No bickering in the bathroom!

Overall, they get ready for school pretty well, now. But they both tended to be in the same bathroom brushing their teeth and hair at the same time, right before we needed to fly out the door.

The bathroom is pretty roomy, and they each had their own drawer to hold their toiletries. But the drawers were stacked one on top of the other, so my daughter couldn’t get into her drawer if my son had his opened. Also, they both wanted to do their brushing right next to their drawer so that it was easy to put their things away. As you can imagine, this caused all sorts of drama every morning.

Both wanted to stand in the same place. My daughter would close my son’s drawer so that she could get her things. Then he would close her drawer just to be spiteful. Oh, the joy…

For awhile I tried to encourage just one to be in the bathroom at a time, but if the first person was dilly-dallying, then the second person wouldn’t have enough to time to get ready, so that just upped the drama. Also, my Aspie would complain if he was asked to go first – he didn’t think it was fair that he had to get ready while his sister wasn’t ready yet. But he hated going second, because then he was mad that his sister had accomplished something before him – so that was a no-win situation.

Finally I remembered how, as a kid, I always worked my morning routine so that I could be in the bathroom by myself. And I realized that I still don’t really like to brush my teeth and hair with others around. Why? I don’t know. It just has something to do with the hypersensitivity of having ASD.

So I asked my Aspie if he would like to have space in the tiny bathroom behind the kitchen for his toiletries, so that he can complete his morning routine in peace. He jumped at the idea, and mornings have been smoother than ever, ever since!