Telling My Grandma

Stanley Thornton

This incident happened in 1994. A little over a year after I had started wetting the bed. This is a bit complicated so I will try to keep it short as I can. It's about the time I HAD to tell my grandma I wet the bed and wore diapers for it. First, a little back story that led me to having to tell her. At this time I was going to a special education school. I had invited a friend over to hang out. We were having fun at first playing Saga and stuff. But then he left. When I went to find him I found him in the kitchen trying to set stuff on fire. I didn't know he was a pyro and liked starting fires. I told him he needed to call his mom to pick him up and go home. I went to school the next day and aside from me and the friend not talking the day was fine. About 3 hours after I got home there was a knock at the door. It was a woman from child protective services and 2 police officers. It was just my brother and my home as my dad didn't normally get home till 2 hours later. They cops and the CPS worker came in and asked some questions and looked around. Then they told me and my brother to pack a back pack with clothes and that we would be going with them. I said I needed to use the bathroom and got the portable phone and called my grandparents to come over right away. 10 minutes later my grandparents got there. After CPS talked to my grandparents we were allowed to live with them till the report was sorted out, which took a month in children's court. So, what could be said to get me and my brother taken? It was the kid who tried to light the kitchen on fire I found out the next day at school. He was angry that he was sent home and lied saying that me and my brother were pulling 40 year old guys off the street and tying them to our dad's bed. Seriously?!?! I was 14, and my brother was 10. How the heck could to young kids take a 40 year old guy ANYWHERE that he didn't want to go. Let alone take the guy off the street, drag him to the back of a busy apartment building, up to the 3rd floor while having to walk past the apartment building manager's apartment who we lived over, into the house and some how hold the guy down long enough to tie him down. GIVE ME A BREAK. Anyway, the school therapist who the pyro boy told this stupid story to believed him and called CPS. Of course the report was found to be complete bull. Not only were we allowed to go back home, but the therapist from school was fired and lost her licence. Don't get me wrong, while it's important to report abuse, use some common sense. What that kid made up isn't possible. So anyway, with knowing the back story of why CPS took me and my brother to our grandparents, let me get on with the story here. So, at home I got and wore diapers in secret for the wetting. My dad wasn't home till the evening and I had plenty of time to get a bag of diapers, bring them home and put them away before he got home. So till this CPS incident happened, no one knew I wet the bed. So that first evening I didn't have diapers. Not that I could sleep anyway. I toss and turned all night. At that first night, I didn't know who made such a story and was wondering when I could go home, and what I was going to do about the wetting if I didn't go home soon. The next day the therapist at school told me it was her. I came home upset of course. I felt like I had been betrayed. I felt like she should have asked me about the story she was told before just acting thinking the story was true. At least then I could have told her about me having to send the kid home, which would have made since to her why the story came up. The kid was angry he got sent home. So, not only being upset, I realized I had to tell her about the bed wetting. I was tired and knew what would happen if I went to bed without protection. So I wrote her a note. I was too chicken and embarrassed to tell her in person. In the note I told her I wet the bed and wear diapers to bed but was too embarrassed to tell her. That I left to go to the store to get some diapers for tonight from the dollar store and would be back soon if she wanted to talk about it. I was so afraid of what was going to happen when I got back. But she was in the living room when I got back. She saw the 99 cent store bag in my hand and told me to come to her room. We sat down and she told me she's not mad that I didn't tell her the first night. And that having the problem doesn't make her love me any less. That nothing I could do could make her love me any less. I told her I was afraid of my parents finding out and my brother finding them. She was so cool. She said she would keep it to herself, not even telling my grandpa. She told me I could keep the diapers in her sewing room which my brother wasn't allowed to go in at the time. That I could take one and put it on before bed. And to leave it in a bag under my bed in the morning and she would throw it out for me so no one found out. So each night she would keep my brother busy while I got my diaper on and laid down. Then in the morning I would take it off and leave it under the bed. When I got home each day it was gone. No one found out the whole month I was living with her and my grandfather. She took my secret to the grave. Soon the courts said we could go back home and things returned to normal. I went back to dealing with my wetting as I always had. I was so relieved my grandma helped me. I was so afraid she was going to tell my parents. My brother had wet the bed till he was 7. He wasn't treated very well over it. Stuff like threatened with being put back in diapers. Stuff like "You want me to put you back in diapers like a little baby? Just keep wetting the bed and I will!" One time he was made to sleep in the bath tub by my grandma on my mom's side. So I was afraid I would get treated similar for my wetting. So I was glad my grandma kept my secret. My dad was pretty abusive at the time and I was afraid he would punish or hurt me for wetting. So I was keeping it secret. And so that's my story of how I told my grandma and what happened. THANKS GRANDMA!!!

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