Whose Bath is it, Anyway?

David and I started this thing awhile back of taking turns giving the kids their baths each night. We both work during the day, so we try to split up childcare and household responsibilities in the evenings and on the weekends. With each of us working late one night per week, we just fell into this rhythm of me bathing the kids one night, David the next, etc. Grace and Johnny bathe together, so it's easier in that respect, but ever since Johnny hit his terrible two's, bathtime is a nightly battle. First, he doesn't want to get in the tub, then he doesn't want to wash anything, he wants to sit where Grace is sitting, he wants to play with the toys that she's playing with, he doesn't want to get out of the tub, he wants to turn the water off, he doesn't want to turn the water off, he wants me to dry him off, he wants Daddy to dry him off, he wants to dry himself off, ENOUGH! It got to the point that I'd much rather clean up the supper dishes and maybe steal a couple of minutes on the couch than go through the bathtime dance every. single. night. So, we know that I have Mondays, David has Thursdays, and we switch off in between. It means one of us does two in a row on the weekends, but often on the weekends we say, forget it, let 'em be dirty, at least once. Now I can stretch baths out for at least 30 minutes, (we paint, we play, I give pony rides afterwards) giving David a nice little break if he uses his time wisely. For some reason, I regularly get ripped off on my nights off as the kids come running, naky-butt just mere minutes after they got in.

But the best part about our system (and this was David's idea) is that we have a mental-health-get-out-of-bath-free-pass that we can chip in whenever we feel like we just can't deal
even though it's our night. So, if on Wednesday (my night) I'm having a bad day, and I just want
to chill by myself during the bathtime slot (usually 6:30ish), I can call a mental-health day and David will fill-in for me. But, I have to notify him (e-mail is preferable) by 3:00 PM, and I can't abuse the priviledge. I'm treading on shaky ground, because I've called in a lot of mental-health days in the last few months, and David has even been so kind as to overlook the fact that I didn't e-mail him ahead of time. At one point, not too long ago when I really wasn't doing too well, he volunteered to do bath every night. This lasted two nights before he rescinded his offer. It's Wednesday, whose bath is it, anyway?