Please Click Here to listen to the Audio Recording

Sue sipped her coffee absentmindedly, listening to her sister Jenny’s latest update.

Jenny had moved back into the neighbourhood a few years ago, and while they were no longer as close as they had been as children, they did their best to catch up from time to time.

This time it was Jenny’s turn to play the host.

“And Brandon’s doing really well at college”, Jenny boasted.

“He just got his first exam results back – all distinctions and high distinctions!”.

“That’s great”, Sue replied, smiling.

Brandon always had been a high achiever, and she was glad to see her eldest nephew was getting on so well.

“How are things going with Ally?” Jenny enquired, always keen for an update on Sue’s only child.

“Not so well right now, I’m afraid”, Sue exclaimed.

“You know how Ally still wets the bed.

Well, I think someone at school must have found at and spread it around”.

“Oh, how awful for her. Still, you know how it is with kids – give it a couple of weeks and they’ll all be talking about something else”, Jenny sympathised.

“To make matters worse, she’s now refusing to wear her diapers to bed.

The teasing has really gotten to her”. Sue elaborated. “I mean, I really do sympathise.

There aren’t many kids who still wear diapers at eleven, but all that washing is really getting to me, and worst of all her room is really starting to smell”.

“Really? I would have thought she’d rather wake up in a wet diaper than a wet bed”. Jenny commented.

“Deep down I think she would, but she’s too upset to think it through clearly.

She keeps saying that only babies wear diapers. I think she’s hoping that if she doesn’t wear them she’ll somehow stay dry”.

“Sounds like a real problem. Have you looked at pull-ups? Maybe she’d feel better about those”. Jenny suggested.

“We tried them about a year ago, but they just leak right through.

Ally really is a heavy wetter”. Sue responded.

“And you’ve tried all the usual stuff, restricting fluids and all that?”.

Jenny was trying to be helpful, but Sue had been through it all before.

“Of course, none of it worked” Sue replied, exasperated.

“We even spoke to her doctor. He did a few tests, but couldn’t find anything wrong.

Said it was just something she’d have to outgrow, but that in the mean time she was best to wear protection.”

“I’ll bet she didn’t like that” Jenny quipped.

“No, not at all. She doesn’t even want to talk about it.” Sue continued.

“She’ll lie to me about wearing them as well – tells me that she’s put them on when she hasn’t”

“Maybe you’ll just have to insist”. Jenny had always been the stricter parent.

“Don’t give her a choice. Don’t let her go to bed unless she shows you that she’s got them on”

“I’ve tried that as well. She just takes them off as soon as I leave the room.

” Jenny grimaced at Sue’s last comment. “Before you start, I’ve tried punishing her, rewarding her, nothing seems to change her mind.

Did you ever go through anything like that with Dylan?”

Dylan was Jenny’s youngest son.

He was now almost sixteen, but his severe autism meant that he required constant care, and had never been toilet trained.

“Well, not the social side of it, obviously.

But when he was about three he went through a phase where he would pull off his diapers and sift through the contents”. Jenny replied.

“Eww, how disgusting!” Sue recoiled.

“How did you handle it?”

“We put his sleeper on backwards!” Jenny laughed.

“That way he couldn’t unzip it to get to his diaper.

Thankfully he got past that stage in a few months”.

“Well, I don’t think that would help me much” Sue laughed along.

“He actually had a bit of a relapse a few years ago when we first moved in here.

Not sifting through his diaper, thankfully, but taking it all off.

He didn’t take it well, sleeping in a new room.

I guess taking off all his clothes was his way of dealing with the sensory issues” Jenny continued.

“How did you handle that?” Sue queried.

“Much the same way as when he was little, actually.

We did a bit of Googling and came across these one-piece pyjamas.

They zip up in the back, and have this little tab that closes to stop him even getting at the zipper.

He gave us hell for a few days, but settled down in the end.

We actually only needed to use them for a week or so, until he’d settled in”.

“That doesn’t help me much either”, Sue sighed. “Ally’s difficult, but I certainly couldn’t do that to her, much as I might wish I could when the washing piles up!”

“Maybe you don’t have to”.

An idea brewed in Jenny’s head.

“What do you mean?” Sue asked, eager for a solution.

“I’ve still got Dylan’s pyjamas here.

Maybe if you showed them to her, told her that she’d have to wear them if she didn’t keep her diapers on, she’d realise you were serious even if you never do use it”. Jenny suggested.

“If she’s so against wearing diapers because they make her look babyish, I’m sure she’d find the thought of those pyjamas even worse”.

“I don’t know, that might be going a bit far.

Anyway, what makes you think they’d hold her? Dylan’s autistic, but I’m sure Ally would figure them out” Sue wasn’t keen on the idea.

“If it’s just a threat it doesn’t really matter whether they would or wouldn’t.

But I’m certain they would. Autism aside, Dylan’s always been a little Houdini, and he never came close”. Jenny explained.

“I still think it’s a bit much” Sue replied, non-committally.

“Suit yourself, Sue, but whatever you do you can’t just let her get away with it.

I mean, laundry aside, she’s been lying to you, disrespecting you and outright refusing your instructions.

Doesn’t bode well for when she hits her teens, particularly when her father’s not around to help sort her out.

Heck, if she were mine, I think I’d take her over my knee.” Jenny said, never being one to hold back.

“I think that’s a bit harsh” Sue replied, offended.

“I can see it all from her point of view as well, and I know how upsetting it all is for her”.

“Well, it’s your decision. But take the pyjamas anyway.

Dylan’s well and truly outgrown them, so you may as well just throw them out or donate them somewhere if you don’t end up using them”.

Jenny retrieved the aforementioned pyjamas and placed them in a bag for Sue.

“I’m not wearing a diaper, and that’s that!”

Ally shouted at Sue.

She stood barely an arm’s length from Sue in her bedroom, gesticulating wildly to emphasise her point.

“I’m not leaving until you’ve put it on” Sue exclaimed.

Ally could see the exasperated look on her mother’s face. She hoped that Sue was on the verge of giving in, and leaving her alone.

Couldn’t her mother see that wearing a diaper at eleven years old was absolutely humiliating?

“No one wears diapers at my age” Ally shouted.

Her mother could be so unreasonable at times.

It wasn’t like she wet the bed every night.

“Most kids your age aren’t still wetting the bed” Sue snapped back, offending Ally further.

“Now put it on this instant!” Ally could see her mother wasn’t going to go away.

“Oh all right” Ally shouted. Sue looked away as Ally pulled the diaper on and taped it up.

Having worn diapers at night all her life, Ally was an expert at getting them on and off, and managed the task in just a few seconds.

“There, happy now!” Ally exclaimed, throwing herself onto her bed, still as annoyed as ever.

Sue didn’t reply, not trusting herself to avoid inflaming the situation further.

“You know I’ll just take it off again” Ally muttered under her breath.

Sue was shocked.

She knew that Ally had taken off her diaper at night more than once only to wet the bed, and suspected she had avoided discovery by staying dry on other occasions, but this was the first time Ally had been rebellious enough to proclaim it to her in advance.

Maybe Jenny had a point after all.

“Wait there” Sue instructed in a clear, no nonsense tone.

Realising she may have gone too far, Ally obeyed.

She sat gingerly on her bed, absentmindedly stroking her stuffed bear as she wondered what her mother had planned.

Sue retrieved the pyjamas from the cupboard where she had stashed them earlier and marched back to Ally’s room, still infuriated by her daughter’s defiance.

She held the pyjamas up in front of her, letting Ally see them in detail.

“I’ve always said that wearing diapers and wetting the bed doesn’t make you a baby, but your recent behaviour has been more like that of a naughty toddler than an eleven-year-old.

So if I can’t trust you not to keep your diaper on, you’ll have to wear this to be sure of it”. Sue threatened.

“What the hell is that?” Ally asked, unsure of what her mother was getting at.

“One piece pyjamas, like you used to wear as a toddler.

But they zip up at the back so you can’t get them off”.

Sue explained, ignoring Ally’s language and praying she would get the message.

“Where the hell did you get those!” Ally asked.

She couldn’t believe her mother would have gone out and bought them for her.

“From Aunt Jenny” Sue admitted, “They were Dylan’s and she thought they might help our situation”.

“You’ve been talking about this to Aunt Jenny!”. Ally was outraged.

This was a deeply private matter, and her mother was practically broadcasting it to the world.

Didn’t she realise how much it upset her having to wear diapers, even when no-one else knew.

“I’ve needed all the help I can get” Sue emphasised.

“There’s no way in hell those pyjamas would stop me!” Ally shouted back.

She couldn’t believe her mum would even entertain the idea.

She wasn’t some naughty toddler who could be thwarted by a misplaced zipper.

“It’s just like with the diapers. You don’t seem to realise that I’ve grown up”

“Your certainly not acting very grown up right now” Sue commented in deep exasperation.

“Now, are you going to promise me you won’t take off your diaper before the morning, or shall we try on these pyjamas for size”

“Go ahead then” Ally quipped back, calling her mother’s bluff.

Sue had never really been one to follow through on her threats, and Ally fully expected her to back down now.

As outraged as Ally was at the whole idea, part of her hoped that she would insist on her pyjamas.

She would take them straight back off and prove to her mother once and for all that she was no longer a little kid, and couldn’t be treated in this way.

Maybe her mum would even realise that she was much too old to be told to wear a diaper.

“Fine” Sue stated, her patience exhausted.

She had never intended to take it this far, but backing down now would destroy any parental authority she had.

She still had no intention of forcing Ally to wear the pyjamas all night, but maybe a few minutes in them would make her point, provided of course they stayed on.

Ally froze, surprised at this development.

“Well, take those off then” Sue pushed, seeing the uncertainty on her daughter’s face.

“Unless you’ve changed your mind”.

Sue held the pyjamas up in front of Ally, gesturing for her to move.

Unwilling to back down now, Ally stood in front of them.

Her modesty made her unwilling to strip down to just a diaper in front of her mother, so she carefully removed one leg from her pyjama pants before stepping it into the one-piece.

Now more or less covered by the one-piece, she pulled off the other leg and kicked the pants away, stepping fully into the one piece.

Ally then pulled off her top and pushed her arms into the sleeves.

She saw her mother move around behind her, and felt the zipper being pulled up to her neckline.

She heard the buttons being clicked into place, holding the tab over the zipper.

“There, all done” Sue said. “I’ll leave you to get some sleep”.

Sue could see that the pyjamas were at least a size too big for Ally.

They were designed to be tight-fitting, though, presumably for fire safety, and weren’t really any looser than Ally’s regular pyjamas.

The sleeves and legs were both a little long, but both were elasticised at the ends, allowing the extra length to pool without slipping over her hands or feet.

She hoped desperately that the pyjamas would hold and that Ally would be out of her room in a few minutes, apologising contritely and begging to be released.

Ally smarted. She would show her mother!

She reached behind her back, feeling for the tab. The positioning was awkward, however, and while her hands were able to make contact, she couldn’t get a grip to manipulate it.

She wished she had seen how it fastened, then she might have a better idea of how to remove it.

She tried to pull the tab to one side, hoping for a better grip, but that only made it quite impossible to reach with her other hand.

“Ungh!” she exclaimed out of frustration, losing her grip on the tab and finding herself back at square one, as well as what sounded like increasingly desperate gymnastic attempts to work her way out.

She considered coming into Ally’s room now to say her piece, but resolved to wait until Ally came to her.

Ally tugged hard on the pyjamas, hoping in one last, desperate attempt that should rip them off.

The material was strong, however, perhaps to combat this very strategy.

Finally, Ally accepted defeat.

She lay on the bed for a moment, pondering her strategy.

Going to her mother and begging to be released would be humiliating, and she was certain that her mother would rub it in given the way she had behaved beforehand.

She considered doing nothing, just trying to sleep in these ridiculous pyjamas, but realised this wouldn’t gain her anything – she would just be having the exact same conversation in the morning.

Seeing no other option, Ally sought out her mother in the living room.

“OK mum, you win” Ally winced. “Now help me take it off”.

Sue smiled inwardly. She wasn’t about to let her daughter get off quite that easily.

“So all that about you being too grown up, about those pyjamas never being able to hold you, what was that then?” Sue emphasised her point.

Ally said nothing, keen to get this over as soon as possible.

“Well Ally, you can either promise me that you’ll keep your diaper on all night, and that you won’t give me grief about wearing it in the future, or you can go back to bed and sleep like that.

Which is it to be?”

“I promise” Ally responded, her facing turning a bright shade of red.

“And you don’t think that spending the night in those will help you remember your promise?” Sue prodded, wanting to drive her point home.

“Mum. Please.” Ally responded, near to tears.

“OK, come here” Sue told her, seeing that she had made her point.

Ally turned around to let her mother get to the zipper.

Sue undid the tab and pulled the zipper down to where Ally could easily reach it.

Ally ran back to her room before pulling off the pyjamas completely and changing back into her usual ones, still strewn on the floor.

Sue followed a minute later and collected the one piece pyjamas Ally had discarded, folding them neatly.

“I’m going to keep these in my closet, in case you need them again” Sue told her, pointedly.

“In fact, I’ll write your name on the tag so we know they’re yours”.

In truth, she had no intention of forcing her daughter to wear them, but wasn’t about to let Ally to know that.

She could see that bedtimes would go much more smoothly from here on out.