A bathroom break, please!

The other day, some of the moms were discussing the lack of privacy in the bathroom since having children. It's a luxury that every new mother quickly looses, and one of the many things no one tells you about having a baby. Either everyone forgets or they figure there are bigger lessons to learn.

When I was a brand new mother, I remember the hospital nursing staff pressuring me to just go to the bathroom after giving birth. UGH! Also, in the early days out in public when I nursed my first born, the bathroom became our little "hang out" so as to minimize the showcase of my lack of gracefulness. You know what is really funny? I, as a grown woman, still manage to call my mother on the phone and "catch" her in her private moments in the bathroom. HeHeHe!

Some of you ladies may remember our former days of being preteen and teenage girls when we visited bathrooms in "packs" and never went to the bathroom alone. Although, I was always too shy to "use" the bathroom actually. Of course having had five watermelon-sized babies inside me, now I hate to pass by a bathroom without stopping in for a visit.

Even as my children have grown, going to the bathroom remains the most important activity of our family, whether due to potty training, my being pregnant again, or the fact that someone is always saying, "I have to go to the bathroom!" My husband has always needed to leave his "mark" in every bathroom, so much that our children tease him whenever they see a port-a-potty nearby. "Oh Daddy, there is your favorite place; your throne awaits you!" HaHa! Truthfully, our family could describe in full detail every bathroom throughout Disney World. Let me emphasize how clean each one is!

Sometimes, I even try to hide in the bathroom to have a phone conversation because the ringing of the phone triggers my children to use loud voices, fight, die from hunger/thirst, and fall prey to emergency-like episodes. The twins can even detect dialing on our phone, creating within them the urge to do something that requires twin telepathy and twin cooperation which leads to someone getting hurt and the house being damaged in some way.

Restrooms are such an integral part of my life that I even think my mom's idea about making a book filled with pictures of the different kinds of toilets found in European bathrooms would be fantastic! Well, that's if I get be part of the "team" who goes to Europe to make such a book.

As you can see, I lost privacy in the bathroom long ago: twelve years, six months, and 25 days to be exact. But that's okay, I've gained so much more, like how to eat cold food in one large bite, how to survive on coffee-induced energy, how to nurse a boy twin while changing the girl twin's poopy diaper, how to keep up with five children on vacation, how to ignore a temper tantrum while grocery shopping and much, much more. Now I am wife, mother, chef, doctor, nurse, lawyer, special needs advocate, pharmacist, home school teacher, taxi driver, tutor, and personal organizer.

Quite frankly, I am unable to do any of it on my own, but "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength." (Philippians 4:13) Thank God for His Son and The Holy Spirit! And thank God for the lock on the bathroom! Speaking of...I need a bathroom break, please! M&R7