Can you remember ever wearing a diaper or soiling yourself as a child? I don’t. I’m sure most of you don’t remember either. However, these days during a hardy laugh, tears sometimes run down my legs.
Back in 1972 when my twin girls were only 26 months old, I went to the hospital to give birth to my third daughter. This was the first time I was ever separated from them and it was for five days.
Before I was full term, the girls had been potty trained for several months. They were cute in their little white cotton underwear, too, I might add.
Due to separation anxiety, the girls reverted to wetting themselves or not quite making it to the bathroom. While I was still in the hospital, their dad decided he would not put diapers on them. It seemed diapering was not his forte’.
He claimed because he was left-handed, he could not manipulate the diaper pins appropriately and therefore could never get the diapers tight enough to stay up on his toddlers. His recourse was to simply use a white cotton panty. For safety’s sake, he added rubber pants “just in case.” We all know that was a recipe for disaster.
Grandma flew into Pittsburgh to rescue us before and after I came home from the hospital. His mother described her son approaching the gate after she disembarked.
“There he came — a rambunctious child under each arm. I noticed him gripping white soggy panties enclosed in rubber pants in each hand.” Betty continued, “The kids were so excited to see me they didn’t notice or care they had bare bottoms.”
It wasn’t long until the girls continued using the potty whenever they needed to go. However, for a few weeks, I had three girls in diapers.
These diapers were cloth diapers. You know what they look like? The ones that sagged when full. The diapers that gave a good diaper rash if it weren’t changed soon after it was filled. They were extremely uncomfortable. Therefore, it was truly a big deal to potty train the young ones as soon as possible for them and their mother.
Someone once said, “If they can walk, they can go to the bathroom on their own.”
When I was in the first grade at Paragon Elementary in Mrs. Wershings music class, I was incredibly shy. Unless the whole class was excused to go to the bathroom, I just held it. Well, I had to go bad and thought I would just let a tiny little bit escape. We all know what happens when we do that — yes? You guessed it, a flood came out all over my skirt, down my legs, in my socks and dripped behind the metal chair onto the floor. Who knows what the kids behind me thought? I never turned around.
After all the kids had left the room I remained in my chair. Mrs. Wershing asked me. “Phyllis, why aren’t you going back to your class?” I started crying and replied, “I peed my pants.” Then she readily saw the problem. That little stunt never happened again.
My friend Niki taught physical education in an elementary school.
Each new year, Niki said, “I don’t look forward to the little first-graders and their wet socks.”
Me: “Why are their socks wet?”
Niki: “Guess.”
Today’s diapers can stay on a child through the night and not cause a problem. No rash, no chaffing, no problem. They can remain on them all day with the same results. Then comes the pull-ups. They stay diapered in them for an extended amount of time with no ill effects. We have 6-year olds in kindergarten and first grade still going No. 2 in their pants and not thinking a thing of it. Sometimes they even go in their big boy or big girl pants. What has happened to training?
I can safely say that neither I nor anyone my age can ever remember getting our diaper changed. Some of us might remember wetting ourselves because we waited too long, but no diapers.
Cloth diapers were effective, but they weren’t comfortable. It was also plenty of work for our moms to wash those diapers. With my girls using cloth diapers, I washed diapers every day. That was motivation enough for me to train our girls to be responsible for the waste removal portion of their hygiene.
These days, what’s the hurry? Is potty training just one more thing for parents to do in child-rearing? In a world of so many more modern conveniences, we can sometimes overlook basic disciplines for children.
Well, guess what? It isn’t the grandparent’s job, so pass me another pull-up!
November 21, 2020 at 06:59PM
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COLUMN: Cloth diapers and rubber pants | Opinion | hoosiertimes.com - Times-Mail
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