It is Wednesday morning and my bathroom looks like a bomb has gone off in it! There is a puddle in the centre of the floor. There are drizzly shampoo and shower gel bottles all over the floor of the shower. The toothpaste has been smeared all over the sink taps and there are remnants of shaving foam going crusty around the rim.  There is not a dry towel to be seen. In fact there are no towels at all, except for the small wet hand towel that is draped elegantly over the radiator. Oh, and there is a 5 month old cat in the bottom of the bath drinking from the tap which has been left dripping.

Am I shocked? No. This is how my bathroom usually looks in a house with one bathroom, two daughters and a partner who is even more precious about his beauty regime than I am. Do I shout and tear my hair out? Well yes, but where does that get me? The answer, I have discovered is to treat my war zone bathroom in the same way that a military leader would do!

Here are the Parent Gossip top tips for bringing peace to the Bathroom Battlefield.

  • Create a staggered schedule. Work out who leaves the house first and who takes longest in the bathroom then set up a schedule for who gets to use the bathroom in what order. In our case Tobes leaves the house first and needs, therefore, to get into the bathroom first. Witchling 12 goes next as she leaves for her bus next. Witchling 10 is after her and as I take longest to get ready I go last. Since the slowest person goes last nobody else is knocked off schedule by my exfoliation and body butter!
  • The kids shower in the evening. After dinner both of the Witchlings go up for their showers and dry their hair before bed. This gives me time to check for little visitors in their hair and means that they don’t need to rush. As pre-teens they are both learning about and discovering the importance of personal hygiene but it takes a bit of time to get it right.
  • Remove all make up, hair styling equipment and other lotions and potions out of the bathroom and into bedrooms. Each bedroom has a mirror and a power socket, which is really all that is needed. This frees up the shower and sink for the people who need it.
  • Now it gets even cleverer! Each family member is assigned a different coloured flannel, hand towel and bath towel. They also have their own hook on the bathroom door. It is the responsibility of each person to make sure that their towels are hung up properly after use and are placed in the laundry basket before they become a chemical weapon!