion to wear a kilt over my diaper (I'm of Scottish descent), I will take it. Although I think that's a violation of the "commando code" observed by true Scotsmen. 

In any case, I hope this poor, broken-hearted, broken-bladdered woman eventually stumbles upon this site, or one like it, and in so doing, comes to realize that there are a lot of people out there, living full lives, ensconced in baby's underpants, getting things done, content and productive, all the while avoiding public toilets. 

[oznl]

9 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

I read an article recently about a woman's court battle with a physician and a medical device company over a botched procedure that rendered her urinary incontinent, and I felt badly for her. She described her situation as "deeply humiliating", and said that she had to wear diapers that were very uncomfortable, and that prevented her from being able to leave the house, describing the situation as having ruined her life.

I’ve seen similar stories.  It’s all psychological of course (unless she’s selected nappies so bulky that she can no longer fit through her front door, it’s highly unlikely that her underwear will stop her from leaving the house).

There was a similar case in the UK of a women who took her disability services provider up to the highest court in the land in an attempt to have a 24/7 carer funded as without it, she would need to wear nappies when a carer was not on duty.  This was her primary argument.

The judge rejected her case saying that the nappy was not onerous or life-ruining in the way she described but she and the welfare community promptly went ape-shit anyway.

The psychological prejudice against our waste products runs deep and probably explains why we are not anywhere near the front of the queue for social tolerance just yet.

In the case of pee at least, it is indeed just psychological.  There isn’t much of a health risk at all really and our habit of approaching this topic along the lines of “how can we make this work?” as opposed to “I want to die!” probably well-qualifies us to advise.

I wouldn’t hold your breath waiting for the call though.  If only people could understand that the same immutable hard-wiring that repels them from nappies is installed backwards in some of us and instead draws us to them.

"We don’t know why, it just is, but along the way, we’ve probably solved a few problems for you."

[Little Sherri]

14 hours ago, oznl said:

There was a similar case in the UK of a women who took her disability services provider up to the highest court in the land in an attempt to have a 24/7 carer funded as without it, she would need to wear nappies when a carer was not on duty.  This was her primary argument.

The judge rejected her case saying that the nappy was not onerous or life-ruining in the way she described but she and the welfare community promptly went ape-shit anyway.

This is interesting. I worked in contact with the long-term care sector here when a lot of the LTC homes were moving away from bedpans, allegedly for infection control reason, but in reality, primarily for workload reasons. They used to all be equipped with multiple steam-connected bedpan sanitizers, and then they went over to chemicals when having steam piped into buildings was no longer common, and then they moved to diapers, a mix of awful giant vinyl Velcro or snap-fastened monstrosities, and disposables. Many places added a lot of additional infrastructure to wash, dry and disinfect the reusable tent-wear, but within a few years, the cost of water, energy and staffing, plus infection control considerations, propelled the current ubiquity of disposables. It's basically all they do now. And most of the residents wear them because of immobility, not because of incontinence. But there has been nary a whisper about it, I guess because nobody is in heaven's waiting room long enough to organize a political action committee on the topic. Maybe this is part of what is behind the legalization of medical assistance in dying here. 

On another topic, I walked into a grocery store, strolled down the diaper aisle on the way to the garbage bags and such (although I never mind walking past it anyway), and, beheld a sight: Pampers Swaddler's in size 7 (41 lbs+). I think this is what I thought were Pampers Baby-Dry's, in size 7, at a Walmart a week or so ago. The packaging read "For Active Babies". 41 lb+ babies. I've always been a Pampers aficionado, because I grew up in them, but, given the ongoing conversation about who, exactly, these oversized baby diapers are aimed at, I also felt a need to contribute to the field research, so I bought them, even though they are too small to fit anyone currently living in my house. I can use them as stuffers in my slim-fitting gym diapers, and they smell great. The gyms are going to reopen soon, right? Right? Hello? 

Because my wife hangs on to everything, we have boxes of clothing from when the kids were younger, and a bit of rooting about produced a pair of briefs in size 8 - IE, sized for an 8-year-old. Behold the result, below. That's without stretching the diaper at all. 

[Little Sherri]

Quick note this morning; my wife was compiling a list for a Costco delivery, because she's been too pressed for time to go into one. For delivery, we'll typically order primarily staples like paper towel, toilet paper, tissue, garbage bags, and dry goods. She was sitting in front of the computer, squinting at the options, when I walked into her office on an unrelated errand, and she said, apropos of nothing, "Do you want me to see if I can order diapers as well?"

The question stopped me in my tracks, first, because she doesn't often say the "D" word out loud, and, second, because an implication of the question, at least as I read it, is that she thinks I might need, or at least want, more diapers, which suggests that she's not vexed by the fact that I currently have five cases of them in the basement. Plus a box of Pampers. I had been on a mission to reduce the footprint of my stash a bit, and I intend to continue that initiative, but maybe I can worry a bit less about what she thinks of that inglorious corner in cellar. 

I was once again at least somewhat curious as to what she would have ordered for me, had I given the idea a thumbs up; she once offered to pick up "Anything I needed in.... that department" from a pharmacy, back when the pandemic first kicked off, and I had the same thought then, as well - what in God's name would she come back with? Some horrible pull-up that looks like your grandmother's knickers? Useless but stylish disposable underwear for the "dribbles while golfing" set? Or some sad package of Tena or store brand medical diapers, designed for end-of-life purposes? 

But, in the end, I nixed the proposal. As cute as it might have been to get an idea of what she'd prefer I wear if I'm going to continue to be in the business of wetting in my pants, I was pretty sure it would represent a waste of money - I've wandered the diaper section at Costco on a couple of occasions, and they seem to believe most of their customers prefer extremely high-waisted gender-neutral pull-ups, and that they enjoy changing them frequently. 

[Little Sherri]

Well, I got accused of smelling "like diapers" yesterday, but in a good way. My wife is sensitive to strong scents, and a couple of days ago, she began asking the kids if they had a new perfume or lotion, because she kept smelling "something". I shrugged and didn't think anything more about it. There are about 5000 creams, sprays and lotions in the kids' bathrooms.

Coincidental to that, I was working on a project (flooring) at a friend's place, that involved me being crouched in a closet for about 45 minutes, and I noticed that in that enclosed space, I was definitely carrying a scent, and not a bad one - having bought a giant box of Pampers Swaddlers, I've started using them as stuffers, and they are imbued with that classic Pampers scent, which is very close to, but exactly the same as, baby powder. But still, I didn't put two and two together. 

Finally, having taken a shower last night, I put on a new diaper - a Lil' Monster (itself somewhat scented, although not strongly), with a Swaddler inside it, and as I climbed into bed, she said "It's you!". I looked at her, confused, and she then she said "Something smells like perfume, and whatever it is, it's on you." I looked somewhat guiltily down at my plastic underpants. She said "It's your diaper?", and I nodded. The topic was dropped, but, this is the first time that I've ever considered whether the smell of a clean diaper might inadvertently give me away. I wear diaper cream that smells like baby powder, and I use actual baby powder as well, but both of those are kind of muted once the diaper is closed, whereas the scent coming from the Swaddlers is more noticeable, maybe because the box is brand new.

Speaking of the Pampers, I wanted to report that they have an almost astonishing capacity. I am not really a stuffer or booster user, generally, because I find that my diapers generally last as long as I need them to last, unassisted - I'm not looking to get through 20 hours in one enormous diaper that sags down to my knees - they just become too obvious at that point. But having a box of 72 Pampers on a whim, I needed to integrate them somehow, so, I've been making a few small slits in the shell and stuffing them into whatever my main diaper is. They add a great deal of additional capacity - I think they hold more than a Depends, for example, but, they also seem to direct some of the "fire" back toward the rear of the diaper, while disbursing wetness gradually, leading to a more even use of the capacity of the main diaper. So, the result is greater than the sum of its parts. Plus, I smell baby-fresh. 

[Little Sherri]

Further to my campaign to rid myself of half-bags of diapers and outlier ones and twos that I amassed during the "finding my stride" phase of putting myself back into diapers full time, I elected last night to put on a Bambino Magnifico, a cute diaper with... just having a look... pink and blue and green dinosaurs on it, themselves wearing diapers. Magnifico's are built sort of like modern children's disposables, in that they have stretchy wings and hook-and-loop fasteners, although the diaper itself is plastic-backed, which most most child disposables are not. They are another relic of my now-abandoned initiative to find medium-sized ABDL diapers that fit me well, with my medium-range waist and my size-large-requiring tree-trunk legs. 

I used to think that (the day would never come.... New Order flashback... sorry...) medium diapers could provide the best capacity/stealth compromise, but, experiencing frequent over-the-front leaks is less than stealthy, and also less than ideal. I've settled on the Megamax as the only real medium option for me, and I intend to buy all my Rearz diapers and such in large moving forward, once I burn through my cases of medium. 

So it's ironic that this Magnifico, purchased for covert operations, may have given me away. I hadn't worn one in a while - Magnifico's are magnificently expensive. And, I haven't had one on since we started experiencing frustratingly intermittent moments of warm weather. It looked warm out this morning - sun shining in all of its glory - so, I decided to put on some loose athletic shorts and take the dog up the driveway for his constitutional. While out, I ran into other dog walkers who were coming down my street - two women, two dogs - and we chatted for a couple of minutes before I headed back into the house. We have a full-length mirror just inside the side door, and I turned and had a look at my silhouette as I kicked my shoes off.

Something about the Magnifico's shell, perhaps, interacting with the flimsy "breathable" shorts, and/or the generous width and bulk at the back of the diaper, relative to its overall size, conspired to produce... the unmistakable outline of a diaper. I do a profile check at least once a day or so, and I had worn these shorts over a Rearz Lil' Monster recently, and thought I was getting away with it, so, it didn't occur to me that I may have been a bit too confident about my outfit selection, and would go waltzing up the driveway with a notably puffy derrière. Or maybe this exists entirely in my head, and they noticed nothing. I suppose I could ask my wife, but I would be opening up a possible Pandora's box of sarcastic responses. 

[Little Sherri]

Well, nappies continue to expand their territorial holdings within my household. First, they occupied only a tightly-tied garbage bag hidden in the ceiling of my previous basement. Then, they expanded to occupy one shelf. Then two, plus a drawer and a shelf in my bedroom. Then they got their own shelving unit in the basement. Now, the next phase commences: I am putting up a shed in the yard. It will not be dedicated entirely to nappies, but, the reason that its going in, is to have a place where we can put the garbage cans which is outside of the garage. Unlike in my previous house, where the garage was for stuff, primarily (never cars... no room), in my new house, the garage is for brewing, and it's also the entranceway to my loft, which serves as my office and as the kids' learn-from-home Zoom dance studio, and, once the apocalypse has concluded, also, one imagines, for entertaining.  

Where we are, the city picks up recycling and organic waste on a weekly basis, but, they only pick up garbage every second week, and they limit you to two containers - either wheelie bins or bags, but out here everyone uses the bins, the bags being essentially a buffet for trash pandas (racoons). As an aside, on of the scenarios that periodically haunts my dreams is someone other than I putting the trash out, and electing not to use a bin, resulting in a bag being disemboweled overnight by the wildlife. Fast-forward to a sunny weekday morning, as my neighbours all drive or walk their progeny past my house, on the way over to the local school, and behold, the remains of a couple of whimsically decorated adult diapers are strewn about the bottom of my driveway. I imagine this would please my wife to no end. 

But, back to my main point - having garbage cans sitting in my garage in the summer heat, each containing a dozen near-capacity diapers that are the size and weight of a 5-lb flour sack, that are busily fermenting, is probably going to contribute to the, uh, ambiance. And perhaps raise questions, since nobody living in my house is within striking distance of a socially-acceptable diaper age, at either end of the spectrum (pull-ups are another story). So, I proposed to my betrothed that, although we have a generously-sized garage, and already have a shed containing the pool equipment, it might not be a bad idea to have one more storage structure, for gas cans and garbage and recycling and organics. Diapers were never specifically mentioned, but, they are in the background, silently pulling the strings.