Bottom-line (pardon the pun)... rubber pants take/took a beating, at least in my home they did.
Was just giving thought to this. Considering how many times rubber pants are pulled off and on in a day when changing diapers... I recall anywhere from 8-10 times a day, and I'm not talking about the newborn stage, I'm talking about the older baby/toddler stage. Now, multiply that by 7, to calculate a weekly number, then multiply the weekly number by 4 to calculate a monthly number, and you have somewhere in the neighbourhood of 200 - 300 changes. Add in how many times in a day diapers were checked for wetness... I used to pull-back/stretch-out the elastic waistband on the rubber pants when checking, and I checked both front and back... every hour, on the hour (when I was on top of my game), the wear-and-tear of the pants soaking in the diaper pail with all of the ammonia diapers, then the pants being laundered, then hung on the line to dry in the sun... those plastic baby pants got a real working-out.
Additionally, figure in how speedily rubber pants are pulled off and at change-time (we each had or have our own style)... me, I was old-school and practiced the lightening-speed method (LOL), where rubber pants were whisked off smartly, in a no-nonsense, all business like fashion. (((Swish-swish))), the pants would sound, and I repeated the same when rubber pants were pulled back on after diapers were changed and pins refastened. I still remember the plasticy-rustling sound the rubber pants would make when I'd change a diaper. The final tug of the pants over diapers resulted in the snapping sound of the elastic waistband being let go and snapping against said child's tummy at the front, and when my mom (grandma) babysat, she, too, was a no-nonsense diaper changer, so the pants got a further thorough workout when grandma was in charge, and one of the college babysitters that regularly sat for us (evenings) used to put the pants through their paces.
Yep, those old rubber pants took a serious beating, right from the time I brought the pants home from the department store, until they met their demise and I'd deposit them in the plastic garbage pail. Hundreds of changings, months of use, dozens upon dozens of washings, countless spankings, and let's not forget about how many times those pants were dunked up and down in the toilet with the diapers when baby did a poopy, sometimes with diapers still inside rubber pants.
I'll save my cigarette/rubber pants story for a later topic of conversation. The only thing I have to say about is, the rubber pants suffered an embarrassing defeat. :redface-new:
A refreshing walk down Memory Lane this thread has been!