All My Mother's Rules

Chapter 28: Tattletale

Another morning, another wet diaper, another reminder that despite the façade I've been desperately attempting to construct, my bladder problems show no sign of improvement.

Mom's not-so-gentle-hand nudging my shoulder was what woke me up this morning. I didn't need to look at the alarm clock to know that it was way too early for me to be getting out of bed on a weekend. Saturday mornings are supposed to be for sleeping in. Surely, there must be some law about it. That had changed with the re-emergence of my bedwetting problems over the past couple of weeks. Getting up bright and early was my mother's mantra, and she used the excuse of needing to change my diaper to get me up at the same time that she did.

We had adapted into an unspoken truce regarding the nighttime diapers. I didn't put up any fuss with the diaper changes and cooperated fully with them, and mom handled it without any unnecessary commentary on the situation. The arrangement was the best I could hope for until the bedwetting abated.

This morning, not only did mom remove the soaked diaper and wipe my bottom clean, but she proceeded to slide on a pair of panties for me, as if being a bedwetter again somehow meant I also needed assistance with dressing myself. At least I'd now successfully gone nearly a week of hiding my daytime accidents, so she wasn't putting me in pull-ups for the day.

It was also a good thing that there appears to be no end in sight for Emilia's potty-training struggles, which have continued to plague her day and night. My three-year-old sister's reliance on pull-ups has provided me with the ability to secretly use her pull-ups as well, and at least hide my daytime bladder accidents from my mom.

Times like this, where I would have to wear panties for a while before I got an opportunity to exchange them for a pair of Emilia's pull-ups, were when I had to be on my guard the most. Mom already made me go back to wearing pull-ups for a week after just one incident of me peeing my pants, and I had no doubt whatsoever that she would do so again if there were to be a repeat of that incident.

Emilia was still fast asleep in her crib. Odds are good that her diaper is as soaked as mine, but mom didn't bother waking up my little sister for a diaper change of her own. A cranky, tired toddler is much more of a handful to deal with than a cranky, tired teenager.

Anyway, I could wait until Emilia was up until I slipped into one of her pull-ups. I went to the kitchen to prepare a bowl of cereal as mom started a morning bath for herself. I'd showered last night, so I didn't need to this morning. I had only made it about halfway through my breakfast when I felt a tinge of pain in my bladder. How could I need to pee right now after I had woken up with a soaked diaper?

The need to pee was usurped by a bigger problem. I had panties on and couldn't afford to have a single leak. I raced to the bathroom and knocked frantically on the locked door.

"Mom, can you let me in? I need to use the toilet."

"Not while I'm in the bath. You're going to need to hold it."

She was in the bathtub, not on the toilet. Couldn't she just close the curtain for a few seconds while I relieved my bladder? At best, mom probably wasn't going to be out of the bathroom for another ten minutes. I'd be lucky if I made it that long without wetting myself.

I peaked into the bedroom I shared with my sister. Emilia was stirring in her crib, appearing on the verge of waking up as if she hadn't already. I took a couple of cautious steps into the bedroom, but the creaky wood floor tattled on me, and Emilia's eyes blinked open. My sister yawned, and then tugged at her blanket so that it covered her better. I had no doubt that Emilia would tattle on me if she saw me take one of her pull-ups from the dresser, and I wasn't going to stick around in the bedroom only to wet myself in front of her for a second time.