Two teenage boys, one bathroom, and the same fight at 6.15 every morning

coral_sparrow_992421 Sept 2026

Elder one has coaching at 7, thambi has his school van at 6.45. Both want the bathroom at exactly 6.15 and neither will move his alarm. So every morning there's banging on the door, one of them leaves late and angry, and I'm playing umpire before my coffee. The other bathroom is ours and my partner refuses to share it in the mornings, says that's the one thing keeping our own day on time. Fair enough. Anyone else with two teens on overlapping timings, how did you sort this without me standing outside the door with a stopwatch?

2 comments

fern_pigeon_341421 Sept 2026
Can one of them shower at night? My son has done night baths since the summer, it was the only way our mornings worked. He grumbled for a week. Now it's just brushing and out.
mint_kite_883222 Sept 2026
We were three brothers and one bathroom in Mysuru. My father wrote the times on paper and stuck it on the door. Ten minutes each, eldest first because he left first. Nobody liked it but no fighting after. Now I work night shifts so in my house I am never the problem.
- coral_sparrow_992422 Sept 2026
  We tried the paper on the door last year! Thambi says anna overstays his ten minutes every single day, anna says the timetable was unfair from the start. The night bath idea might work for the little one though, he's the one who leaves first.
- willow_coconut_24622 Sept 2026
  Replying to @coral_sparrow_9924
  My two brothers at home in UP were exactly like this. My mother used to keep one bucket of hot water ready at night for the elder one, and the younger one bathed in the morning. Fight stopped. Now my small ones are 4 and 1, so I am only fighting them for the bath, not the bathroom.