Finding out that enemas were not just for kids

I was about 15 years old. Mom wasn't feeling well. She was in bed. My Aunt Linda came over and aunt Linda told me to go out and play with my friends. So I did, we played baseball. I got home a few hours later. Aunt Linda was gone, Mom was up and around. I went into the bathroom and there hanging from the shower head drying was the enema bag, still wet ... Wow I thought.

I knew from an early age that adults took enemas because my mom took them more than me. I would sometimes be able to sneak a peek at her lying on the bathroom floor nozzle in place and that big red bag draining into her rectum.

I knew early on because my mother spoke about enemas with all the women in the family. She and her sisters and sisters-in-law would openly discuss enemas at family gatherings - which sister had recently had one, whose kids had one or needed one or was going to get one, how much water to use, favorite soap for best results, which doctors recommended enemas.

I called these gatherings the "Witch's Coven" in later years because they reminded me of Shakespeare's witches - cackling over a brewing cauldron! Except this was a soapy bag of warm water.

When we were kids, we knew adults got enemas, because we overheard grandma giving mom one when needed. The only problem was mom hated getting an enema and put up a fuss about it. Unlike her two sisters, who liked getting enemas as much as we did. Plus, we occasionally overheard grandma telling her teenage daughters, “before y'all get in the shower with the kids this evening, give them a couple of enemas first. And once you're finished with the kids, give yourselves a couple of enemas before you take a shower.”

Sometimes they both fussed at their mom about it, which was funny, because it was no secret that both girls liked their enemas as much as my siblings and I did.

One summer evening, while we were staying at grandmas, I got up to use the bathroom after we’d gotten a couple of enemas earlier in the evening from our young aunts. When I got to the bathroom, the door was pulled too, but not closed. So, I walked in not thinking twice about it, and got a big surprise. Both girls were nude, which was no big deal, having seen them naked many times in the past. They would give us enemas in the evenings before putting us in the shower with them for a bath. What shocked me, was seeing the youngest girl in the knee chest position with an enema nozzle in her behind with her sister controlling it. Being summertime, I only had white cotton briefs on and seeing the enema nozzle in her behind, gave me a hard on. The only thing I could say was, “I’m sorry. I need to use the bathroom.” Needless to say, once I had finished using the toilet, the older girl sat down and pulled me naked across her bare lap, giving me a good long spanking with her hand. It felt like it took forever but was only a minute or two at best. While I was using the toilet, I saw her get another enema bag, douche nozzle, and towels from the linen closet. Seeing that, I knew what was coming next, especially when she fixed a two-quart rinse enema.

When the spanking was over, she told me to stand facing a corner in the large shower. While I waited, my younger aunt used the toilet while her sister fixed a second rinse enema. With that done, she told me to get in the knee chest position on the second set of towels she had put down. Once I was in position on the bathroom floor, she lubricated my anus inside and out with her index finger before replacing it with the curved douche nozzle, starting the flow. As she was getting my rinse enema started, her younger sister got back down in the knee chest position beside me. Once she had my enema going, she started her sister's enema just like she did mine. The two quarts went in fairly quick, having received a soapy and rinse enema earlier that evening from my aunts, before my shower. By the time I held my third enema of the evening for five minutes and got on the toilet, it didn’t take me long to get rid of it. As I got off the toilet, my young aunt got up and took my place, to relieve herself. By the time I was getting up, my older aunt was already in the shower, and told me to join her. I got in the shower as she bathed herself, and when she finished, she gave me another bath.

When we got out of the shower, her younger sister had finished expelling and fixed her sister a soapy enema. She handed both of us a towel, tell me, “Dry off and get back to bed. You’ve seen enough behinds tonight.” I watched as the older girl dry herself off, as I was doing the same. By the time I was through drying myself and had my cotton briefs back on my sore bottom. The older girl was in the knee chest position, her sister had just replaced her finger with a curved douche nozzle starting her soapy enema, as I was leaving the bathroom on my way back to bed.

Like others have said, my Mom frequently put the enema bag to use on herself so I knew it wasn’t just there for me. Or the bulb, for that matter. She would use it when she didn’t have a lot of time for an enema from the bag. I’ll never forget one morning as I was getting ready to leave for school I passed the bathroom door and saw her sitting on the commode with her slip pulled up and the bulb in one hand.

She also periodically would leave the bulb on the sink if she hadn’t had time to put it back in the medicine cabinet. And of course, the drying bag hanging in the bathtub gave away its use by her.

Not surprisingly, having those devices already out was probably a justification to use them on me. Early on I would fear that I would be called to the bathroom when I had spotted either. Later, it was welcomed, although I still put on a front that I didn’t like getting an enema.

One of the many interesting things about Zity discussions is they trigger memories. Since reading “Finding out that enemas were not just for kids” my memory cells are working overtime. So far I've not been able to pin down anything on this except I was old enough to already be both excited and upset to get a suppository or an enema. I also know discovering that adults got them too has mom at the center as taker/giver.

I'm not sure if my first awakening that adults got them too was her giving herself an enema, getting one from grandma, my aunt, one of her friends, or her giving one to an aunt or friend. Regardless of order I have snippets of some vivid memories.

What I do remember is mom giving herself an enema and my heart stopping as I realized what was going to happen and I have memories of her getting and giving to aunts and friends and again my heart stopping when it hit me what was about to happen, or happening.

I remember clearly both with her self administered or giving/getting enemas thinking, “Oh My God — she's going to get an ENEMA!” I'm not sure I used the words ‘Oh My God’ but it was something like that. One thing I am sure of are the words, in awe and shock, not just the first time it happened but on subsequent occasions, “She's going to get an ENEMA!” be it mom getting one or an aunt or one of my mom's friends on the receiving end.

One of my most vivid memories was a lady, an RN, coming to the house and giving mom an enema. Not sure why she came but I think it was to check up on mom after her cancer surgery. I was home from school, in bed with something and I remember mom and the nurse talking in the hall just outside my door. I paid little attention until the word ‘enema’ put me on high alert. The nurse was suggesting an enema, mom agreed, the nurse asked if mom had enema things, mom said she did, they were in a box in the hall cupboard and the nurse said she'd get it, fix the enema and call mom when it was ready. As I listened the words, “She's going to get an ENEMA” were so loud in my head it's a wonder the nurse and mom didn't hear them!

Thanks @toni_78 for triggering some great memories. A nice Christmas gift, lol

I basically knew that all along.

When Dad gave me my first enema at age 4, he was explaining how it was done and how I would feel. He told me not to be scared, and just to show me how easy the enema I was getting was, he said, “Wait right here,” went into the bathroom, came out holding a bulging 2-qt HWB with just the stopper, no hose or nozzle. First he held the 4-oz bulb that had been part of the conversation up to my tummy and then held the HWB up to his tummy. He said, “This is what I use when I have to take an enema, and it's the same as what your Mom used when she had to take one.”

There was a time, I must have been in 3rd and 4th grade, that Dad had to work a Tuesday through Saturday schedule. He negotiated that so that he could stay off the 4-midnight shift and could get some time to be my parent. I would get home from school and head straight for the bathroom. Every 8 weeks or so that same bag and it's white ribbed hose would be hanging over the shower rail drying when I got home.

@jekyll_doctor interesting his comment, it seems that in some families the subject flows or flows very naturally ... qdo was that?

As I have already shared elsewhere our house had two bags, a combination bag for enemas and an open top bag that I did not know until years later was what mom used for douching. Be that the case for many years one or the other bag might be out in the bathroom. It was only through a process of elimination (no pun) that I got to know if one of my sisters had gotten an enema, but if none of us kids did, then it was either mom or dad. It was an era when enemas were pretty common so nobody gave any of it a second thought.

My Dad said his big enlightening moment with enemas was when he discovered that boys and even grown men were eligible too. It was NOT only a "girl thing!"

I knew that adults got enemas from an early age. In my family just about every household had an enema bag hanging in the bathroom. My mom’s parents had an open top red enema bag hanging over the bathtub from its own hook. As they were the only people living in their apartment, it was obvious the enemas were for them. (I later learned that it was my grandfather who got the enemas.) My dad’s sister often mentioned taking enemas.

I had suppositories frequently as a child and I believed that they were for children only, and I hoped that when I grow up I never get more. Perhaps I considered the suppositories as punishment. When I guessed that perhaps it's for adults also, I was doubting for some time.

I have no idea if my parents took enemas when needed for constipation. I highly doubt it. However, when I was in my teens, I recall once my mother’s having to go in for an exam of some sort. Once she left the house, I snooped around and found prep instructions for her exam. They included the order, “use a tap water enema until it comes back clear.” How I wished at the time those instructions had been for me.

I'm not entirely certain of this but I think it may be these two lines etched indelibly in my mind may have been clues.

(Mom to Dad)

"Honey, you look really worn out and I know what that means. Come on upstairs and let me take your temperature and I'll give you a good enema".

"Sweetheart, I think I could use an enema tonight".

If any doubt existed at that point confirmation was received by all the talk between the Moms over coffee about who got, gave, needed an enema or who had a fever recently, yada, yada ...

P.S. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, I guess!

Footnote: I don't think enemas have ever stopped. Certainly they were present still when I was growing up 80s/90s, although perhaps not as prevalent. There was a lull, for sure. But, now, at least in the New York area and on the "Left Coast" it seems if you're not "doing enemas" or giving them you're just not "happening". Everything in life is cyclical.

Growing up we knew that Mom's dad took enemas every Friday night. He'd ask at about 8 p.m., "Does anyone need to be in the bathroom soon?" We knew he'd be in there for about an hour to an hour and a half. Occasionally, a prepped enema would be hanging from the hook on the window frame between the toilet and the tub. I usually assumed that mom's routine got interrupted by something, given that if one of my two brothers had been the beneficiary, we'd have known it.

For a couple of perceptive youngsters, my older sister and I found a multitude of clues around, and made quite a game of solving the mystery as to who had gotten an enema recently.

Often it was obvious, but sometimes it was challenging just like the game of Clue.

I was more shy than my sister who would just blurt out to mom or grandma "who got the enema?" I was more circumspect because I had gotten enemas just because I was so inquisitive or voyeuristic.

Mom, grandma, and Aunt Ruth often discussed enema events from the prior week, during family gatherings. We kids learned a great deal and were usually pretty accurate in solving those mysteries.

My aunt would sometimes threaten our cousins with an enema for eavesdropping on the discussions. My sister and I knew that one of us would get it in the end. She often convinced mom it should be me.

I believed enemas from the enema bag were for adults and at a certain age I'd be graduated from the bulb enemas I was getting to the enema bag. Also believed the black curved douche nozzle was the adult enema nozzle - as per what my mom told me when I asked about it.

I knew from a very early age that enemas were not just for kids. Mom and dad gave each other enemas and all of my relatives (aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, etc.) were enema users. It was not unusual to use the bathroom in anyone's home and see an enema bag and hose hanging on a towel bar or robe hook. That's just the way it was back in the 50's and 60's (in my world).

Like @LisaK, I knew from an early age. My mom suffered from what she called a "spastic colon" and sometimes gave herself enemas. A retired public health nurse who lived in our neighborhood visited when mom was sick. She would stay for a few hours, and when I got home from school I'd see mom's fountain syringe hanging to dry in the shower.

I remember this moment quite well because my mom had just informed me that she would be giving me an enema. It was one of the early times when I got one from the bag, but I asked her if she would use the bulb instead. Of course, the answer was "No, those are for little kids and you're big enough now to get one like I do." That was the admission and it prompted several questions that began with one sounding like disbelief, "You mean that you take enemas, too?" It did make me more accepting of getting one but doesn't mean that I actually liked doing so. Still, knowing that it wasn't just kids that seemed like big news.

I first watched a grown woman give herself an enema when I was three, maybe 4, years old.

I don’t ever remember enemas just being for kids, mom was a firm believer in enemas for just about any problem you had, such as constipation or stomach ache. She gave herself enemas regularly, as I mentioned in another post I did walk in to the bathroom when I was real young and she was talking an enema, she just told me to run along and play.

After we moved from the farm in West Virginia to Philadelphia, all of us kids, Tess was about 12 I was 10 and our other 2 younger sisters were 9 and 10½ enemas were given on our beds. While on the farm enemas were in the large upstairs bathroom with mom or meemaw sitting on the window seat and the open top bag hanging on a hook beside the window and one of us across their lap.

Now in a small ranch house with one bathroom enemas were given on our beds and the recipient was seen running to the bathroom with no pants or underpants on.

Now to the point. One night Tess woke me up saying she had to pee but said mom was in the bathroom and it sounded like she was letting an enema out. Mom’s bedroom door was closed and we wondered how she could take an enema without someone holding it up like mom did for us. We quietly opened the door and saw the enema hanging from two metal hangers over the fan blades from the ceiling fan above her bed. We now had a new “tool” for our own enemas when we were home alone!

Tess and I shared enemas until shortly past puberty more because she became more modest than I, our two younger sisters never like them unless they hid it very well from us.

LostInThe50s