Ah poop!

Growing up, I thought that only adults spent four hours in the bathroom. My father (sorry Dad) had his daily ritual, which I think involved the morning paper, and I swear he was in there forever! I am more of a get in, get it done and get out, kind of pooper. Somehow, the forever pooping gene got passed down to my children. All three of my oldest children take their dear sweet time in the bathroom. I am often yelling at one of them to hurry up and get out of the bathroom. And I don't usually start hollering until they've been in there for a good twenty minutes. What I can't figure out is what in the heck they are doing for that long? I have had to banish any DS playing on the toilet. I've caught Lillie with reading material more than once. And Michael, well, I think he just forgets what he's supposed to be doing! The worst is when we are out in public and they spend twenty minutes in a public restroom. I had to send Michael in to check on Andrew once because he'd been gone for so long. Nothing like having to send your five year old son in to rescue the eight year old. I mean really! Public restrooms are nothing to boast home about either. I'm quite content to spend as little time in there as humanly possible. Oh, and don't even get me started on pooping before school. That should be banished too. Andrew missed the bus once because he took so long and I didn't realize he was in the bathroom. Now some of you might think that I just have very constipated children, but I don't think this is the case. Because often, as soon as I start hollering for them to exit the bathroom, I immediately hear toilet paper being unrolled, and much movement towards exiting. So I've just chalked it up to some genetic abnormality that got passed down from their grandfather! (You gotta blame it on someone? Right, Dad?)