The Evil Eye: Ever have this problem?

If you have children over the age of five this is probably not on your radar screen anymore.

This is the bane of my existence. Why would an automatic toilet be a bad thing you ask? Well they scare the you know what out of my kids! These toilets are especially loud when they flush and when you are a small, wiggly child they flush at very unpredictable times. The kids are terrified that the toilet will flush before they are off of them. Rightly so, as it happens every time!

As a good mom I used to always try to cover the evil eye of the toilet with my hand but trying to get to it without blocking the toilet was nearly impossible for anyone less than a contortionist. Then half way through the potty experience I would always managed to move my hand a fraction of an inch and the stupid thing would flush. Of course at that point my child is crying and mad at me! Even thought it was totally the fault of the toilet. On the rare occasion when I wouldn't cover the toilet but tell them to deal they would end up peeing on themselves while arguing with me about why they couldn't just go. Did I mention how much I dislike these things?

Eventually I started carrying post it notes in my purse. This way I could just slap a post it over the evil eye and no worries about flushing. This was a wonderful beautiful thing. No more contortions, no more crying children. Only problem is I didn't always have my purse with me or the post its would mysteriously disappear from my purse. Then we were back to square one!

Finally out of desperation I have found ways to block them without contorting or carrying post its, using only something found in the restroom! Toilet paper! For the ones that are on the toilet and in the place where the handle to flush would normally be, simply fold a piece of toilet paper and drape it over the eye, have your child go about their business and throw the paper in the toilet when they are ready for it to flush. (Sorry for my very basic illustration I did it using an iphone app that lets you doodle on pictures or set backgrounds. I could and probably will write a whole post on the various things I have used this app for.)


For the ones built into the wall tuck the toilet paper into the seat cover dispenser and let it hang in front of the eye. Occasionally, there is nothing to suspend the paper from for the ones on the wall. I have been known in this situation to take a sanitary pad out of my purse and just undo the flap of its little cover/sleeve thingy. Then stick the flap to the wall and voila a nice evil eye cover. Yeah, you waste a sanitary pad this way but it sure beats having a screaming child with wet pants. Of course this backup plan goes back to assuming you have a purse with you and have sanitary pads in the purse. So it still isn't full proof. Apple needs to develop some kind of app where I can just point my phone at the evil eye and cause interference, cause you know I'm never without my phone. But then I might drop my phone in the toilet and that would be very, very bad.


Isn't it funny how something that should be helpful and convenient can be the bane of your existence when you have small children. I get that not having to touch the dirty toilet to get it to flush is a good thing. But terrifying my kid by making them think the toilet is trying to eat them is not a good thing, at all! You know someone who did not have small children definitely designed these things.

I hope this was helpful for at least someone. It only took me seven plus years to figure it out.
Jenn