24/7 startups, and unexpected pitfalls?

[diaperjack101]

To get back at the original poster - 

#1 Who has gone 24/7/365 or 24/7 most of the time - I'm a regular 24/7 about 5 days out of 7. 

#2 What it's like - Freeing.

#3 Did I stop using underwear - No, I still have 2 days wearing regular  underwear. Actually, I like to air out my skin. I do use zinc oxide paste and I've never had a diaper rash since using them.

#4 What were the first few days and weeks? - Really fun. And I've been doing it for years now. I never get tired of this.

#5 Any unexpected problems or rewards - Well, I've become good at keeping my diapers secret. I use balky and loose clothes) And I use pretty thick diapers. I usually wear a Confidry 24/7 disposable over my pull-on cloth diapers and plastic pants. Sometimes I use another larger pull-on cloth diaper if I'm going maybe 24 to 48 hours in the same diapers. The rewards? Obvious. I just really love my diapers.

#6 Did I stick with it - For the most part. I've gone to a couple of "Chicago to Mackinaw Race" ( An annual sailing race) that were just too tough. Some vacations too.

#7 Had I abandoned the dream - No. I went to Europe for a month so I just used disposables and plastic pants.

#8 Do family or friends know? Or about me being in the down low - They don't have a clue. I don't think I'm in the "down low." I'm pretty good at keeping my diapered covered.

Prepare for issues - Smell. I've been using Nullo for years. I have only a little sweet pungency. Nothing bad. And I use psyllium husk (like Metamucil) every day for about a decade. These issues can be fixed for what I use. Using diapers for wetting or BM's is really not a problem. I do air out my skin maybe 2 days without wearing my diapers. But when I'm diapered, whether I'm shopping, the library, my coffee shop or even golfing and using my boat, I just like what I'm doing whatever I want, all the time.

 

[Little Sherri]

I had an interesting diaper dream last night that didn't involve my diaper, really. I dreamed that myself and a couple of my buddies were returning to a project we had been working on, and it was, for some reason, at either a seaside or a lakeside cottage - I remember parking a long way off and then walking to the cottage on a long wharf. Once we got inside, we realized that we didn't have the tools we needed to complete the job, which involved removing an antenna - the last thing on the list, according to my dream logic. Why we didn't bring any tools - that's for Freud to tell me. For some reason, a couple of women came with us that I didn't know - in my dream, they were associated with one of my buddies - maybe his wife and sister-in-law or something. Anyway, we found a pair of pliers in a drawer, and I was concentrating on trying to make them work on an oversized bolt, and everyone was kind of watching me, and suddenly, I realized that I had squatted down and not given any thought to if my diaper was poking out of the back of my shorts, but I couldn't just reach back and check, or I would have drawn attention to the area. THEN, I also realized that I had a pacifier in my mouth, and that it had been there the entire time. Nobody had said anything to me about it, and I wasn't sure if they'd noticed it, but in the twisted dream logic, it became important that I not try to extricate it - I had to finish the job, and then, once people stopped paying attention, my plan was to pull it out of my mouth and slip it in my pocket. And pull my shorts up and tuck my shirt in. Of course, in real life, I did have a pacifier in my mouth that I couldn't pull out... because of REM paralysis. 

Once again, the overarching theme was "exposure", basically. The source material for this might have been an argument I had with my wife earlier. It's origins are a long story, but basically, a long time ago, she soured relations with the spouse of a lifelong friend, and ever since then, she's been beating a drum about being left out of planning anything between us - my buddy and I decided to take on the planning ourselves to reduce the possibility of further friction on the female side of the equation. My wife thinks that my buddy's wife is still on the "planning committee", and she's not, although that's patently not true. But she persists in implying that this is the case, and so, passive-aggressively resisting the plans. Which just makes us plan around her - "Okay, so you HAVE to see your mom, even though I told you weeks ago we were likely going to try and golf that day. And, you saw your mom last week as well. That's fine, then - you go ahead. And we'll do the same."  Cue the fireworks. 

Anyway, at one point she slammed a door, and that vexed me, because we have very old doors in weird sizes - you can't buy replacements for these at Home Depot. No two of them are exactly the same. So I said something like "Stop being a child" or "You are acting like a child...", which is, of course, a poor choice of words for a guy who was, in that moment, wearing a big diaper emblazoned with baby tigers (a Crinklz). She just stopped, threw her head back, and emitted an exaggerated "Ha!", then said "I'm the child....?", and looked pointedly at my puffy midsection, which made me suddenly diaper-conscious in a way I haven't been for a while, like I needed an oversized shirt. I could feel my cheeks warming a bit. But, alas, I was wearing running shorts that did very little to camouflage the bulk of my plastic underpants, and a t-shirt that wasn't excessively long. I said something crushingly witty like "Just don't slam these doors", and walked out of the room, and then, once out of view, I conducted a quick examination of my form... and found that the front, not the back, of my diaper was on display - the waistband had folded over the elastic of my shorts. 

People in glass houses shouldn't throw rocks, and people wearing baby pants shouldn't call other people 'childish', I guess. 

[Little Sherri]

Well, once again I got a scare from the "out of the mouths of babes" category. Long-time readers will remember an incident a long while ago, back when people could travel, and I was visiting a friend in the US, when, apropos of nothing, his daughter, who was maybe 7 or 8 at the time, asked me if there was "such a thing as adult diapers". Which got my attention, because I was, first of all, wearing one (I think... or I might have been in a bathing suit at the time), and second, I had several in my suitcase, which was sitting on the floor of their guest bedroom... and I was known to bring gifts with me when I visited, making my suitcase possibly of interest to curious kids. 

Last night, a buddy was over to pick up his daughter, who had spent the day at my place with my youngest daughter, and we had a late dinner and were regaling each other with stories of visits to amusement parks over the years, when I talked about an incident I related here before, where I got trapped on a white water ride under a small waterfall for a few critical moments, and ended up essentially sitting in a bucket of water for a while. What I did not mention, of course, was that I had had a diaper on at the time. But I said that my shorts were soaked and that I had to spend the day like that. (I had to make an excuse and a dash for the car to change said diaper, which had expanded so much that I felt like the way I was walking was being visually impacted - again, not something I mentioned last night). 

So, his daughter made this offhand remark - "You should have worn one of those diapers, it would have kept you dry, you have lots, ha ha..." 

Well, that froze me in my tracks, although nobody else noticed the comment, apparently, and the conversation rolled along. But now my brain was running two programs at the same time... program 1 was nodding along to the conversation and chuckling at the right time and appearing "normal", while program 2, which was commanding way more resources, commenced a deep dive on what was just said. 

The kids had spent the day running around the house. They'd played hide-and-seek and tried to stalk the older kids in secret, among other games. They'd been in the basement. Although anonymous looking, and stored amongst a lot of other boxes, there are about 7 boxes of diapers down there. 

However, another episode from earlier in the day also flashed across my recollection - I was equipping the girls with swimming towels from out of the linen closet, and on the shelf in that closet was a clear Rubbermaid tote that contained a variety of pull-ups and a few Abena youth-sized diapers. My daughter had banished it from her room because she no longer used them as frequently as she used to, and, she didn't want to be associated with them, now that the pandemic is in retreat, and we have people visiting again. A tote full of pull-ups and diapers in one's closet being tantamount to an indictment. I know this well because I had a box of Pampers in my closet for a good stretch of my childhood, that I often tried to bury in laundry. So, ironically, having been consigned to the linen closet, all of a sudden, they were front and center as I pulled towels out. I had noted that her friend's gaze affixed to the box almost right away - it was a riot of purple and pink girl-themed pull-ups, and then the white Abenas. In retrospect, maybe an opaque tote would have been a better idea. So I quickly threw in a comment about them being there for when younger kids slept over - somewhat true - they have come in handy a couple of times when we've had kids staying over. My daughter was slightly wide-eyed, but her friend shrugged, towels were handed out, the closet door was closed, and life went on. 

I know that I analyze these things far more than most people do, but I can't help myself. So, it occurred to me, when her friend made the comment about "all those diapers" that the word "diaper" was never said in that closet-facing interaction. I don't think I even said "pull-ups" - I just said "those are for....". So, the question becomes, what do kids these days call pull-on diapers? Do they call them pull-ups, or diapers? I'm pretty sure I know the answer - the commercials for those products trade in euphemisms, not unlike those used for adult products. Adult products are "briefs", youth products are pull-ups or "bedtime underwear", and only products aimed at the young, or the aged and infirm (or the ABDL market), are branded as "diapers", generally speaking. I've had to reassure kids that pull-ups were "not diapers", or, they've told that to me, including one incident where a friend's daughter borrowed a Pampers Cruiser size 7, and asked if it was a diaper, and I quickly said "No, no, it's not a diaper..." - because I knew if I'd said, well, yes, this IS a diaper, she probably wouldn't have wanted to wear it, with possible implications for the bedding, or, a requirement to run to the drugstore. Instead, she happily watched a movie with her friends, in  her "it's not a diaper" diaper. Marketing is paramount. 

SO, that leads me to my primary question... was her friend referring to the tote of pull-ups in the closet when she said I should have worn "one of those diapers" of which I have "lots", or, was she referring to the four months worth of my diapers sitting on shelves in my basement? 

[WBxx]

On 7/7/2021 at 3:19 PM, Little Sherri said:

Question: what are your thoughts about ADISC.org? Someone I was talking to referenced it, so I went and had a look. It doesn't seem to have as much depth as this site, but I also only spent about 10 minutes poking around on it. Thus far, this is the only place I've been actively communicating or posting on these topics. I tried Fetlife but I couldn't figure it out. I did learn that it's a big, wild world out there, though - Fetlife is good for getting perspective. Wearing diapers isn't a big deal. Midget noose-play, now, that's out there... who am I to judge, as I sit here in a big plastic diaper. 

For reasons I sympathize with there’s considerable hate directed towards ADISC in this forum.  Yet, despite the Draconian rules, I’m drawn back to the site over and over.  There’s something about the childlike innocence and purity of ADISC that appeals to me.  Give it a try, you might like it.

[Little Sherri]

I'm enjoying a cautious "just a diaper" morning in my office - cautious because it's a glorious day, and my windows are wide open, so I can't stand up without rolling back out of the sightline from my closest widow, or I'll give the passers-by retinas scorched with the image of my pasty white legs under a bright white InControl Essential. My wife and kids are still sleeping so it seems likely that I'll be uninterrupted for a while, and I love being in just a diaper - I can't explain why, there is just a "zen" in it for me. I think if I have my way, when I retire, I'll never wear pants again. I'll probably have to move further out into the country. Also, winter will be a problem. 

Someone should establish a "diaperist colony" - akin to a nudist colony, but for people who wear diapers, and otherwise go about their business as usual. Although I'm curious about if nudist colonies have policies around diapers - I assume they must be permitted? Maybe that's a place where one could live out their days in just a diaper, without many social repercussions? There are a couple of them in the summer playground regions North of the city, although I suspect their business models are May - Sept only. Nudity in December would require a LOT of BTU's. I was at one of them a LONG time ago, on a service call with a chemical company I worked for at the time, and as a clothed person on the premises, I did my level best not to stare unduly at anyone. There were a couple of toddlers running around the pool area in diapers, so, they would seem to be permitted, at least for kids. What would be the greater "norm" transgression - wearing shorts over a diaper in a place where everyone is naked, or, just wearing a diaper? A diaper is closer to "naked". Hmmm. Nudists, please chime in. 

My wife has decided to organize the basement, and she took me on a tour to show me what she had achieved so far. Since we moved in, it's basically been a dumping ground down there, so getting things grouped and put up on shelves is a laudable undertaking. But the tour inevitably wound its way over to my corner, where my 7 cases of diapers occupy two shelves. "So...", she opened, ".... do we need any more space for... your stuff?" I had to admit that she has a point. I have about a quarter's worth of diapers in inventory. Saying "But what if Rearz has a sale!?!" probably wouldn't have generated much understanding. I did ask for one more slot - I need to reorder my gym diapers. So, 8 cases. Unless I go rogue and start hiding them in the garage or something. I pointed out that nearly everything else down there belonged to her or the kids - I'm not that sentimental and I'm not much of a packrat. I find catharsis in giving things away or throwing them out. But her response was "I think two shelves of Pampers is enough." That gave me a bit of a thrill, because I find it cute when she calls them my "Pampers", Pampers having a soft spot in my heart. I wish they were Pampers. I wish I could fit into Pampers. I have some Pampers with my daughter's diapers, but they see very little use these days - I may test-drive using them as stuffers in my gym diapers, once I settle on a gym diaper, Prevail having apparently decided to revamp their lineup. I'm currently in beta testing on a model that has lower capacity, but better tabs (Perfit 360), versus a model I previously tested with higher capacity, but awful tabs (Air Plus). At least the good-tab ones are really cheap - $13 for 18 diapers. They'll give me a couple of hours of range, which is all I need on a gym visit, now that the gyms an be visited. I just have to wear one on a run and see if it cuts me to ribbons or not.  

[Little Sherri]

Well, my in-laws are back, and I once again have to scrub the laundry system of any "ABDL" gear, which for me means t-shirt onesies, cloth diapers having been banished until such time as the kids are reliably out of the house for predictable periods of time, meaning September assuming the pandemic is actually in the rearview mirror. 

I have made progress about wearing my preferred diapers around them, though. I used to get panicked and revert to my slim, quiet gym diapers when they were around, although it meant using 3 diapers where one would probably have done the trick. But with my onesies and my oversized shorts, I feel that I can discretely wear, say, a Rearz Lil' Splash or a Megamax. I wear them everywhere else, so attributing advanced perceptive powers to my wife's elderly parents is something that doesn't hold up to logical scrutiny. 

Speaking of advanced perceptive powers, I felt a "kindred spirit" connection to the child of a friend of a friend earlier this week. We had gone over to help them put fancy LED lights in their kids' bedrooms. My only availability was in the evening, and they said that they would keep the kids up until we were done assisting them. They have a daughter who is maybe 7 and a son who is 9, so I was initially curious about how they get the kids to bed so early - it was 7 PM and the sun was still shining outside. I had anticipated the kids being younger. But then I heard the mom say to the older kid that if he pretended to go to bed, for the sake of their getting their daughter to bed, that he could get back up and come down and read with her in the backyard. Been there! I used to bribe my older daughter to "Pied Piper" my younger one up to bed sometimes, if she was being ornery. 

But that wasn't the connection. The kids were in their PJ's and I realized right away that the son had a pull-up on - he was wearing PJ's consisting of shorts and a shirt, and it was plain as day. The daughter, though younger, wasn't wearing any "protection". Which is not uncommon - boys wet the bed more often than girls do, and to a later age. I felt a connection with him because I had an older sister and a younger brother, and neither of them had any bedwetting issues, meanwhile, I was being considered for the bedwetting Olympic team. But I also recalled being in his situation, in another respect, which was, always having to have my protection on as soon as I got ready for bed, regardless of what was going on. I used to resent the my mom would make me put a diaper on, when I put my pajamas on, even if it was hours from when we were going to bed. But the adults always liked to get the kids ready for bed before they put the movie on or started the game or whatever, so that they could drink wine and not have to deal with it later. So I have been that kid, standing there, self-conscious about my plastic underwear, while visitors were at the house, or, being sent out into the backyard, and sitting shyly on a chair, rather than running or playing, out of concern for the puffiness of my equatorial district being noted by someone, if I started climbing the play structure. 

I'm probably projecting - maybe the kid doesn't care that he's wearing a pull-up - but I imagined myself at his age, asking if I could delay putting my PJ's on until after the visitors were done in my room, and being told that, no, it's PJ time - "If I let you stay dressed, I have to let your brother as well..." (or in this kid's case, his sister). But, a critical difference for me, as for this kid, was that my younger sibling didn't wear any protection to bed, so for him, being in his PJ's was no big deal. Of course I didn't say anything, but, in my head, I was thinking "Tip of the hat to you, sir - don't worry, it gets better...." 

[Little Sherri]

A couple of quick topics today. First of all, I wore a NorthShore Megamax to a backyard craft beer festival where we attempted to recreate the pandemic-cancelled annual event on a much smaller scale. I brought a second Megamax with me. The day was humid, the beer was great, and the diaper more than held up its end of the bargain. I had brought two out of an abundance of caution, and because I was concerned more about how big the diaper would get, than about leaks, and I wore plastic pants as a layer of extra insurance against failure. The combination of NorthShore technology, Rearz plastic pants and diaper shirt, and my oversized cargo shorts did the job - I safely and comfortably wore an Olympic-class diaper to an Olympic-class piss-up, and as far as I can tell, nobody was the wiser. 

My second topic is related to further field notes I have about people's approached and attitudes around wearing diapers "in the wild". A good friend's aging dad suffered a fall a few weeks back, and has been in pain ever since. He went to the hospital when it first happened, and they couldn't find any reason for his agony, so they thought he just needed some time to heal, however his situation had not improved, precipitating a second visit, and that time, they kept him in overnight and did further scans. They eventually realized that he had at least one hairline fracture in his hip, too small to really do anything with, but, it would require some time to heal. While he was there, they had him in diapers, because they didn't want him getting out of bed, lest he suffer another fall. When they sent him home, they suggested that he wear some protection for a while, because they didn't want him rushing anywhere for ANY reason, or ever getting into our out of bed, or a chair, unassisted, until he had healed a bit. 

To me, that sounded perfect reasonable, but my buddy was aghast at the idea. When I asked him what he was worried about, he said that his concern was, if his dad was in diapers for a couple of weeks, would he ever get out of them again? My wife had a similar concern, back when the younger of my kids was having accidents almost every night like clockwork, and sometimes having accidents during the day, particularly if she, say, fell asleep in the car. My proposed solution was for her to be wearing protection, either a diaper or a pull-up, under circumstances where such precautions were called for - which was exactly what my parents prescribed for me, although back then there were no pull-ups. 

But my wife was worried that if she, say, spent a few days in diapers over a vacation, she might get used to it and revert to needing them, even though she had been out of daytime diapers for a few years at that point. Eventually, she relented, and discovered that her fears were unfounded, but only after we had a couple of unexpected stops on a cross-country trip to clean upholstery at a gas station at inconvenient times. And sure enough, my daughter was able to seamlessly transition from a couple of days in diapers, to a few back in panties, when diapers weren't necessary except at night. It would probably have gone even more smoothly if my wife hadn't made a big deal of it in the first place - she might have been less reluctant to wear them during the day, whereas at night, she never put up a fight. And I fully believe that my buddy's dad won't "give in" to wearing diapers, and just decide never to be without them again. Diapers are a tool that works for a situation, but people imbue them with so many negative associations. 

[WBxx]

Yes … but how about you, me, and countless others that developed a fondness for diapers through wearing beyond infancy?  Where do we fit in the "works for situation" equation?

[oznl]

8 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

 It would probably have gone even more smoothly if my wife hadn't made a big deal of it in the first place - she might have been less reluctant to wear them during the day, whereas at night, she never put up a fight. And I fully believe that my buddy's dad won't "give in" to wearing diapers, and just decide never to be without them again. Diapers are a tool that works for a situation, but people imbue them with so many negative associations. 

I guess it is also possible that she thinks that the therapy thusly imposed upon you by your own parents may have contributed to an outcome she may prefer to avoid for her own children. 

8 hours ago, WBxx said:

Yes … but how about you, me, and countless others that developed a fondness for diapers through wearing beyond infancy?  Where do we fit in the "works for situation" equation?

I believe we have, what is by “normal” people’s standards (whatever those may be), a kind of an emotional wiring fault.

We don’t wear diapers because we find a “works for situation” practicality.  "Au contraire!" most 24/7 diapered adults will tell you.  With the social overlays concerning bodily waste, personal agency, dignity etc. effectively muted by our wiring fault however, we can see with clearer vision some of the residual practical benefits diapers afford.

[Little Sherri]

13 hours ago, oznl said:

I guess it is also possible that she thinks that the therapy thusly imposed upon you by your own parents may have contributed to an outcome she may prefer to avoid for her own children. 

True enough, but when this was a factor, my return to dedication to these garments was as-yet undiscovered, even by me. For a good stretch of my early marriage, I more or less forgot about my childhood and adolescent fascination with diapers. So when we were wrestling with what to do about our daughter's perpetually damp sheets, while my own childhood history came into the discussion, at that point, other than knowing that I had worn diapers to bed for a good stretch of my youth, there was no indication of any long-term side-effects. I lay this at the feet of my step-father's cruel, but arguably very effective approach, upon discovering that I had started experimenting with making my own diapers, shortly after I outgrew the real thing: he yelled at me about it in front of the whole family. After that, I went close to 20 years, before this fascination reached the surface again. 

 

21 hours ago, WBxx said:

Yes … but how about you, me, and countless others that developed a fondness for diapers through wearing beyond infancy?  Where do we fit in the "works for situation" equation?

I guess I would argue that they do "work for the situation" for us, in a manner of speaking - the situation being, at least in my case, that I just don't feel as well, emotionally, when I'm not wearing a diaper. But I get your point. However, practically everyone starts life in diapers, but only a vanishingly small number of us end up where we find ourselves - while there are "countless" of us, expressed as a percentage of everyone, the count is still pretty small. I would say that stigmatizing diapers in an attempt to inoculate your progeny (or aging parents) against becoming DL's is a flawed strategy at best, because you have no idea how those forces will play out, particularly in the young. Humiliation is a powerful feeling, and it can leave scars. 

Although, in my case, I believe that the many small humiliations, plus a few large ones, that participated in shaping my psyche, for the most part came after I was already a bit weird about diapers. I have gone on at length about this here before, so I won't belabour it again, but, I knew even at an early age that I had an uncommon fascination with diapers - even when I was 4 and 5 years old, back when it wasn't yet "that big of a deal" to still wear diapers some of the time. So by the time I was truly an outlier, still occasionally consigned to being in plastic underwear at 8 or 9 years old, I already had a well-developed "thing" about them that I knew I had to keep under wraps. I guess the question is, when and why did that "thing" develop? If it were the case that I had fought valiantly against wearing them for most of my childhood, and then spontaneously started craving them only after they were withdrawn, then, I would probably accept that being made to wear them made me want to wear them. However, even early on, I was suffering from cognitive dissonance, because on the one hand, I didn't like the feeling of having secret, humiliating underpants thrust upon me by circumstances beyond my control, but, on the other hand, there was a secret joy to being in them, at least when it was just me and my diaper. The joy evaporated rapidly when I was in the company of others, replaced by anxiety over whether my puffy, crinkly secret would be discovered, which, I assumed, would have brought the world to an end. 

On a side note, because I have become so adept (I believe) at navigating the world from inside a diaper, undetected, I do wonder, in retrospect, how many people knew when I  had a diaper on, back then? My siblings would have, and obviously my parents. My mom talked to her sisters about everything, so I have to assume that my aunts probably knew. But what about the cousins, friends, and extended family that visited, or that we visited? I am curious as to how well I kept them hidden. I recall them being bulkier than underwear, obviously, and they had a crinkle to them, but, Pampers of that era were nowhere near as thick as a modern ABDL diaper, I believe. Maybe I should try and buy some vintage Pampers online, to get a better idea. 

[Little Sherri]

Well, you'd think (and some of you maybe hope) that after almost 2.5 years, I would be running out of things to talk about. So, you wear baby pants everywhere you go. How much more can someone possibly say about that? And yet, topics keep presenting themselves. Maybe I should start up a podcast. 

Have you ever wondered what your significant other would like to see you in, in terms of diaper design, if they had a choice? My wife has never shown any preference for a particular diaper over another, be they white, blue, pink, or festooned with cartoon characters. I have no concrete evidence that the incident I am about to relate sheds any further light on the topic, but maybe it does?

So, I was working around the pool last night, pulling weeds and emptying the skimmer basket and checking the chlorine level etc, and I was stooped over right at the edge of the pool, reaching for a thermometer that I had detached and that had floated just out of reach. My wife was standing behind me. You can see where this is going. On a lark, she gave me a gentle shove, and that was all it took - I went head over, into the pool. It was 85 degrees F, so I wasn't in any shock from the temperature delta, but I was surprised that she'd done that, although more bemused than irritated. I was wearing lightweight gym shorts and a t-shirt, over - ironically - a Rearz Lil' Splash that I had more or less just put on. I knew that my diaper was sticking up well above my shorts at the back, but it was just my wife and I on the pool deck, so I didn't care. I don't know if that was the impetus for her attack or not. 

Immediately, I felt my diaper basically flood from all sides, and begin to expand magnificently, and I became worried that it was going to explode and release a million polymer crystals, and also, what effect they might have on my pool filtration equipment, so I kicked over to the edge and hoisted myself out. When I stood up, my diaper was hanging halfway down to my knees, basically, and was swollen so wide between my legs that I had to "cowboy walk" away from the pool. My wife was in hysterics. Water flooded down my legs and pooled at my feet, although the diaper remained intact, and the tabs didn't budge. But gravity was having its way with it. I gave her a wry look, said something like "Couldn't resist, could you?", and began to make my way toward the house, when it occurred to me... both kids were on the ground floor. How was I going to get myself into the house, up the stairs, and out of that exploding diaper, without, first of all, soaking the floors, and, second, without attracting amazed stares? I turned to my wife and said "Er, I don't think I can walk in there like this..."

She laughed again, then suggested that I make my way around the exterior of the house to the side door, inside of which is a bathroom. I said "I'll need some clothes or a bigger towel..." - I had one of the kids' swim towels in my hand but it wasn't big enough for a nude adventure throughout the house. She said "I'll get you some clothes", and she went in through the kitchen, while I squelch-squelch-squelched my way around to the other side of the house, hoping that neither a neighbour, nor an Amazon delivery guy, would choose that moment to come up the driveway. I made it into the washroom, and once I released one set of the tabs, the diaper fell with a wet thwack, and I was left standing there, wondering what the next step should be, when there was a tapping on the door - my wife. I opened it a crack, and she handed me another pair of shorts, a t-shirt, and... a Bambino Teddy. Interesting choice! Now, it could be that that just happened to be the top-most diaper in my diaper drawer... but, I didn't think so. I had done a drawer restock from the basement stash a few days prior, and what I brought up were mostly Lil' Splash and Lil' Monster diapers, and Megamaxes. I threw in a Teddy from my random leftovers box, which I am trying to run through. So... did she have to rifle through a few Prevail gym diapers, maybe a half dozen of the Rearz printed stock, two or three white Megamax's... and then settle on the Teddy? Or did she just jam her hand in, rummage around, and emerge with it? What was her process? Was the diaper chosen for maximum humour, possible humiliation (although I'm long past any of that), or, was it a random roll of the dice? I tried asking her later why she'd chosen it, and her response was a sarcastic "You'd have preferred something else?" that discouraged further interrogation. 

On another topic, a buddy of mine who went through a bad divorce about a year ago was texting with me this week. I have mentioned him before - he has two kids still in pull-ups overnight, one 8 or 9, and one 11. His ex-wife is dating a guy from California - I have no idea how that works when the borders have been shut for more than a year, but apparently this guy made it up here somehow. Anyway, Captain California apparently has an opinion on what his girlfriend's kids wear to bed - specifically, that pull-ups are an environmental holocaust, and that the kids should wear something reusable. So, she's bought them pocket diapers of some sort - Velcro contraptions with built-in plastic pants that go in the wash. She also wants my buddy to stock these, but has no interest in providing them - it's up to him to buy them. His response was "I have zero interest in dealing with cloth diapers." I offered to help him research the options - he knows that my youngest daughter has been a long-time pull-up customer as well. Although we've never bought anything reusable. He just said "Well, tell me what you find, but, I don't think I'm going to pursue it - they're not going to be in them much longer anyway." So I guess I'm going to go explore what the options are for reusable overnight diapers for older kids. I haven't really ever looked into them before - I have some cloth diapers that I rarely use, but I haven't been drawn to the snap-on and Velcro products that are out there for adults. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears. 

[oznl]

Despite owning a pool with a complicated, tessellated shape involving at least 12 corners and some narrow pool edging between water and foliage, I've managed to keep my nappies out of it to date although there have been close calls.

I'd be fascinated to know what my own beloved's "least worst" option would be if confronted with the same choice.  My suspicion is that I'd get no co-operation at all.  On the other hand, I'm confident she wouldn't push me in.  Not because she wouldn't find it amusing but because she'd know that payback would be swift and wet.

Fascinating that a new boyfriend decides to muscle in and apply ideological overlays to his new beau's parenting.  Not sure how keen I'd be for that.

[Little Sherri]

10 hours ago, oznl said:

Fascinating that a new boyfriend decides to muscle in and apply ideological overlays to his new beau's parenting.  Not sure how keen I'd be for that.

I think my response to this, were I to face it, post marital dissolution, would be to suggest to my ex that she tell her new flame that if he has any further parenting advice, he should write it out carefully, then crumple up the paper, and jam it somewhere uncomfortable. I can only imagine what her response would be if my new girlfriend had a suggestion about any material change to the kids' routine. But I'm projecting here. I probably wouldn't have a new girlfriend... I have no idea what the dating scene is like for a middle-aged guy whose finances have been dealt a direct bunker-buster strike by a divorce lawyer. I guess I would roll up for our first date in my 20-year-old pickup truck (it being the only of our vehicles she didn't want), and then spend an inordinate amount of mental energy trying to figure out when the "right" time was to mention that I wear diapers. Also, we should probably take things to her place after dinner, as my roommate, Zeke, plans to be home tonight, because he's just scored some meth, and wants to watch professional wrestling with his ferret. 

[Little Sherri]

I had an interesting experience this morning - I took a shower, and then toweled off, after which, I had to squat down to pull a new stick of deodorant out of a lower drawer in our vanity. I hadn't put a new diaper on yet. When I squatted down to reach into the back corner of the drawer... I dribbled on the floor. It caught me completely by surprise, so I stood back up, thinking "Oh God, get over the toilet", because when I start these days, I usually can't stop very easily. But as soon as I stood up, it stopped. I squatted back down... and the barest of drops emerged. This is an new phenomenon, I think... or has this been happening for a while? It's impossible to know. I'm always in a diaper, it's usually a bit damp in there... if I'm dribbling here and there, it would be very hard for me to discern that. Is this "stress incontinence", like some people experience when they sneeze or laugh? As far as I know, I don't experience it when I sneeze or laugh. Although, again, it would be hard for me to know for certain. But it never occurred to me prior to now. 

I didn't particularly have to pee - it had only been 15 minutes or so since the last time I did. Anomaly? Or evidence of some kind of impending sea change? I have no idea. 

[Stroller]

10 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

I didn't particularly have to pee - it had only been 15 minutes or so since the last time I did. Anomaly? Or evidence of some kind of impending sea change? I have no idea.

I've stopped taking risks like that. It's just too likely to happen these days.

[oznl]

On 8/1/2021 at 3:11 PM, Little Sherri said:

I didn't particularly have to pee - it had only been 15 minutes or so since the last time I did. Anomaly? Or evidence of some kind of impending sea change? I have no idea. 

This provoked me to conduct a quick experiment (safely diapered of course) in my study.  Although wet anyway, I'm pretty sure I did NOT leak.  Also however, as far as I can tell, I'm empty anyway.

I *have* noticed that sometimes after getting into bed, or upon waking, I will cough a bit (not COVID, it is allergy season here and my upper respiratory gear is usually a bit grumpy this time of year).

A few times I've noticed that a cough has produced a small spurt of pee that I didn't mean to happen.

I suspect our pelvic floors are getting a bit rusty.

[Little Sherri]

On 8/2/2021 at 1:54 AM, oznl said:

I suspect our pelvic floors are getting a bit rusty.

As likely as not, this is the case. I'm not particularly concerned about it - I don't do a lot of squatting in my day-to-day activities, and I wear diapers in any case... but it is interesting. 

With gyms opening back up and mine already calling me to see if I might be able to fill in for some martial arts classes, there are a couple of things I need to do. One of them is start exercising again - since the pandemic started, with a few exceptions during short periods when they were open, I haven't really been to the gym, and since we moved, I haven't reestablished my home gym, either. And I've been drinking and eating more. But that's a topic for somewhere else. For the purposes of this venue, one of the main things I have to do is see if Prevail's replacement for the 360 Breezer, the Perfit 360, will work as well as a gym diaper as its predecessor did.

I haven't found the time to go run in one yet, but I did cut my lawn yesterday, which is a fairly involved undertaking - it's about 2.5 hours of exercise. So I strapped on a Perfit 360, and I put a Pampers Swadllers size 7 inside it as a range extender. I wore that combination for most of the afternoon, and I have to say that I was impressed. The capacity wasn't even that bad - I had thought that after the heavy work portion of the day was done, I'd probably have to swap it, but it held up really well - I got about 4 hours out of it. More importantly, the tabs held together, and it didn't start sawing at my nether-bits. Next test: going for a run in one. 

[Little Sherri]

Another "field note" - in furtherance to my ongoing quest to reduce the number of odds and sods that I have in my diaper collection, I put on another Bambino Teddy this morning. Normally these are more diaper than I wear during the day - they're a bit bulkier than, say, a Rearz Lil' Monster - but they are very, very comfortable. I put one on and pulled oversized cargo shorts on over it, had a look in the mirror and decided I could get away it, so I left the house to drop one of my kids off at an activity and to run some errands. The diaper is holding up nicely so far. I think I would wear these more often if they were a bit less expensive - they clock in at $4 - $5 CAD per diaper, so even if I only used two a day, it eventually adds up to a lot more than $2.50 - $3, which is the going rate for Megamax's and Rearz Lil' diapers. 

[Little Sherri]

There's something about wearing just a diaper, and shoes. I guess it's a combination that hasn't occurred for me before now... in a long time, anyway. I might have ventured out onto the porch at my previous house, briefly, in the dark of night, to retrieve the newspaper, but I don't think I'd have put shoes on for that - usually I could reach it without needing to actually step foot outside of the house. As a kid, I ran around the a cottage in just a diaper sometimes. I probably had shoes on for that, I assume. I have no specific memories of what was on my feet. 

In any case, whether this is actually the first time or not, it felt like a first. My wife and my youngest are out for the day. My eldest is at a sleepover. I awoke to realize that I had the house to myself, so I didn't bother pulling anything over my diaper, another Bambino Teddy. I poured myself a coffee, had a look at my phone, and realized that I needed to forward an attachment to a colleague, which would require the use of my computer... which was in my office, down the driveway, over the garage. I opened the side door, and looked at the required route. I've walked it hundreds of times, but I never gave much thought to sightlines before now. No neighbours are visible from this side of the house - a line of spruce trees and a couple of hundred feet of (somebody else's) yard beyond them, assured me that unless they had binoculars out, they weren't going to know I was there. Ah, but the road. Neighbours walk by on the road sometimes, and they drive by with greater frequency. The side door is maybe 75 feet from the street, and 75 feet from the garage. My old pickup was parked in front of the stairs - once I got down to grade level, I could walk in its shadow, essentially, although as I got further from the truck, the sightlines from the road would converge. But still, the lower half of me would be concealed for most of the trek, if someone were to look straight up my driveway from the road. I had a longish t-shirt on. I decided I could get away with it. I went back in and pulled shoes on, and that's when it occurred to me that I hadn't, as far as I could recall, put shoes on under just a diaper before. It felt liberating. I hope to do it again. 

I picked up my cup of coffee, held the door open and listened intently... no conversation or jingling collar from a dog walker. No hiss of tires. This was my moment. I stepped out, hit "lock" on the house door, and started walking toward the garage at perhaps a slightly elevated pace. It felt wonderful. I listened to the birds chirping, the scrape-scrape of my shoes on the asphalt, the unmuted crinkle of the plastic diaper. I heard the sound of a car coming up the road, but I knew I had time to make it to the cover of my car, parked in front of the garage, before the traffic intersected with my driveway. I stepped around behind my car, and looked back, watched an SUV driven by an older woman cruise by. She didn't look my way. She wouldn't have seen anything even if she did. I continued into the garage and up to my office. So, here I sit, in a diaper and a t-shirt. I took the shoes off at the bottom of the stairs. I don't have a parachute nearby - if someone comes up the driveway, I'll have to either pretend I'm not home, or, pull a tarp off of a shelf and make an unlikely wrap out of it. At lunch I'll go get some shorts, so that I have an "out" when my wife gets home. I could emerge from the office in just a diaper in front of her - although I have no idea how she'd react to the "outdoors" component - but she'll have my daughter with her, so, shorts it is. 

On a side note, having worn three or four Teddy's in a row now, including wearing one to do some trim work at a buddy's place, I can say that while they're a bit bulkier than is my preference for daytime wear, a onesie does a great job of pulling the rear of the diaper up and in, so that you have less of that characteristic diaper "lump" at the rear. I studied my profile in a full-length mirror before I headed out for that undertaking, and I noted that under my cargo shorts at the back, there was a detectable lump with the onesie unbuttoned - sometimes on hot days I'll wear them like that, unsnapped, relying on their exaggerated length to prevent any waistband excursions, rather than interlocking the back to the front. But this time, the puffy diaper needed a bit of restraint. I snapped the fasteners shut, pulled the shorts back up, and surveyed the results - slight bulk, maybe a ghost of a diaper line if I bent well over, but, the combination would do. 

[Little Sherri]

The number one purpose of wearing a onesie (diaper shirt, snap-T) for me is to aid in diaper concealment. I like the look and the feel of them, and the anti-gravity support is also appreciated, but first and foremost, I like that they stay tucked in, unlike t-shirts. I've talked about this before - the primary risk zone for accidental diaper reveals, if you take leaks out of the equation, is at the waistline, and generally, at the back. Bend over, stoop down, get up out of a chair, clamber out of a vehicle, and, the first thing I always did was reflexively reach back and tuck my shirt back into my pants. On occasion, my fingers encountered unconcealed plastic. This caused me to be very self-conscious about bending over to tie my shoes, and it turned stooped activities such as installing flooring, or landscaping, into a circus of constant shirt-tucking that, I feared, served to bring attention to precisely the area I didn't want to highlight. 

So, when I started adding onesies to my wardrobe, the effect was revolutionary - now I could execute bad cartwheels with the kids, or help a buddy work on a car, without wondering if my diaper was going to become visible at some point. At first, I always wore them snapped shut, but, I would occasionally leave one unsnapped, when operating out of public view, and I came to trust that the length of the tail at the back reliably precluded them ever becoming untucked enough for plastic to see the light of day.

When my diaper is in the first half of its life cycle, and is as yet unconcerned with gravity, I enjoy the feeling of wearing it "bare" under my clothes - drawing a onesie up over it has a different feel, equally enjoyable, but not the same. I didn't wear onesies over my diaper as a kid, other than when I was really young, so the feeling of the plastic between my thighs is nostalgic for me. So, wearing a onesie, but leaving it unsnapped, seemed like the best of all worlds. And for the most part, it is. However, there is, it turns out, one risk factor... what about if the back flap were to accidentally be excluded when pulling one's shorts up?

That's exactly what happened to me. I had just taken a shower and put a fresh diaper on, and I quickly pulled a onesie over it, left it unsnapped, and pulled some athletic shorts up over the combination, so that I could go say goodnight to my daughter. I walked into her room and sat at the back of her bed, leaning up against the wall, and we had a quick chat about her day. The overhead lights were already off, with only the lamp on her bedside table providing illumination. I said goodnight, and she reached over and clicked the lamp off, after which I walked out of the room and pulled the door shut. My wife was in the hall, and she said something like "Your shirt is out", as she walked by. I reached back... and found the back flap of the onesie hanging behind me, completely untucked. In the low light and with the way I was sitting, I'm pretty sure that my daughter didn't see it, and if she did, wouldn't have immediately concluded that I was wearing an unbuttoned diaper shirt, presumably. But still, it was a close call. I have to add one more line to my preflight checklist, apparently - "When operating with onesie unsnapped, confirm onesie is entrapped in pants prior to departing the changing area." 

[Little Sherri]

I bought an Omutsu "Bulky Nighttime Cloth Diaper" a couple of weeks ago on impulse when I was ordering some disposables and some plastic pants, but I hadn't worn it yet, until last night. I don't know why this is the case, but for some reason I'm still self-conscious about wearing a cloth diaper and plastic pants in front of my wife. Logically, this makes no sense - I've worn disposables in front of her festooned with every manner of print - teddy bears, cartoon characters, pink princesses, farm animals, etc. So why I'd become bashful about a light blue cloth diaper that has some hearts printed on it, I can't explain. Or maybe it was the "nursery print" plastic pants. But I've also felt this way wearing one of my white cloth diapers under clear plastic pants, so the print is not the root cause. 

Maybe it's the bulk of them; this Omutsu referring to itself as "Bulky" wins the truth-in-advertising award for 2021. It is a very bulky diaper - so much so that the first pair of clear plastic pants I put on over it were outmatched, and I had to switch to a newer pair I have in a larger size. I think I can probably trace my shyness about them back to my childhood; most of the time, as a kid, I was in disposables, apparently. I've told the story before about how I asked my mom about why she'd used cloth diapers on me so often, and she said, basically, "No, I hated them, I only used them once in a while." Meanwhile, an apparently-disproportionate number of my childhood memories around wearing diapers featured cloth, pins and plastic pants. I think this can be attributed to a couple of things: first, having a cloth diaper put on is more of an undertaking than a disposable. And I could never have done it myself, whereas I did start putting disposables on myself at some point. Second, once on, there was no illusion that "nobody could tell". Pampers under loose-fitting pajama pants might be somewhat camouflaged, but a cloth diaper and plastic pants... no. I might as well have had a neon arrow on my shirt, pointing to my butt. So I guess they had more psychological weight to them than disposables, as well as more physical weight. 

Back to this Omutsu - once I gathered up the courage to put it on and emerge from my bathroom in just it, the plastic panties, and a t-shirt, I found it to be achingly comfortable - I didn't want to ever have to take it off again. But, alas, there was no way I could navigate the day with that thing crammed into even my largest cargo shorts. The good news is that, predictably, I did not wet it last night - I once again slept like a rock and woke up needing to pee. I contemplated the decadent luxury of oversleeping my alarm a bit and dampening such a worthy garment, maybe even on my side, but then I thought about the cleanup, and I decided to get up out of bed and swap it for a Lil' Splash, so I could go take on the day without needing a "wide load" permit. Since the cloth diaper survived the night unscathed, I am going to give it a 15-minute wash (they're supposed to be washed a couple of times initially) and wear it again tonight, I think. And maybe dream of a day in the not-too-distant future when my kids are once again predictably out of the house for set periods of time, and I could maybe stay in one for most of the day. 

[oznl]

10 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

Back to this Omutsu - once I gathered up the courage to put it on and emerge from my bathroom in just it, the plastic panties, and a t-shirt, I found it to be achingly comfortable - I didn't want to ever have to take it off again. But, alas, there was no way I could navigate the day with that thing crammed into even my largest cargo shorts. The good news is that, predictably, I did not wet it last night - I once again slept like a rock and woke up needing to pee. I contemplated the decadent luxury of oversleeping my alarm a bit and dampening such a worthy garment, maybe even on my side, but then I thought about the cleanup, and I decided to get up out of bed and swap it for a Lil' Splash, so I could go take on the day without needing a "wide load" permit.

I strongly suspect that it's your active mental management of your night diapers that's keeping you waking up.  It would be interesting where a few months of going to bed slightly damp and with a "set and forget" mindset may take you.

 

10 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

 I am going to give it a 15-minute wash (they're supposed to be washed a couple of times initially) and wear it again tonight, I think. And maybe dream of a day in the not-too-distant future when my kids are once again predictably out of the house for set periods of time, and I could maybe stay in one for most of the day. 

I own a few of these.  I like them a lot. They are very, very comfortable but I find a soaker is necessary for night use.  Their bulk doesn't seem to be reflected in infinite absorbency.  For soakers, the easiest is a 24" x 24" baby terry towel diaper folded.  These are cheap as chips to buy.  Their design makes them slightly prone to leaks for side sleepers (although less so than any disposable).

During the day, heavy usage can result in press-out leaks at my rear thighs.  They get squishy.

They are the only diapers I have that have any kind of decorative print on them, much to the chagrin of my beloved.  Despite not being very AB, I love the "penguins" and "sheep" ones most!

[Little Sherri]

I have a couple of field notes from living the diapered life today. First of all, my kids and I went to an amusement park with a couple of buddies and their kids, on probably the hottest day we've had so far. The actual temperature as indicated on the thermometer was 33 degrees C (91.4 F), however the humidex was allegedly 40 C (104 F) and I believe it, because the atmosphere was an oppressive, damp blanket. I decided to abandon convention and go with my gym diapers, because they have the best record of not chaffing me or causing rashes during exertion, and the plan was to walk probably 10 km in the sauna-like conditions. I brought three of them with me, and three Pampers Swaddlers size 7's that had been lightly perforated, as range-extending stuffers. 

I had a brief moment of fear clearing security, as they were probing the contents of all backpacks, including my diaper-bag for-the-day, but, based on memory, I was pretty sure they were only screening for metallic objects, weapons, and canned or bottled beverages that might compete with the exorbitantly-priced offerings in the park. True enough, they probed the bottom of the bag with a stick for hard objects, and didn't pay any attention to the three Prevail Perfit 360's or Pampers Swaddlers wrapped in a shopping bag. 

I spent the day bolting from ride to ride, and producing remarkably little in-trouser dampness. Given the tropical conditions, most of what I was drinking was going back to the atmosphere in short order. I only needed to change once, and that was because of sweat as much as anything. I'm happy to report that at the end of the day, I had no rash, no chaffing, no diaper disintegration, and no leaks. And, unlike the last time I went to that venue in a diaper, this time, I declined the white water rafting option, because it had me waddling out to the car park in a flooded Magnifico. The air was wet enough. 

Could I have spent the day in a Megamax? Possibly. Probably. But I was worried that if the plastic cover started chaffing me in a delicate area, and all I had with me was another plastic diaper, I might have ended up suffering quietly for the latter half of the day, cursing my strange wardrobe preferences. Whereas the Previals have been tested under fire, so to speak - if I can run 8 km in one, then I can probably walk that far in one, too. 

In other, less upbeat news, I may have been "outed" by a waistline excursion. I woke up this morning and went almost immediately to check on the pool, because today is going to be another scorcher, and I figured that the kids would want to be in there. I made myself a cup of coffee and headed out onto the pool deck. On my way out, I noted the presence of another car on the driveway, which reminded me that friends of my wife had arrived the previous evening before I got home, to stay with us for a couple of days while renovating their house. 

However, I didn't see any of them in the house when I got up, and they have two cars, so I assumed that they'd gone out. I went over and started cleaning the pool - emptying the filter basket, checking the chemical balance, and fishing some toys from off the bottom with a net, so that the pool robot could sweep up the dead pill bugs and any other debris that didn't stay afloat to be skimmed off by the filter. I was kneeling on the pool deck, reaching to retrieve a flat throwing disc that was laminated to the bottom at the deepest point, arm in the water, leaning well forward, concentrating on the task at hand, when I heard "Something stuck on the bottom?" from behind me. It was my wife's friend - she had somehow managed to make her way out onto the deck off of our kitchen with ninja-like stealth, apparently making no sound. 

I said something like "Yup - happens all the time. Always one pool toy that gets overlooked...", but my mind elsewhere, running an expedited systems check. I was kneeling on the pool deck, no onesie on, wearing oversized cargo shorts and an oversized t-shirt, which would have done a fine job of concealing a nappy, were I standing up, but, in my current position, stooped over... did I detect a breeze at my lower back? Perhaps I did... but there was no way to check, without drawing attention to the area I suddenly didn't want to draw attention to. And I had the goddamn pool toy pulled halfway up the side by then - if I abandoned ship, it would have looked weird. So, patiently, I had to keep working the stupid thing further and further up the side of the pool, until I could reach it with my hand. After an agonizing minute or two, and just as I was about to reach it, I heard the patio door slide open (this time), and when I looked over my shoulder, she had gone back into the house. Immediately, I pinned the net against the side of the pool with one hand, and reached back with the other. Sure enough, my fingers confirmed that the bottom of my t-shirt hovered over a finger's width of exposed lower back... and a finger's width of exposed, gathered white plastic, interspersed with splashes of pink, yellow and light blue, the cut-off edge of the pattern Rearz puts on their Lil' Squirts Splash diapers. 

Hmmm. How noticeable was that to someone standing 15  feet behind me and 8 feet above? I know that someone wired like I am would probably have caught it right away, but I also have my "diaper radar" on most of the time. What about someone not looking for, or expecting to see, evidence that their friend's husband is rocking a printed disposable diaper while he cleans the pool? Would it have read as underwear, or, perhaps gone entirely unnoticed? Do I have to worry about my wife possibly confronting me later tonight on the topic that one of her friends has seen me in a diaper? Or, worse, not saying anything about it, but silently fuming? Or would her friend say nothing? The possibilities boggle the mind. See, folks - not everything about the 24/7 life is glamour and glitz. 

Speaking of "diaper radar", none was required at the amusement park to detect the kid being lead out of the water park section by her parents, wearing a t-shirt over a pull-up. It was one of my buddies who said "Someone put pants on that kid" under his breath, causing me to look over. Two exhausted and overheated parents were walking, one of them pushing a stroller with a screaming baby in it, the other dragging a ~5-year old, who was also caterwauling, seemingly in protest to the indignity she was being subjected to, although in her case, screaming was not doing much to aid her cause, because it was drawing the eyes of everyone around. She was being towed by one hand behind her exasperated mom, and with the other hand, she was stretching her t-shirt down at the front, as far as it would go, but behind her, it only covered the upper third or so of a plain white store-brand pull-up that looked a couple of sizes too big for her. I thought at first that it was an actual diaper, but when she turned and tried to bolt away from her mom, her mom grabbed the collar of her shirt, and it pulled halfway up her midriff, revealing the pull-up's stretchy sides. They made their way noisily up one of the main walkways, while we stood in line for a ride. 

I assume something had happened to her shorts or pants in the waterpark that caused her parents to decide that their best course of action was to parade her, clad thusly, through the middle of the park, but I felt an immediate pang of sympathy - it would have been a lesser indignity, for sure, to let her walk in wet shorts or pants or whatever she'd had on - presumably, they didn't omit dressing her when they left home for the park, so they must have had something with them that she could have put on over the pull-up, and that probably would have caused her to not fight them for every inch of pavement they attained, on the kilometer or so trek they had in front of them to get to wherever they parked. 

I felt like I could read their thoughts - it was hot, they were tired, the kids were overcooked, she'd soaked her shorts or whatever she had on, and the best course was to just go back to the car and regroup, or maybe, head home entirely. The kid was barely beyond being a baby, nobody was going to care what she has on, and while she might be upset about the exposure, she'd get over it - the situation needed to end. But, as many of us know, it's this type of seemingly-minor humiliation that can lay the groundwork for a lifetime of hang-ups. Look no further than yours truly, for evidence. My mom, as far as I know, never dragged me through a public park, wearing only a diaper, but, over the years, there were moments here or there were it was just expeditious for me to appear briefly in semi-public, or at least in front of family, in my plastic underwear, and while those moments probably meant nothing to my parents, they sometimes left scars. 

[Little Sherri]

Well, my family, and the family staying with us, are out right now, with only my eldest at home, and she never emerges from the Chamber of Solitude (her room) prior to 3 PM if she's not working. So, I am having a "diaper day" in my office. Everyday is theoretically a "diaper day" for me, these days, but, being able to sit and work in just a diaper (and a golf shirt, for the purposes of looking professional in meetings) is still novel enough to be piquantly enjoyable. However I'm wrestling with if I should turn on the A/C - it's very hot outside, and starting to heat up in here as well, but there is still a cool-ish breeze that I am enjoying, coming through the window by my desk. Hmmm...

Someone else raised a topic that I unexpectedly wrote a novel about a few minutes ago, so I thought I would copy and paste it here, in furtherance to my desire to keep all of these memories in one place. The DD member asked if anyone else had been in the habit of scanning their surroundings at other people's houses as a kid, looking for evidence that someone wore diapers, and he related a story about noting that one friend of his who had a younger sibling had a LOT of cloth diapers in stock - seemingly way more than one kid would require, which made him suspect that maybe his buddy was diapered for bed. So I started thinking about the question, and it brought back some memories of my own, some of which I know I have related here before. Here goes:

The shoe was on the opposite foot for me most of the time - I was the one scouring the house to hide evidence of there being continued use of nappies. This never involved cloth nappies or plastic panties, that I recall - I know that I wore those from time to time, but it was quite infrequent, according to my mom, and other than plastic pants being in the back corner of my pajama drawer, there was scant evidence of them lying around - I think my mom dried them in the clothes dryer and folded them and put them in the linen closet, where they just looked like towels.

For me, it was mostly about making sure that the box of Pampers on the floor of my closet was buried in laundry or a blanket if someone was coming over who might end up playing in my room, and also making sure that there wasn't a balled-up diaper in the bathroom garbage can, or a new one sitting on the counter, or in a bag by the front door. 

I did used to reflexively scan my surroundings for evidence that anyone else wore diapers, for sure. I recall finding a bag of Huggies under the sink at my buddy Ryan's place when I was in maybe 2nd or 3rd grade, and asking him about them, and he said that they were for his grandma. However, his grandma didn't live with them, Ryan didn't have any siblings, and it goes without saying that Huggies would not have fit on his grandma even if she did stay over on occasion, so I suspected Ryan wore diapers to bed like I did. I tested the waters on the topic once, clumsily - I said something like "Did you ever wonder what it would be like to wear diapers again?", and he immediately said "Nope!" and that would have been the end of the topic, but then my younger brother started chiming in along the lines of "'Cause my brother hasta wea...." , causing me to physically put my hand over his mouth and say "My brother's an idiot" or something like that. My brother got the message, but not before a half-formed thought was left hanging in the air. 

Other than that, the only other time I recall having confirmation that someone I knew was still in diapers sometimes was when my brother and I were babysat by a neighbour who had two daughters, one about a year older than me, and one about a year younger. I would have been about 6 at the time, and I barely remember anything from that period in my life, but the fact that this has stuck with me throughout my life shows how much of an impression it made on me. The younger daughter wore diapers full time - I actually named myself after her here - her name was Sherri. We all knew this, because she sometimes played outside in just a diaper and a shirt, and one time her mom told us that she had to send her out like that because otherwise she would take her diaper off and stuff it behind a radiator or a mailbox, causing the landlord to complain. This was in an era when kids were still pretty much "free-range" - we were turned out the doors at what, by today's standards, would be considered a neglectfully young age, but back then it was par for the course, and most of us made it back alive. When I was 6 - 7 - 8 years old, I roamed the neighbourhood freely with my 3 - 4 - 5 year-old brother in tow, and that's what Melonie (the older sister) and Sherri did as well. I was riveted by Sherri - they used to call her my girlfriend, because I always wanted to go wherever she was likely to be. Why? Because she always had a diaper on. 

So when we were to be babysat by their mom, I was both excited and terrified - excited because I knew there would be diapers there, but terrified, because I didn't know if my mom had told them I also wore diapers (to bed). IF she knew, would she therefore make me put a diaper on at some point? In theory, the idea was electrifying, but when the rubber met the road, I didn't want to actually have to sit there in someone else's house wearing a diaper, when my younger brother did not. However, that never happened - although we were there pretty late (probably 9 or 10 PM, so, "late" for a 6 or 7 year-old), my brother and I were never told to get ready for bed. However, at one point, their mom called both of them over into the dining room, just around the corner from where we were sitting, and she changed Sherri, which was not unexpected, but was still fascinating to hear (I couldn't see anything from where we were sitting and I dared not try to sneak a peak), but then, after Sherri came walking back in her new diaper, we heard their mom telling Melonie to lie down, overlaid on the sound of another diaper being pulled out of the box. A few moments later, Melonie walked over in a nightie, and sat on the couch with us, and I knew right away she had a diaper on, too. That caused me to almost wish that I could wear one, but I sat with a lump of fear in my throat, too... was I next? But then we watched Knight Rider or something like that, and, it didn't happen. 

However I climbed on and off the couch and crawled around on the floor and generally made any excuse I could to try to get Melonie to play with me. I desperately wanted to talk to someone else who wore diapers to bed, but I couldn't summon the courage to say anything, so instead I just tried to get her to sit on the floor with me, or dance around. At some point her mom told me to sit still, or else I'd have to go stand in the corner. 

[Little Sherri]

I committed a cardinal sin yesterday, but I at least I remembered and reported it, before it resulted in any dire consequences. I mentioned earlier about sharing our house with friends whose home has been subject to major surgery; they are still here, because, predictably, these things always take longer than you think, and longer than the contractor estimates they will. How this plays into the story I'm about to tell, goes like this: my kids' bathroom has a lovely, quite deep clawfoot tub in the middle of the floor, with a shower, but, getting into and out of it requires quite the step. Their bathroom is also our guest bathroom. However, my wife's friend finds the ingress and egress to that classic cast iron vessel to be difficult, so my wife invited her to instead use our bathroom, which has a shower stall. 

I was in a hurry yesterday, getting changed after my computer-facing workday and putting on clothes suitable for physical work installing some trim with a friend for beer money. I was running late, and I fairly sprinted into the bathroom, dropped my 3/4-finsihed Rearz Lil' Splash, threw on a Megamax, pulled a onesie over it, and then threw on cargo shorts and an old t-shirt, before dashing out the door. I was half way to my destination when a question materialized in my mind, seemingly unbidden... what had I done with the Lil' Splash? I had no idea. I felt like I was having a slight stroke. I had not had anything to drink (yet). Where in God's name did I stash that diaper? I had no recollection of opening my closet, where the diaper bin is. Had I left it on the floor in the bathroom? Hmmm... I recalled a brief second of thought I had as I wrapped the diaper up... I think I had planned to drop it into one of the sinks for a second, and had thought something like "what does it matter if the outside gets a bit wet?"

So... had I left the damned thing in the sink? I did not have time to go back. I had to text my wife. I waited until I wasn't moving, and then fired: "I think I left 'something' on the counter or in a sink in our bathroom. If you're lending it to someone, please give it a scan first. Apologies and thanks." I got no response. 

I cogitated on it for a little bit, but then moved on to other thoughts, and had almost forgotten about it, when I walked into the house at 10 PM or so, and headed up to our room. My wife opened with "So they (our guests) were going to take a shower." So I said "So did you have a chance to have a look first?" She said "Yes." with the finality of a gavel falling. 

"So... I left a diaper on the counter?"

"You left a diaper in my sink." (My sink is also her sink, however her sink is not also my sink... there was no bilateral agreement arrived at on this convention, it just evolved at our last house and carried on at this one). 

"Oops, sorry - I was in a rush. I'd meant to toss it in the bin. I take it you threw it away?"

"Yes, I threw it in with the others. But I really think you should change.... them... more often."

"Uh.... huh?"

"It was really heavy. That's not good for your skin."

"Uh... right. Okay. I'll take that under consideration. Thanks for tossing it, and my apologies again for leaving it there."

"Well at least you remembered it was there. Otherwise things could have gotten... awkward."

Things already WERE awkward, at for me, but at least I wasn't facing her after she'd had to attempt to explain away an enormous printed diaper to our houseguests.