The Toilet Trouble - Moms of Multiple Boys, I Need You!
7:24 AM
This post isn't going to be poetic, heck it isn't even going to be well written. It's a cry for help, what do you expect? I have trouble, trouble with my toilet. Well, not my toilet, the toilet in the boy's bathroom. I try not to go in there. I assign cleaning it as a chore and then just pray that they actually cleaned it. Yes, this is slightly delusional behavior. Yesterday morning I went in there though and then spent the next hour cleaning and scrubbing a cesspool of pee.
Why? Why is it so hard to pee into a big oval hole? Also, if it is so hard to do this, why in the world do boys not just sit down to go like girls do? I could clean that bathroom every single day of the week and the next day, you know what I would find behind the toilet? A pool of pee. Yep, everyday, that darn puddle would be back. Why? I don't know. If it's there, think of where else it is. Walking into a bathroom shared by four boys is like walking into one of those scenes in a horror movie. You know, the ones where you know you shouldn't look, but you do anyway? ( cue music from the Pyscho movie scene.)
Let's just think of the logistics of this for a moment. To form a puddle of pee behind the toilet on the floor, they literally have to urinate around the toilet, missing it completely to land in a puddle on the floor behind it. How? Why? What can I do to make it stop? Of course, if I ask them, no one is doing it. That stinking sock monster must be stopping by on his way back from collecting all our socks to pee a puddle behind the toilet, because they swear it isn't them. It isn't just little boys ladies. Have you wondered why men's public restrooms smell so bad? Because they are doing it too!
So, moms of multiple boys, how do you make the pee puddles stop?
31 comments
I have no advice for you...but man this makes me happy that I have a girl. LOL
ReplyDeleteI don't know I have 4 boys-my 3 and the hubby. The puddle was there before the 3 younger ones-so it isn't just the little ones who can't aim. I don't know. I have thought about some kind of shield but then I wouldn't be able to go in there. The problem I am having because I am the only "lady" in the house they don't check before they start and the middle of these winter nights-Mommy isn't happy at all!!! I think you all know what I mean...
ReplyDeleteI give my boys a choice. They can sit, or they can clean up with a Clorox wipe Every. Time. I enforce it. To me, it is a hygiene matter like mandatory hand washing. Now, what about the dried toothpaste in the sink...
ReplyDeleteI have four boys and I don't have a solution, only how we deal with it. When we moved in, one of them was potty training and one soon to be. I cut a large plastic bag open and tape it behind the toilet to protect the wall and moulding. Yes, they still miss, but I just throw it away and mop. I leave Clorox wipes for them and guests just in case. Occasionally, I take them in there and make them clean with gloves. The good news is, about the time they start liking girls, the hygiene issue goes full-throttle reverse and it turns into towels on the floor from all their showers!
ReplyDeleteThank goodness for two girls over here!
ReplyDeleteLOL, well I am glad I am not the only one with boys who do it then. I do make them clean it up most the time. I just wish I knew who the culprit was, because they all say "No, it isn't me." Ugh, I wish they would just sit down.
ReplyDeleteI don't think this problem ever ends. My oldest boy is 21 and he still leaves pee behind the toilet and on the toilet seat as well. I gave up long ago trying to figure it out. My only solution is the boy that was last in the bathroom has to clean it up. This, however, has not stopped them from doing it. My daughter, who is 16, tells them to wipe the toilet too. You would think they would be embarrassed, but no, back they go to missing the big oval hole. Sorry, wish I could help but it doesn't get any better.
ReplyDeleteI'll never understand how they can't make it in that huge hole.
ReplyDeleteLOL - no boys here (well except my husband)...I say make them sit down.... ;)
ReplyDeleteSo glad I am having a girl, but for my hubby I have the clorox bowl cleaner for all #2s.
ReplyDeleteI have the same struggle
ReplyDeleteTwo boys and a hubby and this is my biggest pet peeve! I have never found a solution. I swear I am going to make a sitting only rule in this house!
ReplyDeleteMy husband is bad on his own.. can't imagine more boys lol
ReplyDeleteLet me know when you find out. My husband can't make it either
ReplyDeleteWe just got Sweet T potty trained. I may have to let Hubs handle training Gus when the time comes since he seems to have an excellent aim.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter occasionally pees in front of the toilet. Sometimes she waits too long to go... other times shes to eager to get up...ugh
ReplyDeleteLet me offer you another perspective on your problem, and hopefully, a possible solution.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, by way of qualifications, I am a stay-at home father of 4 children, 3 of them boys, 2 of those potty trained. So I know a little bit about boys and toilets. In addition to that I have personally been using toilets one or more times a day at least since junior high.
To understand my theory on the problem, you first have to understand a little bit about male anatomy and how boys go to the bathroom. If an averagely endowed male were to sit down on a regular chair and go pee, the stream would mostly be propelled forward. Obviously, that would be unacceptable. We need the stream to go down, into the toilet. So in order to project the stream downward, most men sit on the toilet in such a way that the front of the seat presses against the front of the base of the penis. This technique causes the penis to point downward and causes the pee to go into the toilet. However, if the technique is not used properly, there is a chance that the penis points forward slightly. This can cause a situation where the pee can escape the toilet through the crack between the seat and the bowl.
Now, if the pee escapes the toilet between the seat and the bowl, you might think that it would splash forward and the person creating the situation would immediately notice it. That might be true. However, depending on the angle, the pee itself will usually catch the surface of the toilet. The surface tension causes it to flow along the outside of the toilet downward and pool on the floor. Depending on the leveness of your floor (levelhood, levoelocity?) the pee would end up pooling behind the toilet as you described.
You asked in your post, “why is it so hard to pee into a big oval hole?” The truth is it isn’t. And when a male is standing, they can see where the stream is going and control it. But when they sit down, sometimes the stream can get away from them without them knowing about it at all.
In my opinion, it is likely that one of your boys is not situating themselves properly when they sit down to go number one and number two.
Just a thought, but it might solve your problem.
PS. I am a fledgling stay-at-home-dad blogger myself. I really enjoy your blog.
LOL Thank-you Dan for that extremely vivid and involved answer. It was enlightening. I do not believe any of my boys have taken my advice to sit when they pee. In fact, from the looks of the bathroom on various days they may just stand and twirl in circles for all I know. I have cleaned urine off of the shower curtain, the wall, the very top of the toilet and even the bathroom sink counter. The older boys are starting to speak out now, so perhaps things will chance, but that remains to be seen. :)
ReplyDeleteI only have one son and am thankful that he sits down sometimes. :)
ReplyDeleteNo advice, just good luck!
ReplyDeleteGood luck! I am still trying to train my husband to pee correctly.
ReplyDeleteLOL this reminded me of a totally different toilet and "boy" story. Good Luck!
ReplyDeleteI'm going through this now! And there are no consequences for them, because everyone knows I'll eventually clean it.
ReplyDeleteGood luck and I have my own stories to tell. lol
ReplyDeleteMy hubby and son are enough for me! Then I have 3 daughters. We should have bought a house with 2 bathrooms for sure.
ReplyDeleteLet me know when you figure it out. :)
ReplyDeletelooks like Dan has solution. I have 4 boys in this house and have the same issue. I think a solution the the problem would be to let each child clean behind the toilet every other day maybe then they'd take more careful AIM>
ReplyDeletewe can always invent urine blocks to solve this issue and go head to head in shark tank LOL
UGH. My hubs still has issues with this. I think it's never going to end I'm sorry!
ReplyDeletewe have 4 boys. we simply made it a requirement that the toilet is wiped with a lysol/clorox wipe every night immediately before bed. we assign the chore to a different boy each week. the boy who has the job must be the last person in bed. when i randomly go in after everyone is in bed and it doesn't look clean, the person who's job it is to do this pays mom $1.
ReplyDeletealso, weekly, the bathroom is cleaned. i do inspections after the job has been done. if it's not done at least partially satisfactory, i get paid moolah. this has worked WONDERFULLY.
I make my husband clean my son's bathroom!! lol
ReplyDeleteWe only have one bathroom. I guess I should be glad I only have one son.
ReplyDelete