Help! Teen girls sharing one bathroom

[Charcharm]

It takes them 90 minutes to get bed ready, with constant arguments about bathroom access. One of them will monopolise the bathroom for ages, leaving the other one waiting to shower, brush teeth and so on. They are equal offenders.

I need a system for how to manage the sharing of bathroom time/access. We can’t move any of them, due to house layout this is how it has to be.

Grateful for your best tips. Thank you!!

So no-one else can use the bathroom for 3 hours or is it a bathroom shared between just the two of them and do you have other bathrooms? Sorry, are they using the bathroom for 90 mins each or 45 mins each?

Shower curtain for privacy so one can brush teeth / do skincare etc etc while other showers.

only toilet use needs door locked

The problem is the tiny sink, which can only accommodate one person at a time. They refuse to do any part of their evening routine together so one goes after the other. It takes around 90 minutes from when they go upstairs to get ready for bed, to when they’re actually in bed. I’m not monitoring it too closely but whenever I go up to check on their progress, one of them is waiting for the bathroom ’since ages’

Teen girls? I would leave them to it. Why do you need to be involved?

I have teen girls and one bathroom. It doesn’t take them 90 minutes to get ready for bed. What’s taking them so long?

Whatever they are doing they can surely do some in the bedtoom. Maybe get them both a decent well-lit mirror in their rooms? And I think it is reasonable to limit bathroom time to 30 mins each, they can explain why they need more. Be interesting to hear and understand!

What on earth are they doing in there? We have one bathroom between 4 adults and no one spends more than about 15 mins at a time in there, anyone that wants a bath checks with everyone else first. Skincare etc is done in bedrooms.

They use the bathroom to shower, use the toilet and brush their teeth. Lengthy hair/skincare routines etc need to be don't in their bedrooms. Move all of their products out of there.

Saying that, if noone else needs the bathroom and one is happy scrolling her phone while the other takes her sweet time, how much if a problem is it? I would guess its the late bedtime knocking on to the morning that you're worried about?

I took inspiration from my grandmother’s tales of washing in a house with a cold tap in the kitchen and an outside loo. DD now uses the bathroom for the essentials and then has jug of water & a couple of bowls in her bedroom as well as all of her pots & potions, a lot of cloths and an amazing mirror. It took her a week or so to get used to it but, now that she has, it’s fine. I do tend to go in collect the damp cloths and tidy it up a bit but that only takes a couple of minutes which is possibly less time and certainly less stress than intervening in the previous bathrooms! We also got a shelf and a little cupboard in the tiny downstairs cloakroom and both DC have a toothbrush, toothpaste & a couple of other essential items in there. It’s not perfect but it’s a huge improvement!

This was my experience as a teen too, 3 teen girls and Mum (and Dad but he always waited until everyone else was in bed). We used to shower then dry and dress and do whatever skincare and hair drying in own bedrooms, head back to the bathroom to brush teeth. Whoever was last always had a cold shower because the hot had run out so you had to go up early if you didn't want to be last! 😆 fun times.

Set a timer. Half hour each, max. The rest of their routine they can do in the bedroom. It doesn't all need access to a sink or shower, surely?

I'd take the lock off the bathroom door and give them a 15 minute timer. Noone will enter until the timer has run out. After that anyone can come in so you'd better be decent.

It's unacceptable to use the bathroom for more than about 30 minutes...

Unless you have some kind of disabilities or mobility problems.

Or unless all others who may need it are out of the house.

Or it's for your own sole use or there's one per person in the house.

That's my opinion anyway! I'm sure your daughters won't be in agreement with that theory.

This!

I have one bathroom but do have a downstairs loo we have 6 adults and don't have a problem. A shower, toilet and teeth clean doesn't take that long everything else can be done in a bedroom.

Agree re timers / do it in your bedroom.

Could one of them use the other bathroom?

What other bathroom. If they have another bathroom they can just use both at the same time.

Could you put a sink with a mirror over in their bedroom? Then everything except using the loo and showering can be done there, this is what halls of residence do!

If the op had two bathrooms don’t you think she would have thought of this?

I think it reads as though there is more than one bathroom tbh. My teens share the family bathroom and DH and I have an en suite. My DC can use it in an emergency but I wouldn’t want to share it on a daily basis.
Mine have time slots and a double sink.

I read it that they were sharing a bathroom and there was another one as there was no reference to lots of people being inconvenienced just that the second teen was. Will happily be corrected!

What the heck are they doing that takes so much time? I grew up in a house with 5 people and only 1 bathroom. We all managed just fine.
Set time limit for each teen. Anything that doesn't require running water needs to be done in their bedrooms, so they need to move any cleansing products to their own rooms as necessary.
It is not reasonable or necessary to spend 90 minutes getting ready for bed.

Turn the heating off in there.
Get a double sink
Give them a good lighted mirror, in their bedrooms
Timer

It takes around 90 minutes from when they go upstairs to get ready for bed, to when they’re actually in bed

How old are they? You’re going upstairs to check progress so I assume you are still enforcing a bedtime on them? If so, tell them they have to go up earlier to be in bed by bedtime. If, for example, you say they have to be in bed by 11 but it’s ending up after midnight due to skincare and bathroom routine, they’re just going to have to go up to bed at 9.