<p>I checked my girl in for summer session last week, and spent at least 2 hours scrubbing the bathroom with Lysol, after the maintenance guy assured me it had been cleaned!!! It is a crying shame that on campus housing is not freshly painted and clean. I didn't understand how other mothers could walk away......I know my girl would do her share to keep it clean, but would not even know how to scrub that dirt down.......it left me feeling nasty, I had to get in the shower when I finished! </p>
<p>Now I understand why the Mom asking for cleaning products at the RA desk was so straight faced. I will be bringing my steamer for the Fall.</p>
<p>Even my son, who notices very little in the way of dirt, complained about the condition of the shared hall bathroom (coed no less). He said it was disgusting and it was supposedly cleaned every day. I try not to think about it!</p>
<p>Personally I didn’t think the bathrooms at either of my kids schools were bad.
When oldest was a sophomore, I had gone to visit her & was staying in a hostel to save money. Now those bathrooms were nasty! I took a shower at her dorm which was brand new (& co-Ed)</p>
<p>The bathrooms are clean when my kids get them…what THEY do to them after is another story…lol</p>
<p>I do remember touring a CTCL school that had a shared bathroom between 2 bedrooms and the hot sun was coming in the window and the room STUNK of urine…I think it was under the floorboards.</p>
<p>Clorox wipe is your friend. I tell our girls to take few into the bathroom to wipe down sink and stall before use. D1 used to time when the bathroom gets cleaned to take her shower.</p>
<p>I’m always amused by these mothers who insist on sanitizing the dorm room before their kid moves in - and wonder whether they plan to visit every week and resanitize the joint.</p>
<p>Why are you amused? Didn’t you clean your house before you moved in, or did you just move in because it is going to get dirty anyway. Why would you assume our kids wouldn’t keep the place clean? D1 did. She even used her iron.</p>
<p>D2 had someone clean up after her for 2 years. Her room was spotless. Now, we are back to the States, no longer have a maid service, she is keeping her room neat, and cleaning her own bathroom. But her room is still organized and spotless.</p>
<p>Right, it’s not something I would do. Because I know my daughter will do it herself when it needs doing. She just finished three years at a residential high school, I was in her bathroom on a number of occasions, and it was always clean. And I can assure you that neither I, DW, or her roommate’s parents ever cleaned it. I have this parenting philosophy that one way you teach kids good habits is by not doing everything for them. But then, we’ve concluded before that our parenting philosophies are quite different, haven’t we?</p>
<p>When my kid moved into their dorms. Everything was spotless…including the bathrooms. When they moved into off campus housing, I went along and I too HELPED give the place a good scrubbing down. Even now when I visit my kids, I will help tidy up…and yes, that includes the bathrooms. There isn’t usually much for me to do because both are good housekeepers, but I do help out. </p>
<p>But to the topic of this thread…large gang bathrooms are used by a large number of PE pole. If THAT many people were using your bathroom at home, it would be nasty too.</p>
<p>I don’t think I would likely scrub down a community (hall) bathroom, but I did scrub the bathroom shared between my s’s dormroom and the next when he was finishing his soph year (it was DISGUSTING) because (a) I didn’t want to get charged a fee from the college if it wasn’t up to their standards, (b) DS was behind in packing and there was a deadline to get out (c) we had to leave by a certain time to get back for a funeral and (d) it was his birthday. Great birthday present to him. Never again. </p>
<p>That said, I would never look down my nose at parents who choose to help their kids in these ways.</p>
<p>If my kid ASKED me to help, I would. But just jumping in without being asked sends several messages, none of which I care to communicate to my kids.</p>
<p>Wow, there’s a lot of nastiness and superior attitude on this thread, coming from several directions!</p>
<p>My 23 year old son just moved into his own, grown-up apartment. His dad and I helped him transport his stuff and move in. I cleaned the kitchen and H cleaned the bathroom while S assembled his Ikea furniture. Helping him to move in was a gift to him and he appreciated it, and it all got done much more quickly. It was a team effort, and S was the team leader. We certainly won’t be doing any cleaning from here on out.</p>
<p>When we moved our kids into dorms, we helped them by carrying some stuff and cleaning if it needed it. They pretty much unpacked and decided where to put things themselves. It went much faster this way.</p>
<p>The first move-in can be overwhelming for a kid who has never lived away from home. They wouldn’t ask for help because they wouldn’t know what to ask for. We offered to help, but they made the decision on what to put where (we may have offered advice, but it was up to them whether they took it - after all, they were the ones who had to live in the space after we left). After that, the next year the kid was in charge and we were just the hired help. :p</p>
<p>I have an entering freshman and I never saw the dorm building where he will be staying. It will be a traditional floor with a shared bathroom. However, he chose a co-ed floor. What happens with the bathroom situation? Are these bathrooms coed now? Do boys wear bathrobes in these communal bathrooms?</p>
<p>And - any recommendations on shoes for the shower? The whole thing just skeeves me out. I can’t imagine the cleaning service really cleans like you’d expect your home to be cleaned, and my son would never see nor do anything about a dirty bathroom. </p>
<p>I think I just realized I’m clearly too old and set in my ways to ever live in that kind of situation again.</p>
<p>OP, I feel your pain and identify w/ your anger. Usually the bathroom and dorm room were clean for move-in day – but I usually did a Lysol or Clorox wipe down anyway. As the school year progressed the bathroom and other common areas (hall, stairs, etc.) appeared never to be cleaned. We paid full freight and as much as I hated paying the tuition every semester paying the R&B angered me more.</p>
<p>eyemamom, some co-ed floors with shared bathrooms have 2 bathrooms, others have unisex. He’d have to ask res life about the situation in his dorm. I would be totally turned off by a co-ed bathroom, but my neighbor’s son had one. She was mildly horrified as well, but I guess it turned out to be no big deal. </p>
<p>As for shoes for the shower - CHEAP flip-flops. Like the $2 kind from Walmart. Just anything to keep the soles of your feet off the floor, to keep from getting planters warts. This is common in any community space with a shower/wet floor (locker rooms, etc).</p>
<p>My BIL grew up in a family of 8 boys. They didn’t have much disposal income, as a matter of fact, the boys used to share underwears. When those boys moved into a new place, their mother used to clean their new place and helped them unpack. With 8 boys and DILs, she did that for all of them until she got to be too old. My BIL used to say to me that it was special to have his mother’s touch at their new place and it meant a lot to him. Those boys and their wifes treat their mother like gold, and all of her DIL love her as well.</p>