Bathroom Floors

Even though I understand that bathroom floors are meant to take the abuse of the bathroom, there is something about large puddles of water on the floor in my bathroom that drives me crazy. I’m not talking about what happens after someone steps out of the shower, or perhaps the result of someone spilling something, I am talking about my daughter’s refusal to stop splashing while she is in the bathtub. I don’t know if I would be more angry if this were my house, but I understand that my landlord may not appreciate the water damage that is happening.

It seems that my daughter has a mental block when it comes to following directions. I know many parents would say the same thing, and I know it is not just my daughter. I have told her repeatedly that she cannot splash water onto the bathroom floors while she’s taking a bath. I do realize that some splashing can occur, but she goes out of her way to make a huge mess. Every time she takes a bath the bathroom floors end up being soaked. She is five years old, and there is absolutely no reason why I should have to sit in the bathroom with her to monitor her every move. Apparently though, this might be something that I have to do.

I realize that she is not old enough to understand what water can do to bathroom floors. Yes, we have linoleum on our bathroom floors, and this protects the wood underneath from the water. However, the flooring was not installed as well as it should have been, and some of the water that she is throwing on the floor is seeping down underneath the linoleum. No matter how many times I explained to her why she cannot splash so much, she still continues to do it as if it were something new and exciting. I often wonder if she is rebelling at the age of five. 

My husband suggests that if I act as if the water on the bathroom floors meant nothing, that she would soon stop doing it. After he finished speaking, I allowed myself at least ten minutes to laugh before I corrected him. Though this may work with some children, this does not work with my daughter. I have tried to be calm, and have tried to ignore certain situations hoping that they would correct themselves, but this is never worked for her. She simply does what she wants, and this includes flooding the bathroom floors whenever she takes a bath.