Giving up the toilet for Lent

[willnotwill]

OK, let’s get down to business,” Dad said as we sat around the table.    Mom took her place at the opposite end of the table.    The two boys, Billy, 13, and Johnny, 9, on one side, and the two sisters, Katie, 12, and Dee, 10. on the other.

“Lent starts in a couple of weeks.    So, we need to come up with our idea for this year.”    Every year, Catholics typically give up some item or activity for Lent, a sacrifice to reinforce the season starting from Ash Wednesday and culminating with Easter Sunday.

The family always took it a step further.   They picked something for the whole family, and we all stuck together.    In the past, we had done away with dessert, TV, and, last year, even the car.   That wasn’t too hard on the kids, who rode the school bus anyhow.  Other than having to walk with Mom to the store to help bring the groceries back and to walk to church, it wasn’t too big a deal.  Dad had a more challenging time but took public transit to work for the duration.

“Any ideas?”  he said, poised with a pen above a blank pad of paper.

“It’s going to be hard to top last year,” Mom said.   “We were getting into the essentials.”

“Electricity!” Billy shouted.   Dad wrote that down

“The telephone,” Dee blurted out with almost an immediate angry look from her older sister, who was almost glued to the thing.

“Food,” Johnny said.

“Breathing,” Katie said in a surly tone.

Everybody was getting into the game now. “The toilet,” Billy added.

Mom finally waved her arms, “Come on, let’s get serious.”

OK, they all thought a bit more.   The X-Box, computers, the internet, buying new clothes, eating out, and maybe a dozen more plausible options were thrown out.

Dad started pulling blank pages off his pad.    “I’ve got an idea.    Everybody takes the list of what we have and rank how hard it will be, and I’ll merge everybody’s rankings into a consensus.”

That was pure Dad.   He’s an engineer and figures there’s a way to calculate the answer to any problem.    They all got to work on their lists.   Everybody quickly ran through ranking the items and passed in the papers.    Dad grabbed all the papers and left the room while Mom suggested they all have dessert.   She had made pudding and started to pass them around.

About half an hour later, Dad came back into the room with the list.   “OK, let’s run down the list until we find one that wouldn’t be impossible for us to do.    Breathing is on the top, so we can rule that out.    Along with food.  Electricity is next, and I thought about that, but without electricity, we wouldn’t have heat and the well pump, so that’s not practical.    I also ruled out computers and the internet as I need them for work, and you kids do need them for school.”

They looked at the next item that had not yet been crossed off.   “The toilet.”

Mom said, “Well, I think we can eliminate that.   What are we supposed to do?   Go do it out back?”

“We could get a portable toilet,” Billy joked.

“A portable toilet is still a toilet,” Dee countered.

“We could pee off the back deck,” Billy laughed.  This was becoming fun for him.

“Well, maybe YOU could,” Katie snapped back, “It’s a little different for girls.”

“And it wouldn’t make the yard very sanitary,” Dad interjected.

“We could all wear diapers,” Billy said, adding yet another ridiculous suggestion.

“Yeah, right, Even I’m too big for them, ” Johnny, the youngest of the family, said.

“Haven’t you seen those commercials for Depends?”  Billy said, laughing so hard that he could barely get it out.

Finally, Mom started tapping the table with her fingers.   “OK, children, let’s quiet down and get serious.”  She turned to Dad.   “Please go on, dear.”

Dad sat quietly, still looking at the pad with his pen in his hand.   He moved to strike out the toilet entry from the list and then stopped.

“Even though Billy was joking, that might actually be possible.”

“Ewwww,” the two girls in tandem groaned.   “Wearing….and going…in diapers?   Talk about not sanitary.”

Still, the father hadn’t moved to strike off the toilet from the list.

“Well, it might be possible,” Father said.

“James, you’re not serious,” Mom said.

“Well, it bears looking into.   We can investigate it, and we still have time to choose something else if this can’t work.”

And with that, the meeting was over.

“James, I can’t believe you’re serious,” Mom said that night in private.

“Well, we strive to pick something that would be the most difficult without being impossible.    Why don’t you call around tomorrow to determine if it is feasible?   See if you can find diapers that will fit us.”

“Ok, James.  If you think this is a good idea.”

“Acme Medical Supplies.   This is Jen. “

“Hi, I’m looking for information on adult diapers.”

“Yes, what would you like to know.”

“Well, I don’t know anything about it.    I need to know how the sizes go and what would be best.”

“OK, are you looking for a brief with tapes or a pull-up kind?”

“Oh, I hadn’t thought about that.   I guess I was thinking like a big baby diaper.”

“That would be the kind with tapes.    Those are usually a bit more absorbent and easier to change when used.   The pull-ups are more like underwear and are best if the patient uses the bathroom sometimes.”

“Oh, well, we won’t be using the bathroom.”

“We?”

“I guess I better explain…”   Mom went and explained the whole Lent family meeting.

“Oh, my.   I’ve never heard anything like that.    Well, we have things that will work for that.    You’ll need to know everybody's waist and hip size, but I suspect most of you will probably fit into mediums.”
“Anything else I need to know?”

“Well, you’ll need some wipes to clean up.   We have larger ones than the traditional baby wipes.    We also have some barrier cream.    I suppose diaper rash is not intended to be part of this.”

That night, Mom explained the results of her call.   As near as she could determine, the idea of diapers would work, and while it would be an expense to buy a sufficient quantity, it wouldn’t be impossible.

She had also floated the idea with the school nurse.    Again, after the initial explanation, the nurse agreed to support them and let the kids keep changing supplies in the office for as long as the kids could take care of themselves.

“James, I’m not sure I want to do this, but I can’t come up with anything other than my personal feelings about why we can’t.

And so it went.   The plans progressed.   The diapers were ordered, and things were made ready.     Fat Tuesday arrived, and mom told the kids to bathe, get ready for bed, and make their last visits to the toilet.

Early Ash Wednesday morning, Mom and Dad got up and fitted on their diapers.   Each was detailed to their respective children.   Dad with the boys and Mom with the girls.    They made sure the children could put their own diaper on.
They all got dressed and headed to the car.

They walked into the church for an early mass.    They were all aware of the subtle bulk between their legs as they went up to receive their ashes.

[diappernsfwboy]

Can I be in the story

[SoakedinTexas]

I love this story line. I will be interested on where you take it. 

[willnotwill]

After church, the parents split up, with Dad taking the two older kids to the middle school and mom taking the two younger ones to the middle school.  Each parent delivered changing supplies to the respective school nurse, who had been already briefed on the situation.  

KATIE:

Katie made her way to class and sat down next to her friend, Alex.

“You’ve got a smudge on your face,” Alex said.

“Ashes.   It’s Ash Wednesday.  We’ve already been to church.”

“Oh,” Alex said.  “You gotta go around like that all day?”

“That isn’t even the half of it,” Katie said rolling her eyes.

“What?” Alex said.
Katie was about to explain but thought better of it.   “Never mind.”

JOHNNY:

Johnny entered his third-grade class.   He looked around to see if anybody noticed his diaper, but nobody noticed.   He sat down nervously, feeling the bulk around his middle.   The teacher came over and whispered to him.

“I understand what you’re going through.   If you need to change, feel free to leave and go to the nurse anytime.”
 
Class droned on, and by the time lunch came around, he was starting to relax.   Nobody seemed to pay him any mind.   A couple had made jokes about the ashes on his forehead, but nobody noticed the diaper.

After lunch, he realized he had to pee. He tried to hold it, but it wasn't easy. Finally, the final bell rang. He stood to head for the bus and realized he couldn’t hold it. He stopped and flooded the diaper. He looked around to see if anybody noticed, but everybody else was headed for the exits and not paying attention to him.

He felt the weight of the now-soaked diaper sagging on him.   He’d change when he got home.

DAD:

James got to work and set about his morning routine.   He kicked open the mail application on his computer, and started through his inbox, taking sips of coffee between messages.   After getting through the incoming, he headed out to the coffee maker for another cup.   After finishing that, he realized he needed to pee.   Maybe all this coffee wasn’t a good idea.   He went back to his office and tried to overcome thirty-five years of toilet training.   Finally, he got it going.    

How much could this diaper take?  He had stuck a spare and some wipes in his briefcase, but he had left that in his car.   He decided he’d stick it out until lunch time.   Then, he headed out to the local sub shop, ducking into the men’s room.   He released one more time into the diaper and changed it.   So far, so good.

MOM:

Jane returned from dropping the kids off and started doing things around the house.  Soon, she felt pressure in her gut.   Oh, my.   What was she going to do?   She could use the toilet, but that wouldn’t set a good example for the kids.   Why had she agreed to all this?

She could stand it no more.   She bent over slightly and let it come out.   A brief moment of relief was replaced with the sensation of the feces being confined against her skin by the diaper.    Yuck.   She gingerly walked to the bathroom.   She lowered the soiled diaper down and grabbed a wipe.    It came off covered in poop, but she still had a lot of mess on her.    She gave up and started the shower.