A Diaper for Carlos Summary: It's a world where all boys around their 10th birthday lose bladder control. It’s a natural part of pre-puberty, whereby the prostate gland grows out of proportion to the bladder during pre- puberty, causing the bladder to be pressed against and making boys lose control of urine. This is not painful, just embarrassing. By 12 to 13, boys start to grow out of this because puberty is setting in and the prostate slows down its growth rate. Once the bladder grows to even capacity with the prostate, boys regain the sense of when it’s time to pee and they can be re-toilet trained. To deal with this world-wide phenomena, boys go back into diapers at age 10, and stay in them until they have been successfully toilet trained, usually 2 to 3 years later. All of the brands for babies, such as Pampers, Huggies and Luvs make diapers for boys, too. They’re sold in the same aisles of the stores as the baby sizes, but the packaging is age-appropriate to the boys who wear them. Commercials on TV for boys’ size diapers are common, especially on stations that show cartoons and programs aimed at boys of this age. Dads and other adult male family members take charge of changing their pre-pubescent boys. Male teachers and principals do the honors while the boys are at school, and every school for boys between the grades of 4th-8th has an ample stock of diapers for all of those changes. Lavatory breaks for these boys means going to the change room for a fresh diaper. Carlos is 13 years old and 5 months, and he's in the eighth grade. He's really growing up in many ways, but he's not all grown up yet. ======================================================================= It was a Friday night in January a few years ago, and I joined my friend Carlos Martinez, his father, and some friends from work at his house for a game of poker. His son, Carlos Jr., turned 13 the previous August. We were short a player that night, and Carlos Jr. had learned how to play well enough from his father and grandfather that he could join the men. He had never played with us before on Friday night, but his grandfather took him as his partner. After a couple of rounds I was really impressed with Carlos Jr. He played well and acted pretty mature around us "old dudes." We started at 7:30, and about 9:30 we changed partners, and I picked Carlos Jr. to be my partner, and we beat everyone else. I slapped him 5 at the end of the night, and was really pleased not just with how well he played, but by how much he had grown up. I told him that he was turning into quite a young man. We finished playing around 11:30, and most of the guys went home. My buddy Pete and I hung around for a while and shot the breeze with Carlos Sr. and his dad. Carlos Jr. had gone into the living room and plopped himself on the floor with a beanbag pillow and was watching TV. After about 10 minutes, Carlos Sr. noticed that Carlos Jr. was on the floor with a pillow, and he said to his dad that he better get Carlos ready for bed. Carlos Jr. had been in sleep pants and a sweatshirt the entire evening, and was only wearing socks without shoes. He looked to me like he had been dressed for bed the whole night, so I couldn't figure out what his dad meant when he said that he had to get the boy ready for bed. He went upstairs, while Pete, Carlos Sr's. dad and I continued shooting the breeze in the hallway near the bottom of the stairs, which was just off of the living room where Carlos Jr. was. A minute later Carlos Sr. came back downstairs carrying a disposable diaper, and then I realized what he meant when he said that he had to get his son ready for bed. Carlos Jr. still needed a diaper at night. When he got to the bottom of the stairs, Carlos Sr. sat down on the last step and called aloud to his son who was in the next room. He called him in Spanish, saying: "Carlos, venga" which means, “Carlos come.” Carlos got up immediately and came toward his father, and his father held up the diaper and said "es tiempo para el panal," which means "it's time for your diaper." Carlos Jr. replied, "Poppi, can't I watch the rest of this show, it's over at 1:00." His dad said, "Si, puedes mirarlo pero necesitas el panal en caso de quedase dormido." (Yes, you can watch it but you need your diaper in case you fall asleep). "O.K.", says Carlos Jr., and he lay down on the carpeted floor in front of the stairs, while his dad diapers him while seated on the bottom stair. Once Carlos Jr. was diapered he got up and went back to his place on the floor in front of the TV. Pete and I left almost immediately after Carlos Jr. got his diaper on. I made sure that I walked into the living room to tell Carlos again how great he did as my partner. He turned toward me and said that he had a blast playing with me too. About 2 inches of white plastic from his diaper was showing as he lay on the floor watching TV. SEVEN MONTHS LATER: It was August a few years ago and it was Carlos Jr.'s 14th birthday. In a few weeks he would enter the 9th grade in his junior high school. He was having some buddies over for a cookout and soccer in their big backyard. It was also Friday poker night at his house, so we were invited at 6:00 to have barbecue with Carlos Jr. and his buddies, before we started our poker game at 7:30. Pete and I got there first, and Carlos Jr. was dressed in a tee shirt and some really colorful and bright shorts. He was really growing up and acting more like a young man everyday. I could talk to him almost like an adult. Carlos Jr's cousin was there too, and he was around the same age. The two boys were sitting together at the dining room table drinking big glasses of soda, and us men were on the deck off of the dining room barbecuing and shooting the breeze. A number of minutes went by and Carlos went to the kitchen to get something and passed through the dining room. I was standing on the deck while this happened. The patio door was closed, but I could hear a little bit of conversation going on from the other side of the door in Spanish, between father and son. I wasn't watching what was going on very closely, but Carlos Sr. seemed to be gone for a long time. I went in to see if he needed a hand, and when I went into the house, I saw Carlos Jr. coming down the stairs. I said, "Where’s your poppi?" and he said, "He's coming." No sooner did he say this and Carlos Sr. came down the stairs. I said: "You need a hand with anything?", and he said, "Yeah, give me a hand bringing some stuff out to the deck." The two of us went out to the kitchen to get stuff and bring it out to the deck. As we passed through the dining room on the way to the deck, Carlos Jr. met me and took some of the things I was carrying, and walked ahead of me out on to the deck. I noticed that he had different shorts on now, a lot less colorful than the ones he had on before, and they did not match his shirt like the shorts he had on earlier. As he walked in front of me I thought that his bottom looked a little bit puffy, and I realized that he must have a diaper on. I concluded that Carlos Jr. had had a wetting accident and his dad took him upstairs to diaper him and get him clean shorts. I didn't say a word about it and no one seemed to be upset that Carlos had a diaper on his 14th birthday, when most boys are out of diapers soon after their 13th birthday. The End.