I often ask my children why they are hell bent on learning the same lesson over and over again. You know, why can’t they just learn their lesson the first time and move on with their life?
Today I realized that perhaps I need to heed the same advice.
My 7 and 8 yr old sons share a bedroom and they have their own attached bathroom. They are responsible for keeping both clean and tidy. I wash the floors and scrub out the tub, but I think that they are perfectly capable of wiping down the sink and toilet with cleaning wipes, rinsing their toothpaste out of the sink, making their beds, etc. I assure you that they are not toiling in the Gulag.
And I do remind them, almost daily to do it. And always I am met with assurances that it has been done.
I rarely have a need to go into their bathroom. And even less of a reason to closely examine it. This afternoon I was in there gathering towels and bath rugs, doing the hard cleaning like washing toothpaste off the walls. Why, in the name of all that is good and noble in this world, why do they get toothpaste on the walls? And I noticed a smell in the room. A yucky, dirty, am I in a public restroom sort of smell.
I looked over at the toilet and at first glance it looked clean. Then I lifted the lid. Oh Lord have mercy, I have never ever seen anything like that in my life. IN MY LIFE.
I screamed my head off called for my boys and pointed to the toilet, because I seriously had no words. Not a one.
They looked at the toilet, looked at me, looked at each other and offered up no explanation.
“Whaaa-aaaaat happened?” I finally managed to get out.
Still they looked confused.
“Have you been cleaning the toilet and around the toilet like you are supposed to?”
“We thought we just had to clean the lid.”
At this point my head may have exploded off of my shoulders and rolled right out of the room. So we had another lesson on how to properly clean, along with the helpful suggestion that if they worked on their aim perhaps they wouldn’t need to clean so much.
This experience was as much a lesson for me. I need to hold them accountable more often. To not feel bad about checking up on them every day and examining their chores carefully to make sure that they are done the way that they are supposed to be done. To make sure that I take the time to check so that nothing gets that out of control again.
And now I must go scrub my eyes with some bleach.
I hate the checking part! Why can’t they just do what they said they did? I had to call my daughter out of bed three times tonight because she would not finish cleaning up her mess in the kitchen. She put one thing away and then snuck off. Then she put one more thing away and snuck off again. Ahhhh!!!
Comment by Lazy Organizer — January 5, 2008 @ 2:30 am
Snort some bleach to get the smell out of your nose, too!
Comment by Brigitte — January 5, 2008 @ 8:36 am
I am sorry, but that made me laugh then cry. Sadly, I am dealing with a husband with a similar problem. And it is not confined to one bathroom. I am really scared for the 2 yr old male that will give me more work in the future. I thought that once they were potty trained, me checking butts and cleaning pee and poop were over. Not true.
Comment by Wendy — January 5, 2008 @ 12:10 pm
Brigitte, I was trying not to breathe at all while I was cleaning it up.
If I had it to do over I would have trained them as babies to sit and pee.
Comment by Chris — January 5, 2008 @ 9:23 pm
I’m sorry for your mess, but happy to know it is not just my girls who can’t seem to brush teeth with out involving the walls and mirrors – LOL!
Comment by Paula — January 5, 2008 @ 9:38 pm
This reminds me of my younger years. I shared a bathroom with my younger brother and it was my job to clean it. His aim was dreadful. I went on a cleaning strike that lasted intermittently from 1988 until 1996. It was a family sore point that was never happily resolved until I grew up and moved away.
I married a man who is not only fastidious about cleaning but also has amazing aim. But now I have all boys… ahhhhh….. what is it they say about history…oh yeah.. you’re doomed to repeat it.
Comment by Ms.Carson — January 5, 2008 @ 10:33 pm
I know how you feel…I have a 5 year old and a 30 year old to deal with. Of course, who is always left with cleaning the toliets…me?!?! I have a 15 month old, who will soon enough be making it worse!! All boys…no girls…go figure!! Good luck…wish me the same!! LOL
Comment by Jennifer — January 7, 2008 @ 10:53 pm
Said to my husband, “As a young woman I did not dream or fantasize about cleaning Prince Charming’s pee from the toilet…You now have a choice-1 have a nasty,nasty,nasty toilet;
2 clean that nasty toilet and floor or
3 sit and pee.”
(He chose option 3)
I am not responsible for my man’s elimation processes. He doesn’t tend to my pads or tampons or anything else in that area.
Comment by Lynette — January 17, 2008 @ 3:48 pm
This cracked me up. I have two boys… need I say more?
HAHA
Comment by Michelle — January 25, 2008 @ 11:25 pm
I am a mother pregnant with my 7th child. I completely relate to your story. It is times like these ladies where we must sit back and say to ourselves that these are the easy times because they’ll one day become teenagers. My oldest is 9 and believe me we haven’t even begun to start stressing!!lol
Comment by Heather — February 24, 2008 @ 11:43 am
when growing up I fight with my brothers when didn’t clean the seat. One of them has now 4 boys, I love them so much ! but when they were younger and stayed with me for awhile, I ought them about cleaning the seat and when didn’t I asked them, “Would you please seat on that ?” and they inmidiatly said “sorry Aunty we’ll clean it now and from now on” they do it now, I don’t know if before coming to my house their parents remindem or if they do it by himslef, But my husband always leaves it clean and try to have our boys(2) them same. I gess I am just blessed in that area.
Comment by ME — April 12, 2008 @ 12:35 am
I have three boys – all grown now. My husband helped me in that area. When done using the toilet, use toilet paper and clean up any mishaps. I never had to deal with that problem. My children have also taught their sons to do the same. It gets cleaned up every time that way!
Comment by Arlene — April 25, 2008 @ 1:50 pm
To avoid the poor aim messes, we consciously decided to delay teaching our son to stand and pee until he could very ably control his aim. He didn’t start standing until around 5! We’ve had very few problems with his aim, and he has been taught to clean it up himself. If I’ve found he hasn’t cleaned it, he is called in to wipe it up.
Comment by handipointmom — April 29, 2008 @ 10:17 am