How do you forget to flush ?!

Another blog begun with an apology to you loyal readers ... I am SORRY but this post is not about a very mature topic.  It is sort of gross and in so many ways should not even be considered worthy of writing about ... but I HAVE TO !!!

I have NO IDEA where it comes from, but some (or all ... it is really hard to know for sure) of my children just don't flush the toilet when they are done.

I find this ridiculous!

I think it is the third worst thing you can do (or not do, I suppose) involving a trip to the bathroom.  Sparing the joke about #1 and #2 (ha ha ... if you don't get this then you'll have to ask me to explain why that last part was very funny!) ... second worst is not wiping (Don't laugh!  My three-year-old has not gotten this down yet!) ... and the worst is not washing your hands afterward!

I simply cannot understand why some (or all) of my children do not flush when they're done.

We are a cost-saving household and I am notorious for turning out lights when no one is currently in a room.  I shout at the kids for leaving the water running while they brush their teeth or comb their hair.  I nag them about not taking so long in the shower (especially my teenage 7-year-old daughter).  The adage about closing the door to keep in/out the heat/cold (altogether now ... "were you raised in a barn?!") is repeated throughout the year.  Computer monitors are turned off when not in use.  Laundry is done all on the same day so the dryer never "cools down" and then has to heat back up.

Despite all of this ... I will NEVER say (and have never said) to ANYONE living in or visiting our house ...
"Hey!  Why'd you flush after just one use of the toilet?!  What a waste!  Do you think water grows on trees?  There are starving kids in Africa who don't flush for weeks!  How can you be so insensitive to the needs of our planet?!"

Maybe they will grow out of it as they get older ... but ... the three kids living downstairs have their own "water closet" and it is almost always a smelly, disgusting area because one of them didn't flush!

Why?!

WHY DO THEY NOT FLUSH ?!

...