My boys go to gymnastics every Wednesday and Thursday afternoon.  Jacob is home from school about 11:30. I give him a few minutes to play then we have lunch and then head to gymnastics.  To be on time, we need to leave our house by 12:45 at the latest. I start doing the potty break round up about 12:20. It takes me about 60 seconds for me to pee and wash my hands. It takes my boys about 20 minutes.

The potty break round up starts with me saying, “Ok, before we leave, everyone must use the potty.” We have 2 ½ bathrooms in our house. The boys then begin to argue over who is going to use which bathroom.  Who is going upstairs and who is staying downstairs and who is using the big blue bathroom and who is using the white bathroom (aka, Mommy’s bathroom).

Once we have established who is using which bathroom, the boys head upstairs. (Because, yes, the result is almost ALWAYS the same… Jacob uses the blue bathroom and Christopher uses the white bathroom… however, they still have the same discussion every single time it’s time for potty breaks… but I digress.)

As both boys are heading upstairs, each one is scrambling to be the first one up, which means they are pushing each other out of the way to get there. I don’t have enough gray hair, right? I get to stand there, hand on my chest, waiting for one to come tumbling back down. Once they are up, they then start the discussion again about who is heading where.  Decision made again, Jacob heads to the blue one, Christopher to the white. They then proceed to holler from room to room to each other about exactly what they are doing on the potty.  “I’m putting the seat up, Christopher!” “I’m pointing my peepee down Jacob so my pee goes in the potty!” And so on.

After they describe in detail how they went to the bathroom, the mad scramble for the step stool begins. We keep it in the main bathroom. One would think Christopher would catch on after all this time that he’s just not going to get to it first since he’s in the other bathroom.  I hear toilets flush and then Christopher’s feet scrambling down the hall as he’s yelling, “NO! I have to use the stool!”  During Christopher’s mad dash to the blue bathroom, I hear the step stool scrape across the bathroom floor, Jacob already giggling because he knows he’s won the race.

At this point, I head upstairs, and find both boys trying to stand together on the stool as they push each other’s hands out of the running water, resulting in water being splashed all over the bathroom counter and floor.   By now it’s usually 12:45. We still need to put on shoes.

The lesson here?  I need to start the mad potty dash much sooner.