All My Mother's Rules (Ch. 70 & Epilogue - 2/13/24)

[TheJ]

2 hours ago, spark said:

It didn't appear that Mom did anything about homeschooling.    Homeschooling requires parents to register with a district, and the district is responsible for showing evidence that education is happening.

If I remember correctly from a Last Week Tonight episode, the requirements vary from state to state. Some states have almost no supervision on homeschooling. It's unfathomable that is allowed in a developed country.

[spark]

6 minutes ago, TheJ said:

If I remember correctly from a Last Week Tonight episode, the requirements vary from state to state. Some states have almost no supervision on homeschooling. It's unfathomable that is allowed in a developed country.

Sadly, you're right.   https://hslda.org/legal

I based that on what I know about California's rules.

I could see the Mom going with homeschooling, but I didn't think she would ignore Sarah's schooling.

Ever since I finished this chapter I've had this vision of what this poor girl must have gone through.    Endure weeks and weeks confined to a crib for most of the week with no real human interaction.  I'm sure the only interaction she had was when her sister played with her and she wasn't allowed to fully communicate because of the forced baby talk rule.

 

[MinnesotaWriter]

It's been a long time coming for this chapter. I mean that quite literally.

I've gone through and re-edited the whole story over the past couple of weeks and added up the word count in the process. It's 194,000 words through 62 chapters. And, with "Diapers Never Lie," there are another 32,000 words. Between the two combined, this will likely be at 250,000 words when I'm finished.

I really do appreciate everyone who's gotten this far through the story. According to Wattpad (which does tend to overestimate in my opinion), the reading time is about 14 hours long right now. 

We'll see how things break down in terms of the number of chapters and word count when I'm finished, but it will be about four to six chapters left to get things wrapped up. Endings are hard, because there is a balance between not saying enough and stretching them out for too long. I think I've got a good mix of that.

There is some good news, though. I've been working concurrently on a sequel set about six years in the future, which should be finished as this story wraps up. We've got a lot more to cover in Sarah's journey.

3 hours ago, spark said:

I knew it!

I'm sure you'll explain in the coming chapters, but I wonder how they found out.  I think the red flag was pulling communication from Sarah, which put Lisa on alert and then disenrolled her in school.

It didn't appear that Mom did anything about homeschooling.    Homeschooling requires parents to register with a district, and the district is responsible for showing evidence that education is happening.  

Great chapter!   It's heartbreaking to see how much Mom destroyed Sarah's will and turned her into a pathetic character.   

I wouldn't interpret the lack of information about how the mother setup the homeschool to imply that she didn't follow whatever processes, whatever they might be in this circumstance, but yes, there is a lot to be explained in the next few chapters.

2 hours ago, BabySofia said:

Thank God!!!!! Finally!

I know. I think as a writer it is a lot easier for me to put Sarah through some of the things she went through, because I was aware of where things were going to end. It was getting hard not to say anything anytime someone brought up the need for CPS to be involved. 

2 hours ago, kerry said:

All I can say is: Thank goodness!

I know. Toward the end, I was worrying that I was dragging it out a little too much, but there were specific scenes I wanted to write, and I wanted Sarah to get to the point she was at before being rescued.

There are a lot of stories about people being forced back into diapers/babyhood, and I feel like there are a lot of times, especially when it's parents/kids like this story, where the protagonist accepts it too easily without it being portrayed as the traumatizing experience that it would be.

I wanted to delve into how it was impacting her mindset, but also with how it affects her having been suddenly brought out of it.

2 hours ago, JustaFoxGirl said:

Been reading this for a while (without an account) and feel like now is a good time to chime in with my thoughts.

 

Firstly, I'm glad that Sarah will finally be away from her psycho mother. Hopefully she can begin healing now, but I know this kind of abuse stays with a person. That being said..

The second thing is, speaking as someone who is incontinent, her acceptance of diapers is a good thing long-term. Despite all her best efforts in potty training, anytime Sarah made it to a toilet it felt more like she got lucky than anything. It seems pretty clear that she is, for all intents and purposes, incontinent. Being able to accept that and her needs is healthy, even if it came from a place of abuse.

Thirdly, once again trying to see a positive in the nightmare, perhaps Sarah will understand why Samantha likes being babied now. Even though she was forced and abused by it, and a lot of what she was thinking was a result of that, I can see her having a better understanding of how her friend feels. I recall it was something Sarah struggled to understand at the time and more or less went along with it because that's what friends do. Although after all this, I also wouldn't be surprised if Samantha is shocked out of wanting to do it anymore after learning about what happened, but will Sarah let her? It's going to be an interesting dynamic going forward.

I'm looking forward to how this story finishes, and hopefully there is some good to come from all this for Sarah.

Welcome! That's pretty cool that this is what got you to make an account.

In the final chapters, we'll definitely get into how she comes to better understand her incontinence, as well as how this experience has shaped things with her friends. 

Like I mentioned above, I'm also in the process of writing a sequel that will fast forward about six years. It's focused on the lingering effects of what Sarah had endured, and how it impacts her life and relationships.

2 hours ago, spark said:

Great thoughts!

@MinnesotaWriter did you do any research on types of incontinence that Sarah would have?  I don't do deep research, but I do check if there is a condition that could explain the issues.

The abuse broke Sarah.  The passage of time is intentionally vague, which makes sense given what Sarah has gone.   I sense that it is months rather than weeks because she lost track of the weekends.   

She is in a worse place than Lisa ever was,

I hope there is an update soon.

I have some thoughts on the causes of her incontinence. I promise we'll a good in-story explanation, same with the amount of time that has passed.

45 minutes ago, TheJ said:

If I remember correctly from a Last Week Tonight episode, the requirements vary from state to state. Some states have almost no supervision on homeschooling. It's unfathomable that is allowed in a developed country.

It really is. I remember that episode. Was actually homeschooled for a couple of years myself. It was done well, in my case, but even done well is rarely as good as in a public school, and I'm aware (from interaction with other homeschoolers) that there are plenty of cases where the educational quality is very subpar. And, of course, it makes it way too easy to hide abuse.

I can see there being a case to be made for homeschooling being acceptable under certain rare circumstances (health issues, bullying, learning disabilities that require specific care, or other unique circumstances, like being a child actor or athlete) but not because you are anti-science and want to indoctrinate your kids into believing the world is flat.

24 minutes ago, spark said:

Sadly, you're right.   https://hslda.org/legal

I based that on what I know about California's rules.

I could see the Mom going with homeschooling, but I didn't think she would ignore Sarah's schooling.

Ever since I finished this chapter I've had this vision of what this poor girl must have gone through.    Endure weeks and weeks confined to a crib for most of the week with no real human interaction.  I'm sure the only interaction she had was when her sister played with her and she wasn't allowed to fully communicate because of the forced baby talk rule.

 

I know a thing or two about homeschooling. Let's just say I know the name of that acronym without needing to look it up.

 

[spark]

4 minutes ago, MinnesotaWriter said:

I can see there being a case to be made for homeschooling being acceptable under certain rare circumstances (health issues, bullying, learning disabilities that require specific care, or other unique circumstances, like being a child actor or athlete) but not because you are anti-science and want to indoctrinate your kids into believing the world is flat.

I taught at 3 different virtual charter schools from 2012 to 2021.   The supervision that we were able to provide was limited in all 3 schools, and only 1 school even attempted to do it at a satisfactory level.   The students that I teach are frequently subjected to abuse, and it could be hard to find in that environment.   I did call CPS once, which was when a mom wouldn't let us teach her son.  He became an adult right before I quit that school and self-conserved himself, which I'm not sure is legal.

I knew the homeschool route was probable, but I didn't want to let myself think about it.  I was at one of the schools when the Turpins were discovered, and I would have quit if they were at my school.  Even when I read this chapter the first time, I refused to accept what I read.  I thought that Sarah was saved the same week school started, and then I re-read it and realized just how bad it was.  FTR-I planned on writing a bit on the story, but that was shot after reading this. 🙁

As bad as the picture of abuse that you've painted, there are worse cases in the news.    You may have surprises as the details unfold, but Sarah was fed, provided for, and wasn't physically tortured.  I wonder if it's worse to be confined to a crib through intimidation than to be locked in a cage.

 

 

[Emmi]

4 hours ago, spark said:

I knew it!

I'm sure you'll explain in the coming chapters, but I wonder how they found out.  I think the red flag was pulling communication from Sarah, which put Lisa on alert and then disenrolled her in school.

It didn't appear that Mom did anything about homeschooling.    Homeschooling requires parents to register with a district, and the district is responsible for showing evidence that education is happening.  

Great chapter!   It's heartbreaking to see how much Mom destroyed Sarah's will and turned her into a pathetic character.   

Depends on where you live. In some places all they have to do is say they are homeschooling and that's the end of it. Abusers will often use it as an excuse to isolate their victim and keep them from mandatory reporters. It's also how religious fundamentalists can keep their daughters home and teach them things like child minding and house cleaning. Some of the stories these victims tell after getting out are horrifying.

[Babytom948]

2 hours ago, TheJ said:

If I remember correctly from a Last Week Tonight episode, the requirements vary from state to state. Some states have almost no supervision on homeschooling. It's unfathomable that is allowed in a developed country.

In most places you can quit school if you want at 16 I think.

[AdultInnocence]

4 hours ago, JustaFoxGirl said:

Been reading this for a while (without an account) and feel like now is a good time to chime in with my thoughts.

 

Firstly, I'm glad that Sarah will finally be away from her psycho mother. Hopefully she can begin healing now, but I know this kind of abuse stays with a person. That being said..

The second thing is, speaking as someone who is incontinent, her acceptance of diapers is a good thing long-term. Despite all her best efforts in potty training, anytime Sarah made it to a toilet it felt more like she got lucky than anything. It seems pretty clear that she is, for all intents and purposes, incontinent. Being able to accept that and her needs is healthy, even if it came from a place of abuse.

Thirdly, once again trying to see a positive in the nightmare, perhaps Sarah will understand why Samantha likes being babied now. Even though she was forced and abused by it, and a lot of what she was thinking was a result of that, I can see her having a better understanding of how her friend feels. I recall it was something Sarah struggled to understand at the time and more or less went along with it because that's what friends do. Although after all this, I also wouldn't be surprised if Samantha is shocked out of wanting to do it anymore after learning about what happened, but will Sarah let her? It's going to be an interesting dynamic going forward.

I'm looking forward to how this story finishes, and hopefully there is some good to come from all this for Sarah.

Come to accept them but in the wrong way. It was still negligence in the first place that caused things to get as bad as they are. She should have been seen by a doctor, and in the examination of the cause, they would have found damage that was likely caused by the fall in cheer leading. The mom is guilty of negligence at minimum.

With Lisa's support finding out the right way what was going on, she could have come to accept them, if surgery wouldn't have been able to fix the problem.

1 hour ago, MinnesotaWriter said:

Like I mentioned above, I'm also in the process of writing a sequel that will fast forward about six years. It's focused on the lingering effects of what Sarah had endured, and how it impacts her life and relationships.

Looking forward to this!

36 minutes ago, spark said:

I knew the homeschool route was probable, but I didn't want to let myself think about it. 

I was wondering if that was the route her mom was going to go as well. We can tell some time has passed by the way the author did a clever time jump in the day after day routine losing track of time. If the proper results from work being done isn't being turned in, I would suspect they would get concerned.

Also, Lisa is good with computers. I'm not against the idea that she got access to her home network or one of them gave her access if they were ever on the wifi, and discovered the camera feed.

[spark]

3 minutes ago, Babytom948 said:

In most places you can quit school if you want at 16 I think.

This is one area where the United States is technically ahead of other developed.  It depends on each state, and it's between 16 and 18.   Unfortunately, the dirty little secret is we don't do much to address truancy once a child is 15.   FTR, it's rarely a case where parents keep them from school, it's parents not able to get them to go to school.  It's called school refusal and happens way too often.  I have 2 of them on my caseload.

I don't know what my school would have done in Sarah's case.  At least in California, there are two situations.  The first is if Mom physically disenrolled Sarah from the school, but we're dinged on her if she doesn't enroll in another school.   We will ask which school to send the records to, and in California, you can't just say that you're homeschooling them.  If we can't find them in CALPADS, they count as our student.  She would be considered a dropout.

The second case is if Mom just stops sending Sarah to school.   In our school, it's the house secretary who makes the first call.  After 3 or 4 days of absences, the house secretary would call Mom and ask what's up.    A vague response would raise a red flag, and we would elevate it to what we call a SARB.   

I think my school is kind of weak in this area, but I'm almost certain that if we were unsure of Sarah's location, an administrator would talk with her friends to find out what they contacted her.  That would a HUGE red flag, and the sheriff would be called.

I'm excited to read how CPS worker responds when they see Sarah lying in a crib with a soiled diaper.    I'm fairly certain they would immediately send the sheriff to Mom's work and a CPS responder to Emilia's daycare.  The question is: does Mom see CPS on the Nanny cam, and make a run for it.

 

 

[BabySofia]

3 minutes ago, spark said:

does Mom see CPS on the Nanny cam, and make a run for it.

I had not even thought of this... though I would hazard that at least a month has passed at this point based on her comments of weekends. She's probably not always checking it now that she's sure her 'baby' is docile and staying put in her crib. I hope it's only been that long... A part of me fears several months have passed by in this state. The girl has a very uphill road to get past this trauma.

[Night Rain]

Finally Sarah's free from the abuse that is her mother.  But where's she going to go from here will Sarah stay with Lisa or will she be placed in a foster home. Will her sister be taken away as well or stay with the mom. I'm looking forward to learning how the CPS found out.

[spark]

4 minutes ago, BabySofia said:

I had not even thought of this... though I would hazard that at least a month has passed at this point based on her comments of weekends. She's probably not always checking it now that she's sure her 'baby' is docile and staying put in her crib. I hope it's only been that long... A part of me fears several months have passed by in this state. The girl has a very uphill road to get past this trauma.

I still have to get to sleep tonight, so until I'm told otherwise, I'm going with the belief that it isn't Valentine's Day yet.

This has been a slow devolution from an honors student on the cheerleading team to where we are now.    Literally, it was painfully slow given that we are nearing the 3rd anniversary of the beginning of this story.  But that decline was gradual until it just fell off the cliff.    

There is something that connects me to this story, and I don't think it's just the ABDL side of me.   Mind you, I probably wouldn't have been as vested in the story without the diaper element, but it connects to the teacher in me hardcore.  I have a specific student that I visualize when I see Sarah, and she isn't far of form the AI picture he used.    This specific student wasn't my student when this story started.  Sarah's class would have graduated last year.

[erik_hamburg]

9 hours ago, MinnesotaWriter said:

CPS.

Thank you so much! Really glad about CPS now being involved. 

My guess: It was Emilia. I can imagine her talking about her sister at daycare and telling the adults how her older sister is just a baby in diapers that stays home alone. 

[AndTheChips]

5 hours ago, Night Rain said:

Finally Sarah's free from the abuse that is her mother.  But where's she going to go from here will Sarah stay with Lisa or will she be placed in a foster home. Will her sister be taken away as well or stay with the mom. I'm looking forward to learning how the CPS found out.

Zero chance of sister staying with mom. No agency would let mom keep her (nor should they). I think someone earlier had said something about mom serving her time, taking classes, and maybe eventually getting Emilia back (but not Sarah obviously), and that is sad in its own way. I’d honestly prefer mom to go to prison and stay there until she rots, (Maybe in isolation like Sarah) and Emilia to find a new adoptive family that also loves and accepts Sarah despite Sarah probably going to live with Lisa… because otherwise she would likely just age out of the system eventually. Aka Emilia’s new parents would treat sarah as their daughter’s sister, a beloved and always welcome guest. 

[bubble-pop1]

Finally, it's the salvation of hopeful light showing the end of Sarah's tunnel filled with punishment and humiliation. I'm looking forward how this incredible story concludes.

[DiaperStoryReader]

I am looking forward to Sarah seeing a doctor and finding out just what the injury she took in that fall that started this situation actually is and what medical options are available.

[kerry]

17 hours ago, MinnesotaWriter said:

There are a lot of stories about people being forced back into diapers/babyhood, and I feel like there are a lot of times, especially when it's parents/kids like this story, where the protagonist accepts it too easily without it being portrayed as the traumatizing experience that it would be.

Most of those stories lack any effort whatsoever of realism. Yes, Sarah's mother is a monster, but you carefully led us to understand what kind of monster she is, and it is clear here that she has fallen into her own delusion of what is "best" for her daughter. Sarah's breakdown, because we see it happen slowly, is entirely believable.

[AdultInnocence]

I really hope her sister goes with her to Lisa's house. Her sister needs to also unlearn that Sarah is a baby because she has to wear diapers. Emilia is going to need therapy and work to undo the effects brought on by all this.

[JustaFoxGirl]

20 hours ago, spark said:

Great thoughts!

 

Thanks. I've had a lot of thoughts rattling around in my head this whole time, but nobody to actually talk to about it.

17 hours ago, MinnesotaWriter said:

Welcome! That's pretty cool that this is what got you to make an account.

In the final chapters, we'll definitely get into how she comes to better understand her incontinence, as well as how this experience has shaped things with her friends. 

Like I mentioned above, I'm also in the process of writing a sequel that will fast forward about six years. It's focused on the lingering effects of what Sarah had endured, and how it impacts her life and relationships.

 

Thank you! I'm definitely looking forward to the timeskip story. I figured now was a good time to pop in to chat with people about it. Never been much for forums but figured I'd give it a shot.

15 minutes ago, kerry said:

Most of those stories lack any effort whatsoever of realism. Yes, Sarah's mother is a monster, but you carefully led us to understand what kind of monster she is, and it is clear here that she has fallen into her own delusion of what is "best" for her daughter. Sarah's breakdown, because we see it happen slowly, is entirely believable.

There is something about her mother than I don't think anyone has mentioned. Throughout the story, we've seen her be incredibly strict and rigid, the earliest chapters show Sarah being spanked, but it's something she expected to happen, which tells us it's a common occurrence. Even something like Christmas follows her exact specifications. I think part of the reason Sarah has accepted being a baby is because it's the only time her mother has shown anything resembling love and affection, even though her mother is only doing it to humiliate her. But it doesn't change the fact that the level of care required to infantailize a teenager is immense. Even with the recent chapter and leaving her alone most of the day, she still uses her lunch break to come home and change/feed Sarah. Of course, this isn't REAL love, it's abuse and she's only doing it to punish Sarah, but to Sarah's broken down mind it's the love her mother seemingly never gave her.

[MinnesotaWriter]

Thanks for all the comments. Lots of intriguing theories for how CPS got involved. We'll have an answer by the end of the story.

19 hours ago, AdultInnocence said:

I was wondering if that was the route her mom was going to go as well. We can tell some time has passed by the way the author did a clever time jump in the day after day routine losing track of time. If the proper results from work being done isn't being turned in, I would suspect they would get concerned.

Also, Lisa is good with computers. I'm not against the idea that she got access to her home network or one of them gave her access if they were ever on the wifi, and discovered the camera feed.

That's an interesting theory for how Lisa could have discovered things. 

18 hours ago, BabySofia said:

I had not even thought of this... though I would hazard that at least a month has passed at this point based on her comments of weekends. She's probably not always checking it now that she's sure her 'baby' is docile and staying put in her crib. I hope it's only been that long... A part of me fears several months have passed by in this state. The girl has a very uphill road to get past this trauma.

We'll get a sense for the time span soon enough. I left it pretty open-ended intentionally, trying to give a sense of how Sarah has gotten lost in the role of being a baby rather than having her counting out the days like someone who is trapped in a prison cell.

16 hours ago, Night Rain said:

Finally Sarah's free from the abuse that is her mother.  But where's she going to go from here will Sarah stay with Lisa or will she be placed in a foster home. Will her sister be taken away as well or stay with the mom. I'm looking forward to learning how the CPS found out.

Lots of good questions, and the answers will be coming soon.

14 hours ago, erik_hamburg said:

Thank you so much! Really glad about CPS now being involved. 

My guess: It was Emilia. I can imagine her talking about her sister at daycare and telling the adults how her older sister is just a baby in diapers that stays home alone. 

You're welcome. And that's another good theory. Kids that age aren't exactly known for their ability to keep secrets.

10 hours ago, AndTheChips said:

Zero chance of sister staying with mom. No agency would let mom keep her (nor should they). I think someone earlier had said something about mom serving her time, taking classes, and maybe eventually getting Emilia back (but not Sarah obviously), and that is sad in its own way. I’d honestly prefer mom to go to prison and stay there until she rots, (Maybe in isolation like Sarah) and Emilia to find a new adoptive family that also loves and accepts Sarah despite Sarah probably going to live with Lisa… because otherwise she would likely just age out of the system eventually. Aka Emilia’s new parents would treat sarah as their daughter’s sister, a beloved and always welcome guest. 

I think that's a given. Going to stay mum for now about what happens to both of the sisters, but there isn't any scenario where the mom gets them back. 

7 hours ago, bubble-pop1 said:

Finally, it's the salvation of hopeful light showing the end of Sarah's tunnel filled with punishment and humiliation. I'm looking forward how this incredible story concludes.

Yes, it was a long time coming, but that doesn't mean that Sarah is necessarily going to have an easy time the next few chapters.

6 hours ago, DiaperStoryReader said:

I am looking forward to Sarah seeing a doctor and finding out just what the injury she took in that fall that started this situation actually is and what medical options are available.

We will get a doctor's visit, and some information about what is causing Sarah's bedwetting/incontinence and what can or can't be done about it.

2 hours ago, kerry said:

Most of those stories lack any effort whatsoever of realism. Yes, Sarah's mother is a monster, but you carefully led us to understand what kind of monster she is, and it is clear here that she has fallen into her own delusion of what is "best" for her daughter. Sarah's breakdown, because we see it happen slowly, is entirely believable.

Thanks!

2 hours ago, AdultInnocence said:

I really hope her sister goes with her to Lisa's house. Her sister needs to also unlearn that Sarah is a baby because she has to wear diapers. Emilia is going to need therapy and work to undo the effects brought on by all this.

What happens between Sarah/Emilia was a difficult decision to arrive at. How to say how much exactly she'll even be able to consciously remember from that age, even if she is still impacted subconsciously by what she went through.

2 hours ago, JustaFoxGirl said:

There is something about her mother than I don't think anyone has mentioned. Throughout the story, we've seen her be incredibly strict and rigid, the earliest chapters show Sarah being spanked, but it's something she expected to happen, which tells us it's a common occurrence. Even something like Christmas follows her exact specifications. I think part of the reason Sarah has accepted being a baby is because it's the only time her mother has shown anything resembling love and affection, even though her mother is only doing it to humiliate her. But it doesn't change the fact that the level of care required to infantailize a teenager is immense. Even with the recent chapter and leaving her alone most of the day, she still uses her lunch break to come home and change/feed Sarah. Of course, this isn't REAL love, it's abuse and she's only doing it to punish Sarah, but to Sarah's broken down mind it's the love her mother seemingly never gave her.

I think that the initial scene where the mom humiliates/spanks Sarah for the bad grade is a good intro into how messed up the relationship is between Sarah and her mother. It's clearly wrong and unfair, even compared to real-life examples of a teenager being disciplined for poor grades. It's really meant to show that Sarah accepts this type of abusive behavior as normal and goes along with it unquestioningly. It sets the stage for how Sarah complies with punishments that are progressively worse, until she is being babied full-time during Christmas break.

I wouldn't say that Sarah views the babying as proof that her mom loves her, though she does believe that her mom loves her. Sarah isn't wanting to be a baby because of any of the affection she is getting from her mother. She wants to be a baby because she believes she is a baby, because she has been unable to successfully get past any of the mother's tests/rules that would prove she is a big girl.

Her initial reaction to the babying was very much in the "I deserve this punishment" mindset, which, with that last failure of potty training changed to "I want to wear diapers because I'm incapable of controlling my bladder."

[JustaFoxGirl]

4 minutes ago, MinnesotaWriter said:

I wouldn't say that Sarah views the babying as proof that her mom loves her, though she does believe that her mom loves her. Sarah isn't wanting to be a baby because of any of the affection she is getting from her mother. She wants to be a baby because she believes she is a baby, because she has been unable to successfully get past any of the mother's tests/rules that would prove she is a big girl.

Her initial reaction to the babying was very much in the "I deserve this punishment" mindset, which, with that last failure of potty training changed to "I want to wear diapers because I'm incapable of controlling my bladder."

I see, that makes a lot of sense. It'll be very interesting to see how this affects her going forward, since she seems to correlate her incontinence with being a baby, I wonder if that will stop just because her mother is out of the picture. At the very least, the poor girl has a lot of therapy in her future. It's really tragic, but there's some hope for her at least.

[Lost Little Neppy]

I'm incredibly tense about how long it's been for CPS to finally get involved. I'd like to think that Lisa came to the rescue, but I dunno.

[spark]

On 1/15/2024 at 7:51 PM, BabySofia said:

I had not even thought of this... though I would hazard that at least a month has passed at this point based on her comments of weekends. She's probably not always checking it now that she's sure her 'baby' is docile and staying put in her crib. I hope it's only been that long... A part of me fears several months have passed by in this state. The girl has a very uphill road to get past this trauma.

I still have to get to sleep tonight, so until I'm told otherwise, I'm going with the belief that it isn't Valentine's Day yet.

This has been a slow devolution from an honors student on the cheerleading team to where we are now.    Literally, it was painfully slow given that we are nearing the 3rd anniversary of the beginning of this story.  But that decline was gradual until it just fell off the cliff.    

I just watched a video on YouTube (last meals) and the question was what is your worst fear?  The answer was: being locked in a box.   That's exactly what happened

Way back in the day, we used to get directors' commentary.  Once this story is completed, and all spoilers are done, I want to hear the author's commentary on how this story was built.  I think my writing has been inspired by how MW has written his stories, but I couldn't drag out a story that long

 

 

[BabySofia]

4 hours ago, spark said:

Literally, it was painfully slow given that we are nearing the 3rd anniversary of the beginning of this story.

I think we're only maybe a year and a half to 3/4 through the timeline in the story though itself. I think that's part of what has made this such a well written (and painful) tale, is that it's not just a five day descent into babyhood for the rest of her life. Looking forward to some closure on it here soon though. (Tomorrow? Tonight? Please?)

[Lost Little Neppy]

The more I think about it, the more I can't help but make the comparison of Sarah's treatment to what children like Genie Wiley were subjected to. The silver lining is that Sarah, unlike Genie, wasn't subjected to this for most of her life before being rescued, so Sarah will hopefully be able to recover with the right treatments.

I'm hoping that Sarah and Emilia stay together and aren't separated.

[spark]

13 hours ago, BabySofia said:

I think we're only maybe a year and a half to 3/4 through the timeline in the story though itself. I think that's part of what has made this such a well written (and painful) tale, is that it's not just a five day descent into babyhood for the rest of her life. Looking forward to some closure on it here soon though. (Tomorrow? Tonight? Please?)

I just reread the start and this started on October 1.  She had the fall the next day, and that was the day of her first accident.      The first baby days for Sarah was in November, but the real descent didn't start until her mom confronted her about the Pull-ups Sarah purchased.

Imagine the horror of having your child buy herself absorbent underwear to avoid wetting herself.