Eeeww de Toilet

Curly had a little lamb...

Not the real blue comb

I was “working” on my computer today…ok, I was blogging…when I heard the toilet flush. About 30 seconds later, Curly came in. “M..o..m?” he sort of whined. Distracted, I turned to reach for him and he placed a wet pair of underwear in my hand. I immediately dropped them to the floor as he said, “These fell in the toilet…”

Now how many kids do you know that drop something in the toilet and then fish it out? I only know one…

Most of mine drop something in and they holler for Mom to do the dirty work. I remember once when I was in high school, I was getting ready for a dance. I’m not exactly sure how the comb fell into the toilet since I have always been pretty good about shutting the lid, but the next thing I knew, my favorite large blue comb was sinking to the bottom. And I did exactly what you would expect. “Mom!” I yelled. Only she didn’t come. After a moment or two I tried again. I knew she was in the house, so I went to search for her.

When I finally found her, she was calmly folding laundry. “Can you come and get the comb out of the toilet?” I was pretty frantic by then. What if somebody used the facilities without seeing it? What if they flushed it? This was a disaster. Mom’s eyes were still on the TV show she was watching. “You can do it,” she responded. I was NOT happy about this turn of events. “Ewww!” Then she looked at me. “What are you going to do when you are the mom?” she asked. “I’m not coming over to take care of it for you. You just as well get used to it now.” Then she turned back to her show.

I stomped out of the den and back to the bathroom. Angry, I plunged my hand into that toilet water and retrieved my comb. And you know what? It wasn’t that bad. I turned on the sink and ran the water straight hot. I scrubbed my hands and my comb with soap and soon everything was back to normal. (Now, I’m pretty sure I would have just thrown the comb in the trash, but that was not an option then. I wouldn’t have had the funds to replace it.)

picture credit

But that whole experience taught me a lesson. I didn’t need my mom always bailing me out of hard situations. If I was in hot water (or toilet water) because I had made bad choices (like leaving the toilet seat up), then I needed to just take care of myself. It was a bit of a turning point for me. In one single moment, I suddenly became much more independent and maybe a little more grown up and a lot more careful about always shutting the lid.