Shower Push Back

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My kids always try to get out of taking a bath or shower. They are ALWAYS too busy. I think I have compromised a lot on this one: I've reduced bath days to Sundays and Wednesdays. For some of you with only 1 or 2 kids, that might seem really disgusting. But in our family, it works. Most of the time.

The other day we had a situation. It was Wednesday, so, as we were were hanging around the dining room table after school I announced that it was bath night and 1) Do you want a shower or bath? and 2) Who wants to go first?

Triplet L (let's call her) said she wanted a shower but wanted to go last. She insisted that she likes the East bathroom, the one closest to her bedroom, and would take no other. Her big sister jumped up and volunteered to take her shower immediately (very uncommon) in the East. She ran for the staircase, but Triplet L was somehow threatened by this and bounded after her screaming that she now wanted to go first. Go figure !?# Of course this led to a lot of yelling and screaming on the stairs, NOT the place you want to have an argument. By the time I got to the top, Big Sister was already stripping down and running the shower. Triplet L was screaming and protesting. I, naive and foolish that I am, made some suggestions. "Let's go in the West bathroom L, it's better because the paint is not chipping off the bottom of the tub! I'll hang out and keep you company!" L sat down on the stairs, covered her ears and screamed at me NEVER!, LEAVE ME ALONE! I'M NOT LISTENING! I had put my very sensitive child into lock-down mode. Alas, this happens easily with her.

At this point I was irritated because I wanted the baths out of the way so I could focus on dinner, which would dictate the play time/pj's/teeth/read time/lights off. In other words, a decent bedtime hour. It's all connected. I looked down at the mug of green tea in my hand that I apparently had been holding the whole time. Be Zen, be Zen, I told myself. "I'm gonna go sit in the bathroom and wait, just in case you change your mind" I said in the direction of the stairs. And yes, I walked down the hall to the West bathroom, put down the toilet seat and sat there sipping. Who cares, I told myself. Who cares if she doesn't take a bath? Maybe I can't win today....Then I heard footsteps. She was coming to see if I was really sitting there! In her grumpiest, poutiest look, she groused, "I'm only looking at the tub." She walked away then, but came back a few minutes later. I started to run the water.