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On occasion it is necessary to stop everything and devote a parenting moment or two to specific life lessons. At times we have had to have door closing lessons, toilet seat lowering lessons (John took over this one), and towel hanging lessons. The other day I found that it was time for a towel hanging refresher course.

It all started when it came to my attention that the older boys were not using the towel racks provided to them. Further detective work brought me to the conclusion that they were not even using their own towels but they were instead just stealing (during interrogation they preferred to use the term "borrowing") from the little girls' racks.

I've tried to be so helpful by providing labeled towel bars; so everyone knows which rack belongs to him/her. I admit that Jesse had not yet received a letter by his rack but since he recently moved to the main floor, and thus transferred to the main bathroom, I should be forgiven for the lateness.

So, when all else fails, it's time for a new lesson. I called the boys in for their refresher course, otherwise known as "Towel Hanging, 201." As I went over the basics in towel selection, folding, and hanging, Jesse went into panic mode. Apparently the absence of an identifying letter was too much for him; he couldn't handle the freedom to choose his own towel bar. I tried to make it as appealing as possible, suggesting that since he is taller than Andrew, he could just take the top rack. Alas, even that seemed too difficult for him to handle. I actually appreciated his honesty so that we could get to the bottom of the problem. And this was indeed an easy one to solve. I found the pack of sticky letters, only to find that we were out of "J's". One could assume that either A. We use a lot of identifying letters in this house or B. The letter J isn't deemed as important as A, M, S, E, and H and we didn't have as many to begin with, or the answer may possibly be A. and B. Anyway, in the absence of another "J", I did the only thing left to do: I chose the letter "X", for "Child formerly identified by J." I explained this to Jesse as simply as possible and he seemed to understand.

What I didn't understand was that this started a labeling frenzy among my boys. I came into my bathroom later in the evening, lifted the lid (see, that lid lowering lesson did work), and found that someone had labeled my toilet.

No problem, I got the last word. On their toilet.