I've been asked by a very dear friend of mine, who I should add surprised me one day by showing me your site, to share what she considers to be a very creative punishment for my son. Actually I hadn't considered it all that creative at first and, while it may seem harsh, I thought it both appropriate and justified. In a nutshell my son goes back into diapers and plastic pants once a month for anywhere from five to seven days, depending on how long his sister has her period.

I'm sure that's going to sound very odd, and to be honest it probably is to you, but the circumstances and my son himself warranted something as extreme as that, and frankly it wasn't done without a few warnings before hand.  Actually it was both punishment and a lesson in empathy. His diapering and little baby dresses serve both purposes, and I should begin by saying that it started when my daughter began her periods.

While I will usually tolerate my children's bickering and swipes at each other, I do not tolerate either of them being cruel, harmful, or hurtful to each other. My son was all of that and more, and it continued for almost the entire length of her first cycle. He teased her over her moods and did so after I'd explained why her moods changed. What made all of this more harsh, and ultimately became that proverbial straw, was his public announcement, one Saturday to a friend of his, that his sister was moody because of her period. I was furious at his public humiliation of his sister and said as much.

If he couldn't be sympathetic he could at least be empathetic, and I made it clear that his own words would actually define his punishment. I didn't tell him exactly what that punishment would be because I wanted him to mull over it a bit. In the meantime, I had talked over my ideas with my sister, and she was all for the idea, because on visits to her place he had sometimes been something of a nuisance.

When I had a good heart-to-heart with my sister, the solution to our little problem child was so obvious that we both laughed, and while I came up with the idea of diapers as a very humiliating equivilant to the pad his sister had to wear, it was my sister who insisted that they should be cloth. First because she is an environmentalist and concerned about the vast amount of waste that disposable diapers create, and, secondly, as a fairly good seamstress, she promised something very "fitting".

I simply thought, or perhaps justified to myself, that if he had to wear a diaper, as a girl might a pad, then he might get a "feel" for what a girl feels. In addition, if he had to use that diaper or at least change it a few times a day, then he'd begin to understand the inconvenience of a period. Something my sister definitely agreed with and which prompted the idea of plastic pants as well. It only took a second after that to decide on how to make him "self-conscious" of his condition, which was a concept he couldn't understand when I brought it up.

As I said to him, even if it's not obvious that a girl is having her period she's almost constantly aware of it and with that awareness there is at least a fear that she's being noticed. That makes her feel very self-conscious, and for that reason my sister and I wanted a just and appropriate punishment that would make him "conscious" of his state, and just wearing diapers and plastic pants wasn't going to be enough.

I know that diapers and plastic pants on a boy are going to make him very self-conscious about his babyish dress, but frankly you can hide even a thick diaper and pair of baby pants. So my sister suggested some sort of little top that was just long enough to cover those diapers and pretty plastic pants, but still impose the risk of them being seen - and what could be better than a little bishop style dress? Those simply adorable little dresses, very short and hanging free from the shoulders, the ones that Shirley Temple often wore, were so cute, and also a bishop style dress is about the easiest garment to make, next to his diapers.

When the time came to introduce him to his new clothes, and it did, he was shocked beyond words. Mostly it was surprise, shock, and disbelief in that order, and at first he refused. I let him get past that first bit of rage and simply said that instead of him having to wear those things during his sister's period I'd just hang them outside each day and his sister would be allowed to explain who they were for and why. Wearing those things and not being seen in them, other than by family, was option one, and option two was hanging everything out on the line for the whole neighborhood to see.

Of course he chose option one and a few minutes later I was pinning him into his first diaper since he was a baby. I will most likely never tell him this, but I almost wish I'd added a baby's bottle to the whole scene because he was so docile that I could have easily nursed him after he was powdered and pinned into that diaper.

My sister really did deliver on her promise. My son wasn't pinned into your everyday sort of diaper but, as she put it, a 'punishment diaper'. She had made the center almost twice the thickness of the layers to be pinned, and most of that would gather between his legs. It was all that I could do not to laugh when I closed those pink teddy bear diaper pins on either side.

It only got worse with the baby pants, as they were classic Gerber Baby. Front-facing legs, that classic big puffy bottom, and all in a light pastel pink that was just opaque enough: opaque enough to hide the details of his diaper, but not the outline of it. I'd used lots and lots of baby powder telling him that it's times like this that he was going to want to smell "fresh," and he did. Very baby-fresh, before I finally got his little plastic panties on and, like I said, he should have been grateful I didn't have a baby's bottle handy.

Everything was already in the house a week before my daughter's due time, and safely hidden in a box. Everything, that is, but the dresses, which I simply hung in her closet, and, to his almost fainting embarrassment his first came out after I'd diapered him, and left him to sit in his thick diaper and very full baby bloomers for a bit. He was almost happy to see me when I returned to his room - at first.

A bishop style dress is designed for babies, toddlers and, as far as I was concerned, it was also ideal for boys who have to be in diapers for a time, and my sister got a hug the instant I saw his first dress. It was adorable, soft corduroy with a little yellow duckling on the front, but simple and perfect and, as it went over his head, I thought of his second and third Halloweens when a little party dress did the same thing.

From that point on and he really was a perfect little lamb, in both his appearance and his behavior towards his sister, as you would expect, dressed as he was. His sister was no longer worried by him when she was having a period, and loved referring to him as 'Baby Emily' to increase his punishment. She even bought a bib with 'Baby' on it which he could wear when we have dinner, and she enjoys tying it around his neck herself.

My sister made him twelve diapers, four pair of the softest plastic baby pants, and three 'bishop' dresses that all could be easily laundered and were more than enough for him to remain in those things till his sister's period ended. Of course I reminded him that nature has her way no matter what, when it did happen all he had to do was let me know and I'd change him. It would be the same sort of thing his sister would be going through. Also if he carefully kept his arms down the hem of his little dress would just cover his little panties - and I used those very words.

When he asked about going outside I did offer him the option of disposables and whatever would fit over those, but until his sister's period ended this was his "look" as it were. I also made a point of saying he looked just adorable and smelled as fresh as a baby, and I was sure that if he explained it to his friends they'd understand - as understanding as he had been about his sister, I made a point of reminding him, which hinted at how they would really respond.

Oh did I mention that I've left it up to my daughter as to when her period "officially" ends. She is enjoying have such a bashful and blushing baby around the house so much that it might last longer than usual. We will have to wait and see.
Your's truly,

Mrs Ann E.

I think that your punishment was very well thought out and appropriate, and I congratulate you and your sister. Menstruation is a often a real  trial  for teenage girls, and one that boys of that age understand far too little about. Your own son, happily, is now an exception to that widespread insensitivity.
Susan