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

[JustaFoxGirl]

21 minutes ago, MinnesotaWriter said:

You're almost making me wish I wasn't wrapping this story up. There's a lot that could be covered during Sarah's recovery. A trial, if it were to happen, would be fascinating, along with all the details about how she gets re-integrated with school.

I could probably find a way to outline another 20 chapters that would inevitably turn into 40, but at the same time, I think we'll get to a clear ending to her story arc and they main premise of the story. Yes, I could continue writing about all the characters and keep it going as a long soap opera, but that wasn't ever the intent of the story.

There's always a balance between ending too abruptly or over-explaining, and I don't want to venture too far to the latter option.

At this point, I can say fairly confidently that we've got three chapters + an epilogue to be posted here, with things wrapping up early next week. I'm also just about finished with the sequel, which jumps ahead six years, skipping past a lot of the immediate recovery to look at how things are for Sarah a long way down the road. I'll have some more details about it when I post the next chapter sometime tomorrow evening.

Honestly, I'm just glad that you've gotten to the end at all. So many stories never finish, or end abruptly because an author gets bored. I appreciate all the work you've put into this for all these years, and while I'll also be sad to see it end, I'll also be glad it does. I'm looking forward to it all.

[WBDaddy]

I mean, I knew in my heart Sarah's mom was a mirror image of my own mother, only her temper was far more under control.  But spelling it out like you did hit me in a deep, dark place where I really wasn't expecting such a hit.  Not a bad thing, at all.  Just surprising.  And a further tribute to what an excellent job you've done with this story.  

In fact, there's literally only one issue that I have, and it's a minor quibble, which is why I've shut up about it.  As someone who has experienced a lifetime of back problems due to various and sundry injuries over the years, I find it incredible that someone could have had a spinal injury severe enough to cause nerve damage but not severe enough to have any kind of residual instability in the spine that would trigger fairly frequent and very painful muscle spams long after the initial insult and healing process.  

Not saying it's impossible, just saying that it seems wildly unlikely that the injury did nerve damage but didn't leave lasting spinal issues, especially when the injury went completely untreated. 

[MinnesotaWriter]

Chapter 68: The Right Choice

Amanda let me sleep on the decision. That didn't make it any easier.

I didn't get much sleep. I woke up in the middle of the night to a soaked diaper, my head spinning from dreams that I could only remember bits and pieces of. As accustomed as I was to just going back to sleep in that scenario, the hospital diapers weren't trustworthy enough to ensure that there wouldn't be a leak by morning, so I was forced to get up and change.

That had been enough to fully wake me up, so I ended up staring at the dark hospital room ceiling for an hour or so, contemplating the pros and cons of the decision I needed to make in the morning.

I had been running from all of my problems since that first day I had wet my pants this fall. That would have to end now. But that was true regardless of which choice I made. There would be no hiding my incontinence, regardless of which family I chose to go live with.

If I were to go live with Lisa, that would be just a half-hour drive to the Higgins' place. Wisconsin was a lot further away, but Amanda said they had plane tickets reserved if I were to choose to go live with my half-sister. There were still too many questions to deal with.

Did I want to reunite with my friends? Would they be able to accept me again or understand what I'd gone through? How was I supposed to apologize for the way I had so hurtfully distanced myself from them? What about school? How was I to explain my absence this semester or get caught up in time to graduate?

But did I instead want to live with my sister again? How would she react to how our relationship had changed again? Would I be reminded of Mom every time I looked at her? And could I entrust the secret of my incontinence to these total strangers I would be living with?

I wasn't able to come up with satisfactory answers to all of those questions, but I managed to figure out enough to finally reach a decision as I at last drifted off to sleep.

I woke up to the smell of bacon, the feeling of the nurse's hand rubbing my shoulder, and the sensation of a wet diaper between my legs. I didn't want to open my eyes just yet, but Debrah continued to rub my shoulder gently. "It's time to get up. I've got a special breakfast for your last day here."

I yawned and opened my eyes. It had apparently not been a restful night of sleep. My blanket had fallen to the floor, and I was barely covered by the sheet. My bare legs and wet diaper were fully exposed.

"Amanda and Jodie will be here in about thirty minutes, so you should have enough time to get cleaned up for the day and eat your breakfast before you go. I put it on the desk for you."

I rolled out of bed after Debrah had left and shut the door behind her. I decided that I'd rather eat breakfast before getting in the shower. The room was warm enough that I didn't feel the need to put on any additional clothes, as I sat at the desk in just a t-shirt and a wet diaper.

It was the best breakfast I'd had so far at the hospital. Pancakes topped with strawberries and banana slices, syrup, and whipped cream, along with a side of bacon and eggs, a cup of yogurt, and a tall glass of orange juice.

I felt a bit like a prisoner on death row, receiving their last meal before meeting their fate. Though, weren't they supposed to be allowed to pick out what they wanted to eat for that final meal? Not that I would have chosen differently for the breakfast.

Last night, Amanda had said that they were ready to take me to the Higgins place or Emilia's new family today and that I would just need to tell them what I preferred.

Had I made the right decision as I was lying in bed last night? All the questions were rattling around in my head as I tried to focus on my food so as not to continue second-guessing myself.

I made it about halfway through the meal before I was stuffed. I didn't want to be wasteful, but there simply wasn't any way I could eat any more. Then it was time to get cleaned up. The wet diaper was tossed in the trash, and I squeezed into the tiny shower stall.

I needed something to distract me from the choice I had made. Standing underneath the pouring water wasn't helping. I could still change my mind if I wanted to. It wasn't as though I had told Amanda yet.

My mind went back and forth several times in the few minutes it took to quickly scrub myself down, but that mental exercise only ended up at the same conclusion I had reached last night.

I estimated that I had about five minutes to finish getting dressed once I had gotten dried off from the shower.

I laid down on the bed to put a new diaper on. I managed to get the fit exactly right without needing to adjust any of the tapes, even a tiny bit. I'd become quite the expert at diapering myself over the past week.

Debrah said I could take one of the hospital outfits with me if I wanted to. I did put on a pair of gray sweatpants. They were quite comfy. But I didn't care for the bland t-shirts that went with them, opting instead for one of the Fortnite shirts that had been brought from home.

I looked around the room one last time, taking my eye off the clock I had been impatiently staring at while waiting for Amanda and Jodie to arrive.

The hospital room was tiny, but it had given me more freedom in the past week than I'd had in the previous two months. The Nintendo Switch was plugged in on top of the dresser where I had left it last night. I would have to leave the gaming system the nurse gave me behind. That was a bummer, but I was sure I would be able to get another one.

Everything I had brought with me was tucked inside the backpack that I had tossed onto the unmade bed, which was mostly a couple of changes of clothes that Amanda and Jodie had packed for me from home, which they had managed to get washed for me yesterday.

There was also a tote bag sitting on the floor that Debrah had put together for me with diapers and changing supplies inside, more than enough to get me to either destination.

There was a knock at the door. I yelled for them to come in.

A little over a week had passed since I had arrived, and it was time for me to leave the hospital.

I told Amanda the decision I had made last night.

---

Before we could do anything, we had to stop at home first.

From the outside, the house looked exactly as I had left it. It wasn't possible to tell that no one had lived in it for the past week. All the Christmas ornaments had come down about a week before CPS had shown up, so the house was as bland and boring as any of the other ones on the street.

Jodie got out of the front passenger seat first and then opened the back door for me to get out of the car.

The weather had warmed considerably in the past week. Even with my jacket unzipped, I didn't feel all that cold as I trailed behind Amanda and Jodie up toward the entrance to the house.

The door, which had been knocked in when they had come for the emergency visit last week, had been repaired. I wondered briefly how we were supposed to get in now, but Amanda produced a key from her pocket to unlock the door and let us in.

While the exterior of the house had been unchanged, there were some subtle and not-so-subtle signs that no one had been living there the past week.

I sneezed a couple of times in the entryway because of the dust. We passed the kitchen, where unwashed dishes had been left sitting for a week. I could smell them even from the hallway.

"You said your mom had some suitcases we could use in the basement?" Jodie asked me.

I nodded and led her down the stairs to where two large suitcases had been gathering dust in the back of a closet. When was the last time I had been on a vacation? It must have been before Emilia was born.

The suitcases were already quite hefty, even without anything in them. We managed to heave both of them up the stairs. Once I was packed, I was going to need some help to lug them around.

And that was the easy part of what we had come here to do.

I followed the two women down the hallway to my bedroom, apprehension building up inside me as we neared the doorway to my old room.

I paused outside the hallway. I was still far enough from my bedroom that the crib was hidden from view as I peeked inside the room. I didn't think I could bring myself to walk another step.

Amanda put a hand on my shoulder. "If you don't want to go in, we can bring out all your clothes and things to the dining room, and you can sort and pack them there."

I shook my head. I needed to do this. No more running away. Besides, I didn't quite trust them to be able to decide which clothes would work best to wear over my diapers.

I stepped into the bedroom, catching the faintest hint of baby powder as I took a deep breath and surveyed the room. Everything was exactly where it had been left. The crib sat against the wall. Its side door was still slid open. A pacifier was sitting abandoned in a jumble of blankets inside it.

Some of my dresser drawers were still ajar, having been left open from when Amanda and Jodie had conducted a hasty search for clothes to bring with me.

As I stood in the middle of the room, I realized something. I was probably never coming back here. I didn't know how to feel about that. This was the house I had lived in my whole life. The thought of moving away from it had never occurred to me before. But here I was, in my bedroom one last time, and I would never be here again.

But before I worried about that, I needed to pack.

I sifted through all the clothes hanging in the closet and what remained inside my dresser. There wasn't much that I wanted to take with me. I grabbed a sampling of different outfits, ignoring anything that was too tight-fitting to likely work with a diaper.

I set clothes out on the bed as I found things I wanted to keep, and Amanda and Jodie helped organize them into the suitcases. I finally opened the top dresser drawer where the underwear and pull-ups had been kept. I wasn't sure when, if ever, I'd be ready to try to move on from wearing diapers again. I still hadn't gotten a diagnosis back from the urologist, but I didn't have much hope for good news.

I ran my hand through the pile of underwear. Packing it felt silly. The idea of being potty trained was too far-fetched. I compromised and grabbed a half-dozen pull-ups instead. I wasn't ready for them yet, either, but I would have them available in case I changed my mind.

Besides my clothes, there was really only a few things that I wanted to pack, which were my computer, monitor, and other gaming items. It took some finagling to get them into one of the suitcases, but afterward, we were able to pack a bunch of clothes all around them to make sure nothing would break on the journey.

We were at the doorway when I realized there was one more thing I needed to grab. I hoped it was where I expected it would be. I ran back into Mom's bedroom. When I had been grounded in the past, there had been times when I had sneaked into her bedroom while she was away to play with my phone. She had never caught on, and the hiding spot was still the same. My phone was tucked back in the bottom drawer of her nightstand.

Did I want to know what I would see once it was turned on? How many missed messages would be waiting for me? I pressed the power button anxiously. Nothing happened. That was almost a relief. I guess it made sense that it wouldn't have a charge after sitting untouched for a couple of months. I tucked the phone into my pocket and went back to join Amanda and Jodie in the entryway.

They carried the suitcases to the trunk for me. Not that it was much easier for them, but I wouldn't have managed to get it down the front steps myself without tripping.

I was relegated again to the passenger seat as we backed out of the driveway and sped down the road.

I didn't look back. Had I made the right choice?

---

We pulled off of the highway on what was now a familiar exit. A few turns later, we were on a winding gravel road. I slid my hands under my dress, gripping the fabric tightly in my hands.

I had spent the drive trying and failing to figure out what I was supposed to say when I arrived. I had run through a bunch of different ways to try to explain things, but each felt more unsatisfactory than the last.

As we pulled into the driveway, I caught a glimpse of a familiar face looking back out at me through the window.

[Nat]

I guess she is going to see Lisa. I wonder if she is going to still go move in with Amelia and her half sibling and dad and her step mom? 

[sklawlor]

yay, I was hoping that she would have elected to stay in town with her friends.

[JustaFoxGirl]

I really love these chapters that are essentially entirely Sarah's thoughts. Other people are there, but it's not about them, but Sarah and how she feels and what she's thinking about.

 

3 minutes ago, Nat said:

I guess she is going to see Lisa. I wonder if she is going to still go move in with Amelia and her half sibling and dad and her step mom? 

I'm pretty sure she's choosing to live with Lisa. A big focus on this chapter was Sarah deciding to stop running, and one of her biggest regrets was "running" away from her friends. There is an argument that not going with Emelia is another form of running, but there's nothing to confront there. Her sister has been manipulated by her mother too, and she needs time away from Sarah to either forget, or grow past seeing her as a baby. If Sarah went now, she'd have to face not only Emilia treating her like a baby sister, and possibly Emilia blaming her for their mother being sent away, but also complete strangers who don't know her and are now forced to deal with an incontinent teen and a toddler that views herself as the big sister to her.

 

On the flip side, she has a strong support system with Lisa and her family, plus Samantha and Desi. She was so frustrated before that she got angry at how everything was going that she literally ran away from them. She's had a lot of time to think, and a lot of time to regret it. Even if she's only here to say goodbye before leaving to live with Emilia, she's still running away. Sarah needs to stay and confront her friends, and give herself the chance to truly forgive herself and accept their help.

[Nat]

No doubt Amelia will need therapy because she probably has trauma because she was basically ripped away from her mother and placed into a strange home with random strangers and different rules. Now she is going to be placed in a home far away with a strange man that is her dad they say and a new woman and a actual baby sibling. I can't imagine how traumatizing this must be for a 4 year old. She will need additional support in her school and counseling since this can cause behavior issues in a kid due to trauma. 

[Lost Little Neppy]

Emilia might be too young to remember how horribly her mother treated her (forcing her to act like a baby because she was having trouble with potty training). But given how close she was with Sarah, I think she might remember bits and pieces of her older sister.

Everyone's memories are different, and how far back we remember is different from person to person, though traumatizing things tend to not go away, unless they were blacked out or something.

[BabySofia]

Based on all of this I assume she's staying with Lisa, but based on 'familiar face' alone it could have been her sister too? She reasoned through her bad options quite well. You wrote her thoughts as she made an impossible decision quite well, and then the horrible return to the house was good too. Hate having to wait for the next part when I assume you'll clear it up the rest of the way.

As far as some of the comments about Amelia, if she was under two I would say it would be reasonable to assume she'll forget things, but I can clearly remember an incident with an uncle abusing my aunt when I was barely four. I told my uncle don't you dare hurt my aunt, even as my parents scrambled to get me out of the room. What happened to Amelia is much more traumatic I think, not to mention at a developmental time she'll certainly remember it. With the right counseling she'll get past it, but it's not going to just magically go away just because she's somewhere else. She'll also have the added trauma of not having mommy anymore too. 

The whole situation sucks for everyone. I just hope prison sucks even more for their mom!

[JustaFoxGirl]

24 minutes ago, BabySofia said:

Based on all of this I assume she's staying with Lisa, but based on 'familiar face' alone it could have been her sister too?

It also mentions a "now familiar" exit off the highway. If they went to Wisconsin, nothing would be familiar to her, but Sarah had been to Lisa's house several times.

[BabySofia]

26 minutes ago, JustaFoxGirl said:

It also mentions a "now familiar" exit off the highway.

I missed that part. Perhaps I'm projecting, as the evil authoress I am, that one might mess with us and go the opposite way...? 

It's nice to think @MinnesotaWriter isn't as evil as me, though! 

[spark]

My earliest memories come from when I was 4, but I might have been 3.  All I know from before then is what I've been told. I suspect that Emilia will not remember much about her potty training experience later in life, but she probably remembers being treated like a baby right now.   It had to be confusing for her when they traveled out of town without Sarah, and what lies Mom told her when she left.   

We also don't know anything about her dad, other than he is the type of guy who would sleep with a crazy woman the first night they met.   At least he is stepping up to take care of the daughter that he never knew, but that family just bit a lot more than most families could handle.   

From a story standpoint, I don't think Sarah could choose Wisconsin.    The story needs closure between Sarah and her friends.   I'm wondering if she was tempted to put the pacifier in her mouth.   Right now I think she is adverse to the baby items, but I suspect that might come back.

Sidenote- I hope the Higgins take Lisa and Sarah on a nice trip for spring break.  I don't think either one of them have been anywhere.

[JustaFoxGirl]

57 minutes ago, BabySofia said:

I missed that part. Perhaps I'm projecting, as the evil authoress I am, that one might mess with us and go the opposite way...? 

It's nice to think @MinnesotaWriter isn't as evil as me, though! 

That's fair, it was easy to miss. I actually had to go back and re-read it to make sure I did see it.

 

19 minutes ago, spark said:

From a story standpoint, I don't think Sarah could choose Wisconsin.    The story needs closure between Sarah and her friends.   I'm wondering if she was tempted to put the pacifier in her mouth.   Right now I think she is adverse to the baby items, but I suspect that might come back.

Sidenote- I hope the Higgins take Lisa and Sarah on a nice trip for spring break.  I don't think either one of them have been anywhere.

Well, the upside is Lisa has the baby stuff she keeps for Samantha, so if Sarah does want to continue being babied, she has access to stuff and someone who would take care of her out of kindness and not hatred.

[Night Rain]

It's nice to see that Sarah made the right choice. She will be a lot better off with Lisa and her family instead of with her sister. I would of liked to have seen what some of the messages were on Sarah's phone.

[WBDaddy]

3 hours ago, BabySofia said:

Based on all of this I assume she's staying with Lisa, but based on 'familiar face' alone it could have been her sister too? 

Her sister wasn't a half hour drive away.  She would have had to get on a plane.

[BabySofia]

47 minutes ago, WBDaddy said:

Her sister wasn't a half hour drive away.  She would have had to get on a plane.

I guess I was thinking they wouldn't have gotten her to the dad yet. It's only been a week? I'm willing to bet my initial read was wrong though. 

[spark]

27 minutes ago, BabySofia said:

I guess I was thinking they wouldn't have gotten her to the dad yet. It's only been a week? I'm willing to bet my initial read was wrong though. 

I had a pretty good idea of what decision Sarah would make, but that is only because I could see this from the perspective of a story winding down.  

In MW's credit, he did a great job portraying the decision that Sarah made within the confines of keeping a story engaging.

I love the way that MW wrote Amanda's character.  FTR- it is similar to how I deal with my students.   I'm pragmatic, and I don't deal with the MH.  Amanda is not ignoring the MH, but it's not the most important thing for her.  The most important thing for Amanda is getting her a place to stay.     He did a good job channeling a case manager.

[MinnesotaWriter]

On 2/5/2024 at 7:01 PM, WBDaddy said:

In fact, there's literally only one issue that I have, and it's a minor quibble, which is why I've shut up about it.  As someone who has experienced a lifetime of back problems due to various and sundry injuries over the years, I find it incredible that someone could have had a spinal injury severe enough to cause nerve damage but not severe enough to have any kind of residual instability in the spine that would trigger fairly frequent and very painful muscle spams long after the initial insult and healing process.  

Not saying it's impossible, just saying that it seems wildly unlikely that the injury did nerve damage but didn't leave lasting spinal issues, especially when the injury went completely untreated. 

That's certainly fair. I was trying to come up with a scenario to explain how Sarah's incontinence began that would be both obvious to the readers but not obvious to her. That is a good point about the back pain. In retrospect, that would have been something clever to include to further hint at the cause of her continence issues.

Of course, that still is an unlikely scenario for becoming incontinent, but also better than "healthy 14-year-old begins wetting her pants for no discernable reason."

12 hours ago, BabySofia said:

I guess I was thinking they wouldn't have gotten her to the dad yet. It's only been a week? I'm willing to bet my initial read was wrong though. 

It has been a week. I think I noted that the Mom was caught trying to go to Canada, so Emilia would already have been in the relative area of Wisconsin, which in my mind could speed things up some. Probably a little faster than real life still, though.

15 hours ago, BabySofia said:

I missed that part. Perhaps I'm projecting, as the evil authoress I am, that one might mess with us and go the opposite way...? 

It's nice to think @MinnesotaWriter isn't as evil as me, though! 

That would have been deliciously evil, but I can confirm it wasn't the Mom that Sarah saw through the window.

14 hours ago, Night Rain said:

It's nice to see that Sarah made the right choice. She will be a lot better off with Lisa and her family instead of with her sister. I would of liked to have seen what some of the messages were on Sarah's phone.

The phone is going to get powered up at some point. The timing with that is intentional.

15 hours ago, spark said:

From a story standpoint, I don't think Sarah could choose Wisconsin.    The story needs closure between Sarah and her friends.   I'm wondering if she was tempted to put the pacifier in her mouth.   Right now I think she is adverse to the baby items, but I suspect that might come back.

It was one of those things where the protagonist needs to wrestle with a decision that, from their perspective, is really difficult, whereas an audience has a good sense of what decision she is going to make. Storywise, she has to reconnect with her friends.

This is where I'm very much influenced by the story "Mimi's Struggle." There was an alternative ending written -- though I'm not even sure where to find it anymore, it's been ages and ages since I read it (and in retrospect, I don't really endorse doing that without an author's permission) -- where Mimi goes to live with a friend from school and learns to handle her incontinence issues independently. I always really preferred that conceptually to having a kid get trapped with a crazy parent who isn't allowing them to develop and mature despite their disabilities.

14 hours ago, JustaFoxGirl said:

Well, the upside is Lisa has the baby stuff she keeps for Samantha, so if Sarah does want to continue being babied, she has access to stuff and someone who would take care of her out of kindness and not hatred.

Yep, and Samantha has some baby stuff of her own at her place as well. I think the biggest challenge for Sarah will be figuring out her relationships with all her friends evolve/change based on 

[Nat]

15 minutes ago, MinnesotaWriter said:

This is where I'm very much influenced by the story "Mimi's Struggle." There was an alternative ending written -- though I'm not even sure where to find it anymore, it's been ages and ages since I read it (and in retrospect, I don't really endorse doing that without an author's permission) -- where Mimi goes to live with a friend from school and learns to handle her incontinence issues independently. I always really preferred that conceptually to having a kid get trapped with a crazy parent who isn't allowing them to develop and mature despite their disabilities.

If I remember correctly, the mom seemed toxic in her own way but with helicopter parenting Munchausen by proxy type style about her incontinence. 

[JustaFoxGirl]

5 hours ago, MinnesotaWriter said:

Yep, and Samantha has some baby stuff of her own at her place as well. I think the biggest challenge for Sarah will be figuring out her relationships with all her friends evolve/change based on 

This is what I'm most interested in seeing, both here and in the sequel. Sarah's determination to stop running and move forward in her life is very optimistic.

 

I also wanted to say, I forgot to bring it up, but I love how Sarah's mom fell for the classic blunder of trying to cross the border into Canada while being a wanted criminal.

[Nat]

1 hour ago, JustaFoxGirl said:

This is what I'm most interested in seeing, both here and in the sequel. Sarah's determination to stop running and move forward in her life is very optimistic.

 

I also wanted to say, I forgot to bring it up, but I love how Sarah's mom fell for the classic blunder of trying to cross the border into Canada while being a wanted criminal.

Narcs will be fucking stupid. I bet the patrols at the border checked her background and alerted FBI to come collect her. They do check everyone there when going through the border. 

[spark]

7 hours ago, MinnesotaWriter said:

This is where I'm very much influenced by the story "Mimi's Struggle." There was an alternative ending written -- though I'm not even sure where to find it anymore, it's been ages and ages since I read it (and in retrospect, I don't really endorse doing that without an author's permission) -- where Mimi goes to live with a friend from school and learns to handle her incontinence issues independently. I always really preferred that conceptually to having a kid get trapped with a crazy parent who isn't allowing them to develop and mature despite their disabilities.

That sounds a lot like the story that I'm writing currently.  In my story, the protagonist is a grown man who has a growth disorder (I looked it up and a real thing).  The mom gaslights her son in such a way that he ends up being trapped with a mother who won't let him grow up.  The question becomes how they can escape.  

I can see a lot of influences in your writing, but you've done it in a way that makes it feel real.   

7 hours ago, MinnesotaWriter said:

Yep, and Samantha has some baby stuff of her own at her place as well. I think the biggest challenge for Sarah will be figuring out her relationships with all her friends evolve/change based on 

Most of your audience has experience with that struggle, and we know that it comes in waves.   At first those waves were very high, and the troughs were very low.  Eventually those waves leveled out and weren't quite as drastic.

Samantha will have her own journey to go through, but Sarah has to process it while dealing with trauma.  She will remember that lack of stress that she had while stuck in the crib.   I suspect Lisa and Desi will end up 'babysitting' a few times in the next few years.

[JustaFoxGirl]

2 hours ago, spark said:

Samantha will have her own journey to go through, but Sarah has to process it while dealing with trauma.  She will remember that lack of stress that she had while stuck in the crib.   I suspect Lisa and Desi will end up 'babysitting' a few times in the next few years.

Sarah is a good person. Even if she decides not to continue being babied, I can't see her getting mad or treating Samantha any differently. She did think about Samantha's situation specifically many times, and not once was there any hint of resentment, other than Sam's ability to decide when she wears diapers. Of course, that was before Sarah accepted her need for them so it wouldn't be an issue now.

[spark]

7 minutes ago, JustaFoxGirl said:

Sarah is a good person. Even if she decides not to continue being babied, I can't see her getting mad or treating Samantha any differently. She did think about Samantha's situation specifically many times, and not once was there any hint of resentment, other than Sam's ability to decide when she wears diapers. Of course, that was before Sarah accepted her need for them so it wouldn't be an issue now.

This story wouldn't have worked if Sarah was a PITA.   I think knowing Samantha's issues help Sarah through her two-month sentence in the crib.   Sarah might even have a greater understanding of Samantha's desire because she has lived that reality.

I'll make a bold prediction that tomorrow's update will deal with Sarah's first interaction with Lisa since the mall.  Sarah is still hung up over the fact that she told Lisa to F-off the last time she saw her, and Lisa is likely so relieved that Sarah is now safe in a home.

Ps- those girls need a really cool trip.

[Bonsai]

What happens now to the house and to its content? The mother is still legally the owner (unless she was renting it), with certain rights and obligations, so I have the feeling those dirty dishes will remain unwashed in the sink for a long while.

I hope someone switched power and heaiting off and closed water and gas.

Paying overdue bills for all utilities will also be unpleasant, but only mom can terminate contracts made under her name.