Toilet Paper and Soap

They're almost 4, and I STILL have to ration out Toilet Paper and Soap because otherwise all they do is play with it! This morning, 'T' was crying in the bathroom when I woke up (DH was alredy up) becuase she didn't have any TP to wipe her booty.... well she didn't HAVE any becuase she had spent the whole night prior wadding it up and playing with it in the SINK (which BTW has caused a back up in our bathroom sink) They do the same thing with soap. If we keep it in their reach, they'll sit there for HOURS making bubbles in the sink and playing...

How do we stop this?? We can't give them the freedom of being able to go the bathroom by themselves (to a point, but then we have to come in and give them TP and Soap, then stand there to make sure they don't diddle-daddle in the water)

I WANT them to be able to use the bathroom WITHOUT our assistance at all, but when they go through an entire roll of TP (and the 'double' rolls at that!) it will be impossible.

What do you do with your 4 year olds?? How do you keep them from TPing the whole house?? LOL

 

When you figure it out, let me know =) We have the same problem with the TP except they use half the roll to wipe with then throw it in the toilet ... I pray everytime I flush it that it will all go down =) We don't, for some reason, have the same problem with soap. I got that kid safe rinse free antibacterial wash stuff (you know, like the kind with rubbing alcohol but w/o the alcohol.) I squirt in on there and they rub their hands dry (or get some TP to dry them with, ha ha) ... and for some reason, maybe because they just haven't figured it out yet, they don't play with this. Could you maybe take the roll off and just tear off some strips for them to use and put them where they can reach them (even if you are periodically tearing strips of TP all day) when needed? I guess ... this, too, shall pass ... but can our septic systems take it?!

 

I tell my girls to count 3 squares and rip it off. Kind of makes a little game out of it. It works well and so far we have avoided using entire rolls of TP.

What about using Bar soap instead of liquid soap? Do you think that would help?

GL! That has got to be super frustrating!

 

I've never had a problem with that (heck, I wish my 3 year old would use tp, or at least tell me she pooped! :escape: ) but I thought this would be a thead about the tp and soap concoction that we used to make. Shredded bar soap (watch little fingers) mixed with a small amount of water and then add tons of tp and voila a goopy mess to play with.

Maybe then they wouldn't need to play with it? Or give them a few rolls to wrap each other up as mummies? My kids do that every year at school and the 5th graders enjoy it just at much as the pre-k kids.

Also maybe little hotel soaps? That way they can only waste so much?

 

This drives me nuts too. Its so wasteful! After repeating that like a million times, they've gotten better about not using too much TP. We don't have a problem with soap since they can't reach the dispenser (its built in to the counter), but this means they do need our help with that.

 

It is a frustrating thing around here too! If soap is within their reach in the shower/bath you can guarantee that the whole bottle will be emptied. :headbang: AND...I have tried to get them to count squares of TP to no avail.... <sigh>.

 

We started with flushable wipes as they cone out one at a time and then moved to counting squares. Soap wise we use the j&j soap in a pouch for bath time and foam hand soap and tell them only 1 pump

 

I would try flushable wet wipes. I never had the issue of too much TP.

 

Perhaps you can use a watertable and fill it with bubbles once or twice/wk, maybe that would give them their fill of playing with bubbles (instead of using the soap for making their own bubbles). I just tell my kids only 1 pump of soap, and they can and do repeat that, and usually they only se 1 pump, but once and awhile I find them with a sink full of bubbles as well. Or, what about a good old sticker chart for everytime they use only 1 pump or soap? Same for the tp issue...

As for TP, we haven't had that issue yet, because my kids still need help wiping, so we are there anyway. Can you tell them that they will need to help clean up the poop and pee if they put too much toilet paper down the toilet and it overflows? Would a consequence like that scare them into using a small amount (or would it motivate them to use more to "help" mommy clean it up?).