Commentary by Danielle Pelkey

The North Jefferson News



Moms rarely ever get free time in a day.

The longest amount of “me time” that most moms get is while bathing. I was thinking this over the other day.

When I was a child, I can remember my momma actually locking the doors when she was bathing. The nerve! Didn’t she know I had things to talk about? I had hair to fix and makeup to play with? What was she thinking locking me out? It really did blow my mind. That is, until a few weeks ago.

I found myself trying to shower off before going to bed after a long day at the office and then cooking supper, cleaning the house, bathing the kids, etc.

Before I had even entered the shower, I left strict instructions to my husband to keep the kids and himself quietly away from my bath time. I needed peace and quiet.

The water was turned on and I breathed a sigh of relief.

Then it started, a banging on the door. The bang was from the bottom of the door, so it had to be a small crumb snatcher — maybe Anna, the 10-month-old.

I couldn’t handle it, so I opened the door to see a snaggled toothed little girl, smiling and waving (her new little trick). I kissed her and then took her to daddy. “Please watch them while I take a bath,” I requested.

Now, back to bath time. I’m washing my hair when I hear the loudest scream you’ve ever heard, followed quickly by the banging on the door. I ignored it, so as to actually get the shampoo out of my hair. There it was again, then the door opened. A 2-year-old covered in brown stuff was ripping open the shower curtain and yelling “Sister did it!”.

Did what? What was all over her hands? Oh, please let it be chocolate!

I did the unthinkable and reached out of the shower to check out the circumstances. Sure enough, it was chocolate. Apparently Raygan was eating it, when her little sister attacked and caused the screaming.

After washing off her hands and face, I sent her back out of the bathroom.

Now to actually bathe. What? Another yell? “Mommy? Mommy?”

That’s the horrified screams of Raygan when she doesn’t know where you are. “I’m in the bathroom,” I scream back. Of course there is no sound of the door opening because she left it open the last time she ran out of there.

Again ripping the shower curtain open, she looks at me and smiles, as if to say, “Oh, there you are.” She then leaves the room again.

A few minutes pass when there are little scraping sounds on the floor. This must be Anna crawling in to see what’s going on. Sure enough, a little hand reaches in the curtain. I lean down, smile at her and continue trying to bathe. Then, apparently she is trying to crawl out of the bathroom, when Raygan is walking in the bathroom and it hits the fan.

Raygan is pushing with all of her might to open the door. Anna is just at a crawling stage and can’t move fast enough when the large, wooden door is opening and then the inevitable — a smack on the head, scraped-up fingers and Raygan is still feeling like she is being locked out so they are both screaming.

Finally, the shower is over and mommy time has officially ended. I run out of the shower, pick up the little one to kiss her boo boos, then open the door to assure the big one that no one is locking her out.

Now there’s a sigh of relief. My shower time is finally over and we can all relax. Both of my babies are right where I want them to be and all is right with the world.

Who wouldn’t want to be a mom?