When we moved into our house we knew we were going to do a lot of work to it. The carpet in the living room and hallway was really disgusting. It was white shag carpet that was so dirty it had a greyness to it, and if you walked on it barefoot it felt like it was cutting into your feet, like crunchy carpet. We decided we had better get it done right away since Hunter was just getting to the age of crawling and I just couldn't have my baby crawling around on that dreadful nasty carpet.
One of the other things we decided to do since we were going to put tile everywhere except the bedrooms and den, was to get new toilets. Our other house was brand new so no one had used the toilets there before us, (OK, probably a few construction workers, but I blocked that out.)
Have I ever mentioned my extreme dislike of public toilets? Well, now I have. I extremely dislike public toilets. So much so that in high school I would literally "hold it" all day. How I've never had a bladder infection I'll never know. On family vacations I would hold it as long as humanly possible to try to avoid going any more than absolutely necessary.
So anyway, the thought of moving into this house that had at least 4 previous "sets" of tenants/owners, just grossed me out to no end, so it was a good thing we were getting new toilets. They were nice, we didn't spend a ton of money on them, but they got the job done.
After Rylie was born last year, Hunter must have been either really deprived of attention, or really curious. I'm going to say really curious, because he is after all a boy, and boys seem to like to see what happens when you do X.
One day the toilet in our guest bathroom wouldn't flush right.
We tried plunging it.
That didn't work.
We tried snaking it.
That didn't work either.
Finally, Seth took the toilet off, and guess what we found in the trap...
This...( I'm sparing you the real picture I took of the one that was actually down there, it's pretty gross!)
Yep, that's right, Hunter wanted to see what would happen if he flushed this thing down the toilet. I didn't happen to notice that it was missing because I only had about three of those things. We had actually thought it was a golf ball.
So Seth re-set the toilet.
It still wouldn't flush right.
He plunged it again, and again, and again....
Cut to 3 weeks or so later, we finally went and bought another new toilet after numerous attempts of plunging, snaking, taking the toilet off again, and all that. And this time I bought a toilet that is supposed to get just about anything down. (We think there might have been a crack or something on the inside that was preventing it from flushing right, since we never found anything else in there.)
I really hope Rylie doesn't go through this phase.
(Since having kids, I've gotten a refreshed dislike of public toilets... because your kids just can't use them without touching every square inch of everything they shouldn't touch. And, right now Hunter's at the don't-come-in-the-stall-with-me phase, so who knows what he's touching in there, shudder)
So with you on the toilets at highschool, I used to hold it all day too.
ReplyDeleteI'll count myself lucky that so far we've had no child related toilet probs! Long may it continue.
Wow, I always thought that I was the only freak who refused to go to the bathroom while at school my entire life.
ReplyDeleteI'm actually much better about public toilets now that I'm older (mostly because I've come to the conclusion that sometimes you just have to do what you have to do).
I hear you on the problems with young children and public bathrooms though! I'll have to share my story of the series of issues we had on our trip to Maine...as long as you promise not to judge!
I'm hoping that we are able to bypass that phase. Is it just a boy thing?
ReplyDeleteI hate public toilets, too. So it really sucks living in apartments, because so many rear ends have touched it before I have.
ReplyDeleteI just keep telling myself that germs cannot survive on the seats for a long time and clean it with gasoline when I move in. I kid, of course.
I have perfected the art of the "hoover" when I absolutely can not avoid using public loos. Uhg, just thinking about it grosses me out.
ReplyDeleteI've been where you are, with toilet terrors. Bars of soap, 27 tampons, pantyhose, pacifiers, legos...You name it, at one time or another in the last two decades it's been flushed down our toilets. We sure have made a lot of plumbers very happy...if not exceedingly wealthy!
Some days I'm thankful I don't have a boy, MH is pretty good in our bathrooms. Although I rue the day she gets into all of my makeup!
ReplyDeleteAs for public restrooms, I didn't have a huge issue with them until the whole potty training movement. I freak out every time she touches something, and of course, the more I tell her not to touch, the more she touches! She, too, has started closing me out due to her need for "privdacy", and has locked herself in and been unable to unlock the door. Good times!
I hope your new toilet works well, and that you can train Hunter and Rylie to stay away from throwing anything but TP down there!
Aww..it's like a baby "plunger" for the potty!!!
ReplyDeleteI just called the toilet a potty.
Can you tell how tired I am?!?!
I'm lucky, this has yet to happen, even in watching other people's children. Sorry you had to get a new toilet, but think about how clean and germless it should be :)
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