So Why the Title?

Unless you're writing about plumbing, "Mom, Can We Flush the Toilet Paper" is an odd name for a blog. So why did I name it that? Well, it reminds me of when my kids were little and just brings a smile to my face every time I see it! Although we're American, my family and I have lived overseas since the kids were 3 and 6 years old. (They are now 11 and 14.) When we lived in Venezuela, we couldn't flush the toilet paper because the plumbing there couldn't handle it. Whenever we'd fly somewhere, inevitably we'd have to go to the bathroom in the airport and my daughter would always ask, "Mom, can we flush the toilet paper here?" It always made me chuckle! It also made me realize how different my daughter's childhood is from my own. Things I took for granted, she has to learn. Things I didn't know existed, she has experienced.

The other question that always came up was "Do they speak English here?" That conversation always included, "You can't talk about people - they may actually understand what you're saying!" We didn't generally go around talking about people, but when a 5 year old sees a huge mole on the face of the girl working at the ice cream shop, she's going to say something! That incident had us stifling huge laughs after my daughter imitated Austin Powers, saying "Moley, moley, moley"!

So, "Mom, can we flush the toilet paper?" sums up our life of adapting to different countries and cultures and doing it as a family.