Toilet Seat Etiquette

Yes you have read it right, my blog today is about toilet seat etiquette. It could be that I have been snowed in to long, it could be that I have seven kids and a husband who live to apparently make work for me, in any case the lesson for today is toilet seat etiquette.

For those of you who are new to my blog I am a mother of seven children on a yours mine and ours family. The children range in age from 22 to 7 years old and there is never a dull moment at our house. I know you may all read this and think is she for real? Yes, this is my life, the good, the bad and the ugly - believe me, you can not make this stuff up!

Recently due to the amount of snow and wind and the fact that is was only -45 degrees below zero, that is not a miss type. I got to spend some quality bonding time with my family, or at least the kids home at the time and my husband. We had already survived the Christmas Blizzard of 2009 and were finally talking to each other again when the next storm hit. Here is where the drama begins.

I, being the only female in the house at the time with my hubby, the 17 year old and the 11 year old came to notice a disturbing situation that until recently has always been placed on the daycare kids who control the house the better part of most week days. Someone had been dribbling on the toilet seat. I am not so sure why this send me over the edge but it does, actually I know why but I will spare you some of my neurotic feelings about germs in the bathroom. Anyway, I never dreamed at this stage of the game I would have to teach my hubby and children how to properly raise and lower a toilet seat.

I started the conversation to find out that the reason the seat has dribble marks on it was that they do no raise it when they use it. Apparently that is my fault brought on by their fear of leaving the seat up and my subsequent meltdown if found in the up position. That being said they have never been awakened in the middle of the night by a screaming seven year old because she has fallen into the toilet in her state of being half asleep when using the bathroom in the middle of the night.

In the second part of our conversation/my meltdown, I discussed why it is never appropriate to stand at the toilet without lifting the seat and if you can't lift the seat and you do dribble - WIPE IT UP!!!! Also added that hands do need to be washed - ALWAYS WHEN LEAVING THE BATHROOM!!!! I am surprised at this point that my head was not spinning around on my neck as I am pretty sure my family thinks I am possessed, or at least crazy and I am pretty sure that they may or may not be scared of me. I am also pretty sure that the 17 year old has taken to calling me "The Bathroom Nazi" and you know what, if it keeps my toilet seat clean I can live with that.

I am now pretty sure I know why the early settler women went crazy in the Dakotas during the winter, it wasn't from the wind or the snow, it was from man dribbling on the chamber pot and leaving her to clean it up. We will see what the next snow storm brings. The weatherman said we should get ready for the big one that is coming next week - God help us all!!!