Training Pants are Extinct?

When I was potty training Princess, I had these Gerber training pants for her. They were plastic on the outside and had a padded lining. Lightning is being somewhat stubborn about training, but is to the point now where I am comfortable totally ditching the diapers. I am not quite ready to put him to bed in undies only, though, so I broke out the training pants. They were pretty tight, and upon checking the size I found they really were too little for him.

So today I went on a quest to buy more training pants. Just in case. Wal-Mart did not have them. WTF? They only had Pull-Ups. I'm sorry, but Pull-Ups suck. I got a sample one in the mail when Princess was training, and I might as well have put a diaper on her-it functioned the same. Basically, I see them as more expensive diapers.

So fine. I'll go to Meijer. They only had ONE type of training pants. And they only went up to a pound below what Lightning weighs. But I figured that was fine, so I bought two packs. Ready to go! And while there, I ran into a former coworker that I hadn't seen since just after leaving that job. Fifteen years ago. Yay for feeling old![/sarcasm]

Come to find out, they are ONLY plastic. No padded lining. They will work, I suppose, but seem sort of flimsy. I guess I'm the only person left who doesn't want to waste money on Pull-Ups or wash sheets a whole bunch of times. Maybe the EC crowd (elimination communication, I don't recommend this idea AT. ALL. Never tried it, but c'mon!) killed the training pants market. They find out I like something, they stop making it. Never fails. I'm glad to have at least found SOMETHING that would work and not break the bank, though.

Diapers: 1 Parents: 2. Now once Spongebob is trained, we can quit buying diapers for good! Yes, I know cloth is an option but I just don't feel comfortable that my washer would sanitize them enough.