the delicate balance

Sharing a bathroom is a "joy". Especially when you have more than one person who has to get out of the house in the morning for work/school. Jen and I (and Becca, when she was home from school and working last summer) had to negotiate a time frame for each of us to do our morning routine. It works. Usually. Unless my mother throws a monkey wrench into the works and upsets the balance. My mother retired 11 years ago, and she no longer remembers the urgency of having to make a train and/or get to work on time. And she could try the patience of a saint. Last week she wandered into the bathroom when Jen was trying to get ready for work. Mom has her own bathroom adjacent to the master bedroom, but for some reason she likes to use the scale/shower/etc. in the larger bathroom the rest of us share. Jen was...well, not polite...about throwing her out of the bathroom. And she took offense at Jen's tone...and I found myself intervening, trying to get my mother to wait a few minutes until Jen was out of the bathroom.... This week, it was my turn. It's 6:30 in the morning, I have to leave by 7:00 to make my train, and I need some privacy in the bathroom ...and my mother ignored my 6 polite but insistent requests that she get out and leave me to my tasks...and, of course, I'm a terrible person because when she FINALLY left I slammed the bathroom door and woke everyone up.