Thursday, December 03, 2009

The Bathroom: It's The New Family Room

So does everyone else with little kids feel like you spend about half your day in the bathroom? (Well, I know you do, bananafana!)

Between helping your four year old wipe herself properly, trying to familiarize your two year old with the concept of the potty, trying to DE familiarize your two year old with the concept of flushing things, trying to prevent your two year old from washing his hands (i.e. flooding the bathroom) about ten times a day, trying to GET your kids to wash their hands after playing with the dog's tail, keeping your four year old company while using the toilet because she randomly cries if left alone, and of course the inevitable teeth brushing and baths, I spend way more time in that tiny room than I ever imagined I would.

And the list above is just stuff directly kid related. Let's not even talk about how I have to actively bar the door if I want to relieve myself in privacy, take a bath without an audience, or clean the toilet without the kids knocking over cleaning products.

Jim also likes to joke that the whole family seems to have ended up on the same, eh, elimination schedule. As soon as one of us adults decides to pee, Eli immediately has a wet diaper, and Addy is banging on the bathroom door, hysterically demanding that whoever is on the toilet get off it RIGHT NOW because she is DYING to pee and is about to melt into a puddle on the carpet.

We might as well just throw a sofa and a toybox in there and camp out to save all that walking back and forth. Either that, or build one of those two-hole outhouses off the deck. That way the kids can have all the company they want!

12 comments:

MoreSimplyHuman said...

I LOVE this post! It is so true. We've been going through this for years. And I had to laugh about everyone being on the same "elimination schedule"...I had no idea that phenomenon was universal, and not just some freaky quality of my family's! You're right...we should just embrace it...maybe we can find some double-toilets, too, like the ones in those old Saturday Night Live skits (remember? the "love toilet?")...

Jess said...

I say just install a toilet in the living room or den, and another in the kitchen and be done with it.

Nowheymama said...

Yep. We're either all in the bathroom or in our closet of a kitchen.

Fran said...

The Love Toilet!!! That was a good one SNL!
I don't even like to go in our boys bathroom...it smells like, well, like boys. And, let's see, my oldest is 9 1/2 so I haven't been to the bathroom by myself in roughly...9 1/2 years. Thanks for this post, it's good to know I'm not alone with this issue!

bananafana said...

Oh my lord with the NEEDING COMPANY!!!! I especially hate this during dinner when I just want to eat and all of the sudden someone needs you to sit on the side of the tub while they go. ARGH! The dining room table is only like 10 feet from the bathroom!

Shelly said...

Oh my God, yes. We do this, too. Totally have not gone to the bathroom by myself in 7 years. And we're on the same "schedule", too.

Hillary said...

The Boy had a full-on meltdown yesterday because I had the audacity to shut the door and poo in peace.

Anonymous said...

Warning: Do not stand under the deck

d e v a n said...

hee!! Shutting the bathroom door around here is like putting a fluorescent sign on it and begging them to come in.

Anonymous said...
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Mommy Daisy said...

I like the idea of making the bathroom the new family room. I think any family with young kids has this problem.

And of course, only having one bathroom escalates the problem too. That is a definite in my next house...at least 2 bathrooms.

Harvard Housewife said...

Lol, lol, lol.