AnnLanders.com, Advice by Ann Landers - []
Our Featured Column from the Archives: [Read More Featured Columns]
[Previous] [Next]
Section:
 
 

Dear Ann Landers,
Four children, two adults, one bathroom. The girls, fifteen and seventeen, usually get in first. They spend about twenty minutes (together) putting on makeup and combing each other's hair. This makes the boys, ten and twelve, furious. Some mornings the boys get up early and try to beat their sisters into the bathroom. When they succeed, the girls bang on the door and raise such a ruckus my husband (who doesn't have to go to work until noon) gets out of bed and adds to the bedlam by screaming at them. I've begged my husband for a second bathroom, but he says, "We had nine kids in our family and the bathroom was outside. We managed to grow up all right."-Tired Blood

Dear Tired,
If it's any consolation to you, Madame, a house with four kids and one bathroom is usually happier than a house with four bathrooms and no children. Hold a family conference. Tell the girls what time to go in and what time to 163 get out. Buy them a wall mirror so they can apply their makeup and comb their hair in the bedroom. Make it clear that if the girls don't go in on schedule, they lose their place to the boys. This should end the Battle of the Bathroom, which, incidentally, is an old, familiar all-American sport.



Share this Column with Friends




What do you think?
Comments:

A Note from Margo:
Hi! It's Margo here. I'd love to know what you think of the letters -- and the answers!

Also, any additional thoughts you might have. Thanks!
 
Please share your comments below:








Our Reader to Reader Question of the Week:


Dear Readers,
, whatever they needed I provided. What really hurt my son and I the most was the obituary - we were not mentioned at all. Our friends (mine and hers) were appalled. I was embarrassed and upset for not just me, but for my son-who loved her also. I never been so upset. Her x-husband put his wife and kids and their grandchildren in the obituary, who my girlfriend barely knew. They live an hour away from us. I know its silly to be mad over a little section of the newspaper, but it still hurts. Will time let this devastating loss of her and this article ever go away? I am so angry at this whole situation, its not like we can go and rewrite an obituary notice.

Tell us what you think?

Popular Columns

Tag Cloud


Ask a Question
or
Post a Comment

"Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life and repeat to yourself, the most comforting words of all; this, too, shall pass."
-Ann Landers