Doubling Down. The move in blackjack where you double your wager for just one more card. The excitement, the anticipation, the heartbreak. I lost quite a bit of money in Vegas once in about 2 seconds because of this move. I couldn’t understand why it didn’t work, it had always worked before during our family blackjack game nights… or so I told my husband.

Doubling Down can also be defined as raising the risk factor or consequences in any situation with the potential of increased benefits.

A shower for a new mom can sometimes be far and few between or it’s so rushed because there is so much to do and your kid is knocking on the door needing something.

How can one Double Down on a shower you ask? What is my point here? How can you increase the risk but have the potential of major rewards with your average shower?

My friend and her baby

Taking a shower for a first time mom can be stressful. You are in there and can’t relax. All you think about is how fast you need to get it over with and all the while wonder if your baby is ok. Did she somehow get out of the crib and find every sharp object in the house? Is she eating small bits of clutter? Juggling knives?

My girlfriend put good use to her yoga mat and a few bath toys and Doubled Down. The risk here is obvious. A baby in your shower is not always the ideal scenario of relaxation but I think in this case it was a win-win. Baby happy. Baby clean. Baby tired out and ready for a nap. Mommy happy. Mommy clean. Baby asleep, mommy has time for herself. Boom!! Genius!

I on the other hand am a mother of three. I learned long ago that if I want a shower I just put the baby in the crib or some other confined space. She will be fine.

My Double Down came in the form of another experiment in my “I Hate to Clean” series. While I was taking my shower I noticed that it was in need of a scrub down. I used a two or three day old washcloth and while my conditioner was soaking in I wiped down all the walls. The steam had loosened the soap scum nicely and it all wiped right off. Because I was already soaked and inside the shower stall I could get to all the hard to reach angles you usually don’t get when you are trying to clean your shower from outside while trying to avoid getting wet.

After my shower it was really easy to just wipe down the vanity. I even cleaned the toilet.

The risk of course was the fact cleaning the bathroom is not something I usually associate with getting my own body clean. Somehow though I left that bathroom with a clean body, clean bathroom and an elevated mood from my clever use of time.

DOUBLE DOWN

Hopefully you were not expecting a picture of me cleaning…

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Jennifer Latch