Mama Bear and the Great Toilet Paper Debate!

Sometimes my brain thinks in mysterious ways and I wonder why certain topics come to mind.  Are you wondering why toilet paper would be a blog worthy topic?  Well does your toilet paper roll from the front or the back?

Mine is from the back and I think I’m in the minority.

Rhonda’s is from the front

and she tells me often that she has to restrain herself from changing mine around in the bathroom at my house.

I think a lot of the reason that I got thinking about this topic at all is the recent loss of my Mama back in November.  I find myself having lots of bits coming to my mind.  I know that I grew up with the toilet paper rolling from the back. 

That is what my mom taught me.  Recently, I started wondering if her mom taught her (and her 3 sisters) to do it that way.  My mom was one of 4 girls.  That is her with the spiffy red flower!

and each of these 4 girls went on to have 2 children.  All of that next generation was girls except my brother Jeff who was the youngest of the 8 cousins.   I’m in the front row on the right when this picture was taken at Christmas in 1966, beside my brother (the only boy).

I’m on the left (in pink) in this cousin photo taken in 1987.

I thought it would be fun to poll my cousins and see which way they hang their toilet paper.

It appears that Ollie (mom’s oldest sister)  and Marg (my mom) were the only 2 daughters that stayed true to Nana Vera’s example and continued with “rolling from the back” in their own homes.  Ollie’s daughter Margo can remember that Nana rolled hers from the back.  

Ollie’s daughters now both roll theirs from the front

• Heather was swayed from “back rolling”  by a less than hygienic college apartment, when she didn’t want the paper to touch the wall.  She continued with that once she had a home of her own.
• Margo switched to being a “back roller” as it was her husband’s preference. 

Auntie Flo and Auntie Mame (my mom’s other 2 sisters) both were front rollers once they had their own homes and we aren’t sure why they didn’t continue in the tradition of their upbringing.  All of their daughters are also front rollers now.

It seems that I am the only one who stayed pure to the Schenck tradition and remain a back roller.

 Funny thing though…….I asked my newly wed daughter Hayley what she does, and like Margo, she opted to defer to her new husband.  My son-in-law Ben had a strong feeling about front rolling and Hayley figured that was a battle she was ok for him to win.  She also reminded me of something that I forgot……

When Murray and I first got married we lived in Hanover.  In that house we had 2 bathrooms with toilet paper holders.  Both were always suited up with rolls that rolled from the back. 

When we moved to New Hamburg the toilet paper holder in the upstairs bathroom was broken off the wall.   I immediately started the habit there of having rolls of toilet paper in a basket beside the toilet and that continued for 20+ years until we moved out of the house.  When we renovated the downstairs bathroom in New Hamburg, I started the same tradition there.  Basket on the back of the toilet with rolls in it.  No holder on the wall.

Hayley reminded me that all of my kids grew up not having toilet paper on the roll, so that is why she had no strong feeling about which way to do it and was fine to go with the way Ben wanted.

My son Jordan has one bathroom at his house with a holder that stands on the floor, so there is no front or back.  In his other bathroom he puts the roll on without ever thinking about it.

Just discovered this past weekend that my oldest son has toilet paper rolling from the back at his house, so perhaps the heritage will continue 🙂

 When we moved to Kitchener 4 years ago I once again had a toilet paper holder.  My heritage clicked in and I (without giving it a thought) began putting on the rolls to roll from the back.

 Rhonda and I spoke to a Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) group recently and I thought I’d do a little more research on this topic.  In a group of about 14 of us, the majority were front rollers. 

One mom (Sandy) says they use their toilet paper out of a big basket of unrolled paper right now.  Her one year old loves unrolling the paper from the roll and it keeps her occupied for a long time.  Sandy is sometimes glad for that bit of peace (and lots of us moms can identify with that)  but she doesn’t want to waste the toilet paper.  She scoops it up into the basket in the bathroom and it all gets used up over time! 

I can recall letting my son pull all the kleenexes out of the box on several occasions when he was little, just because he was happy and occupied while doing it.  Sometimes we just gotta do what we gotta do 😉

One MOPS mom (Kathryn) mentioned that her children have a Playmobil set and in it the toilet paper rolls from the front. 

Another mom educated me that the original patent for toilet paper was to roll it from the front.   So……..while this may be way more trivial information than you needed today it was fun for me to gather it 🙂

I may be in the minority as a back roller, but I’m proud of my heritage and carry on confidently in the way my Mama taught me.  How about you?  Are you a front or a back roller?  Are you following in the heritage of your upbringing or are you forging a new path?  Please let us know!