This is a story based on memories of many wet mornings . I was 10 years old and small for my age. I also had asthma and allergies from the time I was 7 and had gotten used to the many accidents resulting in wet pants because of my medications. Now waking up in a wet diaper and plastic pants was normal.

I remember one of the first times I wet my pants while playing outside. I was so absorbed by the imaginary highway I was building in the dirt I forgot I needed to pee. My mother was enjoying talking with a couple of women friends over coffee. I scrambled to get to the bathroom frantically trying to pull open the screen door that always got stuck. I burst into tears as a wet spot spread on my pants and a puddle grew under me on the concrete steps.

My mother and the other ladies were watching and grinning at my predicament and my wet pants. I kept trying to open the door as my mother and her friend Jane came over and took me inside. "Let's get you inside and into some dry pants, Droopy Drawers." Still whimpering, I said, "I couldn't hold it and the stupid door got stuck." "Well, I will get Daddy to fix it one of these days but till then you need to pay more attention to when you need to go potty." My mother still used baby words when she talked to me sometimes.

She was still talking to Jane as she sat me down on the bathroom floor and started to untie my shoes. Jane lived down the street from us and had two children. Michael was six and Amy was three and still in diapers so she was used to changing children after accidents, but not as old as me. "Can I help?" she asked my mother. "Oh yes thank you. I should have known this would happen." Its all right", Jane said smiling, "Accidents happen.". "I guess you went through this already with Michael.", my mother said. Jane replied, "Some kids just take longer than others to learn how to stay dry."

By this time my mother had my shoes and socks off and asked Jane to get her a wet wash cloth as she laid me down on the floor. My mother left the room for a second and brought back two diapers, plastic pants and some diaper pins in her mouth. She took the pins out and said to Jane "I should have done this earlier.". Jane stood over me as my mother knelt down and quickly pulled my wet pants off. She took the washcloth from Jane as she lifted me up by my ankles and cleaned me up. Then she slipped the diaper under my bottom and quickly pinned it on. Jane handed my mother the plastic pants and said to me, "You certainly are a good little boy not to wiggle, Patrick. Amy wiggles all over the place when I change her diaper." My mother pulled the plastic pants up my legs and stood me up patting my bottom saying, "There, all nice and dry." I asked her, " Where are my pants?" "They are all dirty, and besides, you don't need any. Go outside and play," she replied. I felt like a toddler and looked like one too standing there in just a diaper, plastic pants and a T shirt.

At this time in my life it was not unusual for my mother to treat me like a toddler sometimes especially when we were around other women with children. There were lots of kids in my neighborhood were all at least two years younger than I. My mother never made it a secret that she still kept me in diapers whenever the topic mothers talked about over coffee turned to potty training or diapers. Most families had at least one child in diapers and the mothers knew I still wore diapers and all of them had changed me at least once.

Whenever we went to visit friends or relatives my mother always packed a full diaper bag in case I wet my pants or we were spending the night anywhere. Shopping at Christmas in the big malls was always a stressful time that I was in diapers till I was 12 years old. My mother always said she didn't want to worry about trying to find a bathroom for me while we were shopping. More often than not she would ask me if it was wet or needed my diaper changed. That was always extremely humiliating to me because she would ask me wherever we were even if people were around.

If I was wet she would try to find a women's lounge that wasn't too busy to change me in. She liked shopping at Macy's and they had a big couch in the front of the bathrooms. It was just inside the door though so anyone coming in would have to walk past as my wet diaper was exposed and I was laying there like a toddler. One time a woman came in with her two daughters just as my mother was slipping a dry diaper under my bottom. The girls were four and seven years old and giggled at me with my legs up in the air. Their mother commented to mine as she held her girl's hands and watched as my mother took one diaper pin out of her mouth and started to pin my diaper on.

"It sure is a lot of work with a little one still in diapers. Thank goodness Carie was potty trained by the time she was three.". Taking the other diaper pin from her mouth my mother said, " Boy, I know what you mean. Patrick still has too many accidents and I still can't trust him to stay dry." Then she asked the woman if she could get my plastic pants from the diaper bag. The woman said sure and handed my white plastic pants to my mother as she pinned the other side of my diaper. This was too embarrassing for me but all I could do was turn my head to the wall so I wouldn't have to look at anyone while my mother slid my plastic pants on and pulled my corduroy pants back up.

One year my parents went on vacation for two weeks in May and I stayed with my Aunt Melissa and my cousins for two weeks. I was still in school and in the 5th grade. I really liked staying at my aunts because I could be little again. My Aunt Melissa had two toddlers who were both still in diapers. She was trying to potty train them and was looking forward to the day they were out of diapers. When I went to her house I was usually treated just like a three year old.