Ross: Defending America’s love of fancy bathrooms

Derek Thompson recently wrote in The Atlantic that America is “overrun with bathrooms,” while people in Europe and Australia think it’s weirdly decadent.

We’re not just talking about 20-bathroom mega mansions, but normal dwellings where everyone has their own bathroom, with heated floors, heated commodes, dressing areas, closets, and full-body showers that could pressure-wash a cement truck.

In fact on Quora.com, there’s a bathroom thread where people confess to their extravagant personal bathrooms. One guilt-ridden woman confessed to living in a three-bedroom house with four bathrooms and only two people.

So I might as well confess that yes, once the girls were moved out, I took over their bathroom.

For awhile, I kept it as a shrine to their childhood, but now the tub, the two sinks, and everything except their makeup drawer, which is still a shrine, belongs to me alone.

I can hear you Australians and Europeans silently judging this extravagance and wondering, why? I’ll tell you why.

Because in a world of constant interruption, there has to be at least one room where you can focus on your e-mail. Also because after a certain point in the marriage, bathroom sounds are unwelcome to the person still sleeping.

And after a certain age no one wants to be seen naked and wet. Even by loved ones … maybe especially by loved ones.

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