(More than) Fourinarow.net

Anyone with kids knows that children = dirt.  Every family operates differently, but since babyhood, each child in this family bathes or showers (with or without help) every night.  The only exceptions are if we have literally not left the house and it’s a weekend and it doesn’t matter as much what anyone looks like.

As you all know, the hours between 5 p.m. and bedtime around here are your basic nightmare.  Dinner prep, dinner itself, baths, jammies, teeth… it cannot *ever* go smoothly.  And, the house we live in does NOTHING to ease the situation.

The water pressure here isn’t the best (like at Katey’s house!) but it isn’t terrible.  Unless you’ve got water running from more than once source at a time, i.e. the toilet, the sink, the shower, the dishwasher, the hose, etc.  As long as we keep to ONE thing at a time, a shower or bath can actually be an enjoyable experience.

Sometimes, however, it becomes virtually impossible to use only once source of water at a time.  Invariably, someone needs to use the potty while someone’s in the shower (and must flush it).  Or brush their teeth.  Or rinse a dish.   Multiple water use like this causes just a little tension and often results in a high-pitched scream from whomever is trying to get clean.  If said person is in the upstairs shower, the shreaking is usually a little louder, as we don’t have a temperature controlled valve installed.  (Yet.)

This evening, even though Dan had let me know he’d be late, I was cool and had it all under control.  Immediately after dinner (which went amazingly well), I put Sam in my shower and had Luke follow.  I told Maria to go upstairs and get her bath or shower in.  Her habit (which I’m sure you’ll be thrilled to know about) is to sit on the potty for 30 minutes or so before finally deigning to get into the bath.  She likes to luxuriate, and so I told her she could take as long as she liked as long as she got clean first.

About an hour later, she came down.  In her jammies.  With completely dry hair.  “You didn’t wash your hair!!!” I said.  “Go get back into the shower and wash it.  NOW.”  (Of all the times to pull a stunt like this… we have school pictures tomorrow!)

About that time, Jack was starting his shower downstairs after having come inside from playing in the dirt.

I went up to check on Maria, who had the bathroom door locked.  When I finally gained entry, I discovered her at the sink wetting her hair down.  “This is NOT what I told you to do,” I said, walking her over to the bathtub (which, by the way, was completely dry.  She hadn’t even bathed.)  “But Jack’s in the shower and there won’t be enough water!!!” she screeched.  “Too bad,” I told her, thinking the pressure might be weak, but it would be sufficient. “You were supposed to have done this an hour ago!”

I turned on the water, but after holding the diverter up for more than 60 seconds and getting only a dibble from the showerhead, I gave up.  As I walked through the rest of the bathroom, I found Luke at the sink with the water on full blast and then found Jack waiting for his water to warm up in the shower downstairs, with a recently flushed toilet behind him.  I shut everything off (telling Jack he’d have to wait) and headed back up to supervise Maria.  The pressure was better, but throughout the shower she continued to shriek, as the water went from ice cold to too hot.  (I discovered later that Jack had turned his shower back on as soon as I disappeared from view.)

With Maria (finally) clean, I checked on Jack and told him to hurry – I needed to run the dishwasher.  As Jack likes his water pressure, this usually does the trick.  Unfortunately tonight, it did the trick a little too well.  He emerged from the shower with what looked like blood covering his entire right arm.  “What is that?!?”  I asked.  “Dad’s red soap,” he informed me.  Sheesh.  “Well get back into the shower and rinse off!” I told him.

Which he did.  And then stayed to play, using the rest of any hot water I might have used to wash dishes.  Oh, and have I mentioned that I have yet to get a shower today?  Looks like it’ll be a late one.