Sorry if this isn't a great poll, guys. I'm officially blaming it on the vodka.

Public toilet seats are gross! I don't touch them unless I am in the Nevada boondocks and I know the owners of the business. And NEVER in a gas station!

AB2K, a fellow Pennsylvanian. Perhaps you know of the trials after a night of Rolling Rocks.

Anyway, I used to really pad the seats with 2 plies of TP, but now I usually just give it a cursory one-quick-wipe and plop. If disinfecting spray is available, I may or may not use it

Happy trails,
L. Wrong
Chairman & CEO, PPK Industries

My girlfriend carries disinfectant wipes at all times and cleans the seat rigorously, both sides. Is this going too far for a guy? I just wipe the seat if it's wet and sit down. If there's anything else, like faeces, I will try another stall.

I wipe but draw the line when it comes to someone leaving a log or waste in there, I will find somewhere else to dump.

If piss on the bog seat, a quick wipe will suffice. If there's anything else, I'll go to another cubicle or hold it in.

I've never used an ass gasket...might have a shot with one next time I have to dump in a public place.

Cleanliness in a bathroom is my main requirement for use. I don't care if it's a public or private bathroom and wouldn't care if the stall were closed or open. If the seat is too compromised (I'm not going to chisel poo stains), I'll 'move myself' elsewhere.

But if there's just a sprinkle or two of something, I'll do a quick wipe and then sit. If the seat appears to be just fine at a glance, I'll just sit.

In other words, I never 'do the Monica' under any circumstances. See: 'Friends: Main Characters' for this reference.

AB2K "I use an ass-gasket but sit on them." Am I missing something? Do some people use ass-gaskets but not sit on them? Something about them freaks me out. I think for the same reason I hate getting on the examining table covered with the tissue paper.

I couldn't sit on a seat if it had stuff on it, even if it was just a few sprinkles. Wiping it off without disinfectant doesn't get rid of the germs.

Problem is, we are dealing with two parallel universes here: Setters and Pointers. I sympathize with you gals who have to sit every time (I did know a girl in second grade who could pee standing up, but that's another story).

The problem is when it is Time To Toss The Tootise Roll. Then, all men (and women) are created equal. The lawyer in me first asks, "how do you define a "public" toilet?" I mean, there's public and there's public. The Faculty Men's Room at my law school is, I guess, "public," but I would be a lot more comfortable crapping there than at the bus station only a few blocks away.

Maybe we should assign (as the ex-Mrs. Dumpster did) a "ca-ca chart" to the types of public facilities on which we are willing to put the Moon over the Mountain:

1--Unattended gas stations (should be banned by the EPA).
2--The bus station; the Waffle House.
3--Other restaurant/transportation facilities (airports; McDonald's; etc.)
4--"Communal" facilities (churches; hospitals; government buildings; etc.)
5--Facilities that are "public" in name only (professional offices; private clubs, etc.).

These are like the Richter Scale of Nastiness--each is an order of magnitude filthier than the one above it. So, let's first agree on what the definition of "is" is, and go from there. Personally, I could not drop trou in anything less than a 4. Given the choice, I'd head for the woods.

I think you guys are reading WAAAAAY too much into this . . .

L Wrong, I am not a beer drinker, but I have a husband and enough male friends and I have smelled the aftereffects of a night or two of mass Rolling Rock consumption. It's not pretty.

Logjam, I'm sorry, what I should have said was "I will only sit on it with an ass gasket." You must have missed the vodka disclaimer.

i hate sitting on public pots.i hover and if i miss i wipe myself and leave my massive logs behind

"No Log Left Behind"? Sounds like a new joint initiative between the Bush Administration, Tim LaHaye, and PR (not necessarily in that order).

The problem with those gaskets is that, okay, maybe just in MY experience, if you're at say, Disneyland, and it's hot out, and you're wearing shorts, well, the gasket STICKS to your BUTT and you have to kind of peel it off, but it's disintegrating in the middle where the pee soaked through, and it's just GROSS! I'd much rather just swab the seat off as well as possible and plop and take my chances!

I'm goin ta bed....
TO HELL WITH AVATARS
Meet me in the morning
I'll CLEAN THEIR CACRCASSES

i always tote arouind those stupid seat protecters because of un-mentionable reasons...but the problem is...even if you do use one..there is no guarentee that the person befor you did not splsh on the seat..there could be considerble wetness that is not pleasent....

This is what happens when uberfemales chat and drink, teehee.

Personally, I just sit. If the seat is wet, I'll try to find another stall. If there's no other stall available, I usually do clean it up as best as I can and hover if the seat it genuinely in question.

.....hugging bunnies since 1969

I do a combo of 2 things. First I wipe it off if it's dirty, then I use a paper ass gasket. But the best thing you can do is to try not to use a public toilet unless you really need to.

Depending on conditions, Ass gaskets and hovering are imperative. If you are not in the process of shit dancing, a healthy dose of T.P. can also be usefull in the absencs of ass gaskets.

I know this probably makes me pretty gross, but public restroom toilet seats don't really bother me. Don't get me wrong-I wipe off any liquid or solid from them first, but after that nothing about it really bothers me. I don't even use the paper ass gasket. I'm nasty.

I'm with love2poo. If I can't see any thing on the seat, I don't give it a second thought. Touching that nasty door knob is a whole nother barrel of blumpkins.

SamDamnit!
Rectum Rector
of
The Church of Poop
http://www.myspace.com/saintcarnivean

public toilet seats suck! i wipe the seat down thoughly. place paper all over the seat, flush 2 times 1st too get the residual remnants out then place a layer of paper ontop of the water so i dont get toxic splash back! then sit down making sure my pants dont toch the floor or the toilet. then do my duty! ive made quite a ritual out of usinbg the public toilet system!

The ass gasket is usually ok unless it's really gross looking. If it's warm, My starfish puckers up. If it's too gross, I'l hold it and wait fopr another shitter. Sometimes it's a tough call though! Poop Shooter

Smoothfiber, I for one thank you for at least layering the paper everywhere. Some folks just hover and leave a BIGGER mess for those who use the faciliy next, who might be in some dire straits when they get in there. Thanks for protecting all of us! :)

gotta go girl, im just doing my duty!

You gotta clean up after hover shit/pissing. Otherwise you're no better than Ostinka been Layin.

i just pee standing and i am a girl. i went to www.myvag.com to learn how to and it REALLY comes in handy.

I'm 16 and get frustrated on how to handle the situation of using a public toilet. My grandma when I was younger used to take me in a put toilet paper down on the seat for me before she would let me sit down. She is very strict about it. Once, when I was about 6, she looked in on me and made me get up, stop pooping, and she put another sheet of tissue down because I was moving my legs too much and some of the tissue had fallen off.
My mother, however, said there is nothing wrong with just sitting down, but not if there is urine on the seat. I remember once when we were traveling,my mother was critical of several of the stalls that had urine on the seats. I had wiped one off before sitting down and she waited until I got done before she went in next to use it.
My sister who is a senior in high school in just the past few months has started to line the seat before sitting down. We were at a gas station a couple weeks ago and it must have taken her five minutes to totally cover the seat in the ladies room; she takes time to raise the seat a bit and tuck the toilet paper between the seat and bowl so that it won't fall off when I sit down.
My friends do what I do and just sit right down. There seems to be so many ways to handle the situation that it's confusing.

I'm somewhat new to this site, but I'm sensing that one of its great values is in providing a forum for many to reveal the disturbing or epochal events from their childhood - or even their adulthood! - that have shaped their approach to crapping, the way they feel about their crapping and their bungholes, etc. Few people, percentage-wise, (okay, I'll limit this to women in mixed company; who knows what the hell they talk about among themselves?) really get an opportunity to get things off their chests about this life-altering subject. This site gives them that podium. Okay, so back to the topic of this poll:
Well, hold on a second. I haven't really searched the posts thoroughly, but am I the only one who grew up in a large family and was forced, on long car trips, to use a "potty" in the damned car to take a crap or piss, while all the siblings and the parents affected to look the other way? For god sakes, this is like a damned repressed memory with me! We actually had to piss or shit in an enameled metal pot while the damn car was moving because it was too damn inconvenient to pull the damn car over or find an exit every time one of seven children had to go! I'll ask Dave if he'll start a forum on this....I apologize for the outburst.
But, damn it, this is inhumane! No one would force their kids to crap in front of (or alongside) their other kids, would they? And we would have to endure the part where the window was rolled down and the pot was dumped...as the damn car was rolling along at 60 mph!!!! Do you think for a second that there were no times that the wind blew the stuff right back into the car?!!!?
Okay, I feel better, but believe me I'm going to submit a very full account of this traumatic aspect of my otherwise civilized upbring. I mean, okay, I understand that I'm not the only one to ever have one of those "hanging chad" moments that stretched into an hour of impacted agony...what a relief to know my burden wasn't carried alone....but please, someone, tell me that my family wasn't the only one that thought it too damned inconvenient to find a public restroom for a child whose guts were screaming for discharge. Please tell me my parents weren't the only ones who ignored the lifelong effects of making a child shove a metal pot (still, no doubt, caked with the last child's offering!)under his or her ass and drop a load in a closed vehicle under the averted gaze of his or her siblings! Geezus, don't even get me started on the time we had my grandparents in the car! It's a wonder I made it past the age of 12 without a nervous breakdown after that trip!
Okay, so anyway, about that public toilet stuff. I wouldn't think of putting my ass on a toilet that wasn't lined with a paper gasket, at the very minimum. Otherwise, I would do as my wife does: I'd wait until the invader was at the gates, so to speak, then crouch above the seat and let fly, hoping gravity and my sense of alignment would combine to drop the log in the bowl without fouling the seat for the next poor bastard that had to use it. Please, someone, also remind me to tell you about how a friend of mine used a toilet gasket once when we were out on a double date at a very expensive restaurant, and he returned to the table with the stupid thing protruding from the waist of his slacks. The previous post regarding sweaty adhesion of gasket to ass is most true, unfortunately.
Thanks for sharing. Also, please remind me to tell everyone about the turd my brother and I found once in our parents' bathroom toilet that literally could not have come from a human..no sphincter can stretch that wide...at least I hope not.

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There's a certain air about me....

You're right--it can be confusing. Like you,I'm a high school student and I just sit right on down! However, I have a couple of turn-offs. First, if there's urine on the seat, I do take toilet paper and wipe it off. I remember discussing this with my best friend once when she went in first, had her shit and then noticed there was no toilet paper. I went into the next stall and while I was pulling it for her, noticed there was quite a bit of urine on the seat. After giving it to her, a lady came in and directly sat in the pee! Gross to me! Also, I don't use a stall that is unflushed. I think its gross to be sitting just a few inches from someone(s)pee or shit. I learned my lesson once last year at an NBA game. I was just beginning to pee but was seated a little uncomfortably. I moved back a bit to give myself some room because my winter coat hanging on the inside of the door was practically in my face, but the sensor went off, and in flushing the water came up just to the top of the bowl because the bowl was apparently stopped up. It gave me a real scare and I'm only glad I was observant so I could quickly stand up. However, I had no quick escape plan. You might say I've learned to sit a little more gingerly on public toilets since then!

I was raised in a situation very similar to Lindie's. And I was frustrated until I got into middle school and had to sit down two or even three times a day at school to shit and pee.

I would get frustrated putting paper over the seat and only to find that it slipped partly off by the time I was ready to sit down. Then I would go awhile sitting directly on the uncovered seat and after wiping, note that the seat would stick to my but for a couple of seconds when I got up and was ready to flush. I wondered (I was taking a clothing class at the time and we were studying adhesives) what caused my well washed ass to stick to the seat. My mind wandered through some alternatives such as a buildup of now-dry urine over a number of hours, a real skank with poor bathing habits who sat down before me, a mother with a young son who would merrilee pee over the seat, some new chemical that custodians were trying, etc. I then reached what I feel is the best compromise.

I don't pull my dress, jeans or panties all the way down and I actually use them to shield me from the front of the seat. They are "down" just enough to allow me to relieve myself but do a great job of shielding me from the front of the seat. Only a very small portion of my back butt touches the seat and I lean myself forward as much as possible.

It's the best of both worlds, faster than covering the seats and makes me feel more sanitary. Even my 15-year-old daughter's doing it.

I don't 'handle' public toilet seats, I park my ass on them.

Sherry's idea of just sitting over the front of the seat and using her panties as a possible toilet seat "shield" works well. I tried it today at the airport! Only a small portion of your butt has contact with the seat and if you sit more erect on the front of the seat, even that contact can be minimized. I'm 26 and wish I had thought of that years ago. Like Lindy, I too has "mixed messages" from my parents and sisters but I never was able to really perfect any technique. I remember standing to pee once when I was in a wretched gas Texaco station bathroom, but the urine just ran down my leg! It was sooo disheartening. Your idea, Sherry, works wonderfully. Thanks

Sherry: at first I thought your suggestion wasn't that practical, but for me--a 17-year-old male, it works perfectly. I've used it twice now. It is especially effective in keeping my penis from dangling over the front of the bowl where there is often several layers of urine. Before, I would sometimes forget and found it repulsive to have to "tuck in" my penis after it got wet in God knows whose pee. I feel a lot better shitting in public toilets now.

what a hillarious site, I keep laughing on every post,

Okay, so, as a microbiologist, I have access to certain "tools" at my disposal that I can use to find germs in certain places. I actually took samples for fecal coliforms from the toilet seat at work and from the phone handset. So, I found out the following info: the toilet seat was almost free of coliforms, the phone was FILTHY. Because seriously, HOW MANY GERMS CAN THE BACKS OF YOUR LEGS POSSIBLY HAVE ON THEM??? I do wipe off the seat if there is urine on it though...that's kind of nasty to think about sitting on someone else's pee.

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An apple a day keeps the ExLax away!

I agree in theory about what Sammi and Anonymous Coward do. However, the back portion of the legs and butt is still touching the seat. I just fail to see why a normal woman would want this to happen. URRGGHHH

I don't like being called "not normal" simply because I will sit right down on a public toilet seat. Seriously, it hurts me! I'm a PE/secondary ed major in college, a double letter winner with a 3.9 GPA and I hate all the false information out there.

Back about 10 years ago I was relieving myself in a stall at Wrigley field and there was a really anal mother and daughter in the stall next to me. The girl was crying because she had to pee so bad but her mother made her stand and wait while she put toilet paper liner over the seat. I remember the girl was starting to sit down and the mother stopped her because some of the paper had slid off. I felt so sorry for the girl. When she got done, I think she leaned back to flush and the mom slapped her hand and told her she had to use her foot. Finally, her mom further corrected her about touching the door latch, saying she should have had a sheet of toilet paper in her hand. What an authoritarian and petty mother. To my way of thinking, that comes close to child abuse because the child is emotionally cut down due to criticism and inaccuracies. My grandma says that in the early 1950s she was told by her mother that she could get pregnant from sitting on a public toilet. If that was so, I would have one awesomely large family!

I am suprised by how few people use the gasket. I know it probably doesn't make much difference but it really gives me the mental edge to fearlessly poop in a public setting. As long as I feel confident that other peoples' creepy crawlies aren't swarming my bottom, I don't really care who hears or smells my defecation.

_______
Recycle! Reduce! Reuse!
You can close the loop!
You can eat your poop!

Like Babs, I was hounded--my grandma used to use the term brow-beaten--at a young age to put paper over the public toilet seat. It was embarrassing, I thought, one my first full day of school Mom took me into the bathroom and showed me how to take toilet paper off the roll and place it on the toilet seat. However, I found it to be rather hard to accomplish because often a fan would blow the liner off or, more frequently, the long sheets of toilet paper would slip off just as I was about to sit down. I later found that I was a contributing factor for moving so abruptly and, more importantly, not tucking the end of the paper in under the toilet seat. However, by the time I got to middle school I had become more adept at covering the seat and not moving my legs around so as to get off the protection I was receiving.

As a 9th grader in a large high school I started smoking and the school bathrooms offered a nice outlet for me. Rarely was a bathroom smoke free so I wasn't creating a major scene taking a few drags while taking a pee between classes. One of the features our school bathrooms had were the toilet seat protectors which I continued to use religiously, despite the fact that few of my friends even gave the offering of toilet seat liners a second thought. Matter of fact, the had gotten to be pretty commonplace for me until one day in March of my sophomore year.

I was on the toilet after 2nd hour, pushing to pee when a friend in the stall to my right started a smoke and offered it to me from under the stall partition so I could enjoy a few drags. I took a couple of drags and flicked the ashes between my legs and into the bowl. I fumbled with the Marboro and almost dropped it, but not before some ashes burned my left inner thigh skin. As I was examining the painful burn so close to my pubic area I felt some heat and what seemed like a prick on the right side of my pubic area. Quickly I discoverd that my toilet seat cover was on fire from undeneath me. I jumped up, grabbed the paper and pushed it into the stool without stopping my stream of pee. This was a big mistake because I ended up peeing over the front of the seat as well as my panties and jeans.

I still smoke occasionally but never in a public bathroom. I now sit right down on the toilet seat when I need to relieve myself and I can see no situation which could convince me to cover a toilet seat again. It just seems to combersome and confining. What's more, few of my friends take advantage of the seat protectors. They're combustable and too much of a hassle. Besides, I'd like to keep my pubic hairs just the way they are!

If you had been pooping, that would have made a pretty good story submission. "Sitting on the hot seat" could have been the title. Oh well, it was an amusing post anyway.

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Recycle! Reduce! Reuse!
You can close the loop!
You can eat your poop!

i put toilet paper on the seat and sit on it

There are many of us girls who had a public school experience that can relate to Nicotine Nikki's "accident". Mine was almost the opposite.

Although I was an honor student and came from a strong Catholic upbringing, I was impatient and never wanted to focus on one thing too long. That impacted my grooming, and of course, bathroom habits.

I went to a large academy that served girls from a multi-county area. The restrooms were ancient and always crowded. Even in the late '70s, we had one set of restrooms downstairs that still had old-style chain flushers in stead of modern lever-type flushers or the senors used now. As I would get up of the seat and was pulling up my underwear, I would pull a low-hanging chain that would immediately flush the toilet. The noise and action was vicious, and I don't recall many clogs. The seats were almost twice the size my daughter uses at her high school--very old, stained, and the finish that had been black was greying. None of us would sit back on over more than the front third of the seat. The bowls were high, odd shaped and sometimes what we thought were hairs were actually cracks.

I didn't know anybody who would put paper over the seats like Nikki did. We just sat down for the shortest amount of time possible, eliminated what we needed to, and then got back to class. Sister J was really mean and would call us lingering Linda's if the lines got too long and we weren't "producing" in the stalls.

On the first day back after Christmas break in 1979, my morning shit seemed to come a couple hours earlier than normal. During our passing period for homeroom/religious class, I was surprised that not all 8 stalls were occupied--the farthest one and also the darkest and dankyist (there wasn't a window close and a couple of the overhead lights were burned out) was open. One girl spotted it about the time I did, but because she was smoking and watching for a place to quickly flick it out if Sister J came in, I beat her to it.

I sat down for what would be my first senior year shit of the new year and before my bowels could start moving, I felt a sharp pain like a needle pricking my left cheek. A second or two later I felt a similar sting a little closer to the front on my right. My shit was completed in probably thirty seconds and when I stood up to wipe and flush I noticed smoking ashes on the left and a now-crushed cigarette butt on my butt.

I used extra toilet paper to completely wipe my cheeks down and I found some additional ashes still in my underware when I had to pee a couple hours later. Other than the superficial burn I had on my left side which I covered with a bandage for several days, there was no real harm done. My mom, who initially laughed, said it could have been worse.

As a result mom bought me a small finger-size flashlite that I still carry in my purse. I don't sit until I can clearly see what I'm sitting in. And as for my daughter, who is just starting middle school, I've recommended the Nikki approach of putting paper over the seat. It can also serve as a deterrant to her to never start smoking.

I am the guy the takes a piss on the seats and laugh when bastards like you get all grossed out.

Me and my girlfriend are in our mid-20s and she has a 5 year old son from her previous marriage and I have a daughter, 6, from another relationship.

At an NBA game last week I took her son into the mens room and although it was crowded, I took him into the stall, lifted the seat for him before he peed, and when he said he had to poop, I showed him how to put toilet paper over the seat first. While I was doing this, he went in his pants. My date was shocked that I would keep him from just "naturally" sitting down and said she doesn't want him to have any "hangups" about using the bathroom when he has to. She sits directly on the seat without covering it and sat my daughter down directly in front of her and they went to the bathroom together. My daughter was really shy about sharing the stall but my date says it's from a supervision and efficiency standpoint something that her mother did with her until she was about six or seven and was allowed to go into a stall on her own. I know that having a child of the opposite gender in a public bathroom can cause embarrassment for them and resentment from fellow users. I just don't know what the answer is.

Dana, you bring up some excellent points! Long have moms and dads struggled with public toilets and small children of the opposite gender.

Your case is compounded by the fact that you're a "step-family" (so to speak). What is "normal" and natural to your girlfriend is not how you'd train your kids.

This is interesting because in a nuclear family, all the kids are both of yours, and you have to discuss and come to an agreement how things are done. But in this case, you each take exception to the other's m.o.

So this is not just about bathrooming but about parenting a child that's not yours AND not your gender. There's a whole relational dynamic going on, here.

For instance, how does the boy's father feel about the kid using/not using a seat cover? How does your daughter's mom feel about the little girl sitting on your girlfriend's lap while peeing?

There's a lot of issues, here! Let's discuss.

I rarely use public restrooms, but if I do, I usually use an ass gasket.

I have picked up a good trick to stop autoflush toilets from stealing the ass gsasket. TO stop this from occuring, I usually take off my shirt and stick it over the eye. I use my keys and wallet, or my shoes as a counter weight to hold the shirt in its place, until I am done.
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"-55F, a new record low? Nope, thermometer went bad. Looks like -50F still stands"

If shit be splattereth all over the shitbowl, try flushing once or twice. However if there be a log or two afloat or the brown hostage in your bowels is starting to play peekaboo, quickly seek another stall matee.

Oh no way. I wouldn't put anything that I plan to later wear on the toilet eye. Public toilets are usually so unnecessarily powerful that they practically vaporize the shit in the toilet. And where do you think the vaporized shit lands? And have you ever seen anyone cleaning that part of the toilet?

Has anyone travelled through O'Hare? What's with the plastic-go-round ass gasket? Does anyone sit on it? I have always suspected that it just goes in a circle like an escalator - there's no new plastic that emerges.

Whenst taking a dump i look at things this way, i must crap, i will crap, it was my decision to use a public crapper, if i am worried about who used it before me, my intestinal needs have far exceeded my opinions of the people before me. Therefore people in the bathroom need to be forewarned, there is some mighty noxious gassy poop on the way so DEAL with it.
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The Thunderous Crapper 63 Enjoying home toilet advantage since 2004!

Pucker Up. As powerful as public toilets are, I have managed to clog one up a couple of times with a mega turd.

Worst of all, both time were at work. Luckily, I poo at home 95% of the time. In doing so, I spare my company excessive plumbing bills.

When a turbo flush overflows, look out. It is like Niagra Falls and the Hoover Dam, all at once.

At work, I just scotch tape a wad of TP over the eye. Autoflush toilets irk the hell out of me.
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"-55F, a new record low? Nope, thermometer went bad. Looks like -50F still stands"

Dana's girlfriend is on the right track. My mom did that with me and I do that with my 5 year old. First, it's better for supervision because each of you is in the same stall. Second, the child has less fears because they see you. Third, and this is a very important point, it enables you to "model" the proper procedures (latch the door, check the seat for urine, is there toilet paper when will want to wipe?, how to get enough weight on the flusher lever, effective wiping etc.)in a very non-adversarial atmosphere)and it gives the child an opportunity freely ask questions). In one of these sessions at Reagan airport, mom explained what the toilet seat protectors did and how to use them. At another time, when I was about seven, she showed me how to squat pee. Now at 29, I still remember my "extended" toilet training and I'm passing it on to my five year old. More parents should do this. While we were traveling recently Mandee and I walked inadvertently in two separate occasions on young girls about her age, sitting directly on filthy public toilets, with doors they didn't latch, and mothers several stalls down doing their thing. As Dr. Phil would say, "What are they thinking"?

I basically agree with what the girlfriend did by taking the 6-year-old daughter of her date into the ladies room. My mother did something similar with me, but a couple of years before I turned 6! Also, I didn't sit on her lap to go. Rather, she would sit back on the toilet, spread her legs and seat me on the front of the stool immediately in front of her. She said I liked to move around a lot, and being so restless, it was the only way she could assure herself that I would be forced to stay on the stool and produce. In one of the "tutorials" she showed me the very efficient and much cleaner way of wiping that I use to this day. And that enabled me to avoid the urinary tract inflections may of my peers got as teenagers. I agree that covering the seat was not necessary because I would have probably torn into it anyway even though Mom would have been holding it down. Sorry to say, it's sad that I see so many girls as young as three and four left in stalls to fend for themselves while their moms are in other stalls. At the airport, I walked in on a girl about 3 or 4 who was sitting on the toilet bowl because she had forgotten to lower the seat. She had also forgotten to latch the door. I put the seat down for her and she was thankful. So many parents today forget that young children need supervision. Dana's girlfriend has the right idea!

I first thing that pops in to my head when in a women's public bathroom is "damn bitches are dirty" I don't get how some women are so dirt its just blows my mind. I normally pull out yoga moves and hover like a pro when forced to use a public bathroom. But if I have to poop I wipe down cause I cant concentrate on hovering while pinching one out. In high school I used to just use the stalls on the boys bathroom they were always cleaner then the girls.

In reading the postings, I guess I'm unclear as to what I, as a day care worker, should do when we have our children on field trips to attractions such as the baseball stadium, Barnum & Bailey circus at the civic center, and the zoo.

I have some high school students working for me who will let girls as young as 5 get up on the stool themselves, wipe, flush and exit on their own. Others go in with a child, wipe the seat off before the child sits down, and make sure that the toilet is flushed, hands are washed etc. It is especially a problem when the high school or college-age girls have to take the boys into the ladies room or otherwise escort them to the door of the mens room and hope for the best. One complained that it was "really gross" helping the four year old and five year old boys relieve themselves.

If anything, I'm surprised that parents haven't done more to teach these kids proper ways to use public bathrooms. One boy choose a stall with urine on the seat and sat down for a bowel movement. My employee asked my advice but I just don't know how much we should be doing in a stall with a six or seven year old boy. If he were my son he would already have learned and practiced the proper procedures before ever venturing out.

I don't feel my expectations are that unrealistic!

It's all the hovering that make the seat dirty! Ladies, if you sprinkle when you tinkle, be a sweetie wipe the seatie.
Also, flushing is a good idea.
And I disagree-- my husband and I swap stories when we use the public terlits, his stories always are more disgusting than mine are. But maybe he's just a better storyteller.

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Don't be playin' with the Queen of Sharts

As a day care worker, I feel the age of 5 is the appropriate cut-off age for helping children under my care in a public bathroom. Sure I will steer them away from stalls that are overflowing, hurry them along if they are just sitting and not producing anything, but I always watch and make sure they don't get distracted when they are done and forget to first, flush, and then go the the sink and wash their hands. The ones under 5 are taken into the stall and given the assistance they need in order to get up on the stool and then wipe, flush and then wash their hands. Most can get themselves up on the stool okey but they forget to secure the door. Some are afraid of latching the door and they don't like closing it and hearing the door latch. I think it scares them that they are going to be locked in. Just last month I had a boy who needed special attention because he was afraid to sit back on the seat and his Number 2 would end up on the front of the bowl. When he would move or pull his sweats up, he was making one embarrassing mess. I suspect that he has had almost no training/experience in using public facilities. I had to teach another boy about 5 to lift the seat because he would pee all over it and also hit the partitions because he didn't aim or control his pee. On one day, he used the top of his jeans to aim his pee and he made one big mess before I saw the problem and was able to show him how to handle and aim his penis. As a 25-year-old female I don't feel good about helping boys who were not properly taught by their parents. But it comes with the job!

As a 19-year-old day care worker, who is also taking college classes, I remain somewhat leery of helping the young children--especially the boys--when we are out on field trips to places such as the circus, the childrens museum, zoo, the park, etc. We have no males on our regular daily staff so it falls on me and my colleagues to teach these children what most of us are thankful that our PARENTS taught us before we went to day care or started school.

Several of the boys show no experience whatsoever in doing #2 away from home. They'll sit up over the front of a regular size toilet but not fully pull their underwear and pants down. Often they don't tuck their penis down and into the bowl and this creates too problems: First, it hangs over the urine-coated and dirty front of the bowl and second, it makes them susceptible to peeing on their clothing as the child pushes to remove his bowels. It's a chore to get them to flush and then wash their hands. Some try to use the urinals but they are not tall enough to get their urine into the bowl. The girls are sometimes not much better. I opened stall doors last week at the zoo and then steered girls away from certain stalls because of urine on the seat or plugged toilets. As soon as I come out of a stall after helping one, others are in those dirty and faulty stalls. Apparently, they have not been taught by their parents to be more selective. I fear I will get into trouble if I walk in on the boys in such situations and show them how they should lift a seat before peeing, flush, thoroughly wipe, and completely lift up their jeans or sweats before leaving the restroom. One boy last week was crying because he zipped up his jeans with his penis still out. Another fell into the toilet because he, at age 4, forgot to check to see that the seat was down first. The answer, as I see it, is that parents need to do more of the teaching and training of these children before we enroll them. Dealing with such situations--and especially with the opposite gender--frustrates me to no end. The parents need to wise up and step up!

Madison, you're right! There is negligence on the part of parents who need to teach their children lots of "life skills"--among them, how to use a public restroom. Because I have demands from my own young family, I can only substitute at an after-school day care, but five to ten hours a week are enough for me to conclude that parents need to do a lot more!
First, the boys should have been taught, re-taught and have demonstrated public bathroom independence before being enrolled. Catching your penis in a zipper (ouch!)is understandable but urine aim, stall selection, pooping procedure, should be both DEMONSTRATED BY THE PARENT to the student and the student should satisfactorily have demonstrated it before enrollment. Otherwise, male supervisors need to be hired for field trips. The job should be posted immediately, because I'm not sure parents are going to step up to the plate!
Second, females sitting in urine or using clogged toilets is inexcusable! Last month I had a girl about 5 talking to her friend in an adjacent stall and not paying attention to what she was doing. The seat was up and she didn't notice--not only a wet surprise but continued crying and embarrassment that caused the staff to shorten our bumper bowling party. When I was her age 25 years ago, my mom taught me to take a sheet of toilet paper and wipe the front of the seat off first! It's not rocket science to do that and pretty much guarantee you're not in for a surprise. And the bottom line: every child should be taught to flush. Since I didn't have enough arm strength for some public flushers, I was taught to use my foot. When my grandma had me out in public just BEFORE I started school, she would check out the stall before I used it, and again when I was done. The most important thing she looked for was toilet paper in the bowl--evidence that I had wiped.
Parents who hold up their end of the responsibility make day care providers happy people.

As the father of a 5-year-old, I find the reports of Madison and AC to be disturbing. Many parents seem to be totally clueless and thoughtless and expect others to make up for their parenting mistakes. My wife, who is an example that at least some people are being raised right, urinates in public by straddling over the toilet. She will not sit directly on a public toilet even to poop. Often in such a situation she will hold it until we get back home. She takes our daughter into the bathroom, covers the seat for her, gets her up on it, and makes sure that the toilet is flushed, papers are picked up and hands are washed. However, she says she sees children as young as four or five fending for themselves in the bathroom, usually with their mother using a stall some distance away. If I were working in a day care, like Madison, I would undoubtedly be fired because I would confront the parents and demand that they do their jobs. I've been in public bathrooms where young boys have not latched the door, are sitting in someone else's urine and pooping into a clogged toilet, that they soon will find will probably run over on them. I've seen them leave stalls where they've wiped and then deposited the toilet paper on the seat for the next user to dispose of. It seems so simple to me: PARENTS MUST DO THEIR JOBS!

Madison (the day care worker) writes: "I fear I will get into trouble if I walk in on the boys in such situations and show them how they should lift the seat before peeing." I baby sit for two boys, ages 4 and 6. When we are out in public I take them into the ladies room with me and show them how to lift the seat, properly crap in a public toilet, wipe and wash their hands. I ended up doing that because their parents, just like some of the others I also babysit, have not been taught how to properly use a public bathroom. For example, I stopped one from sitting down on a seat that was dripping with pee (I think a woman with a young son forgot to lift the seat for him)and instead showed him how to wipe it off first. On another occasion, I helped him identify that there wasn't any toilet paper in the stall before he sat down to take his shit. And, perhaps more importantly, I helped one maintain his privacy because he getting read to sit down and start a shit in a stall that didn't have a door. The most gross case came when I showed the youngest how to guide his penis when going so that he wouldn't mess up the whole seat, stall partition and perhaps the lady on the toilet in the adjacent stall. I guess if parents continue to not do their job, it becomes ours.

I gotta admit I'm one of those guys that pee on the seat and/or wipe the seat with some poo-covered TP after I'm done with my bizniz in there.. I call it "toilet terrorism" xD

I'm a 29-year-old SBF. I have different standards for my butt and my hands. On occasion when the seat is up, I will use toilet paper in my hand to drop it. Even though I wash my hands after exiting the stall, I just don't like to have direct contact with the seat or flusher. That said, I don't mind directly sitting on the seat at all. I bathe daily and my fingers aren't going to have contact with the part of my body that came into contact with the seat. It's strange, I feel, that my boyfriend of two years is so much in avoidance of having to crap in a public place. He's gone into three or four different bathrooms at stadiums before he finds a stall with the toilet paper to spread over the seat. Sometimes I kid him with "so did you have to put your sorry black butt down on the toilet seat this time?"

Sorry about the boyfriend ReNae'. Maybe you should suggest he carry his home toilet seat to the stadium. He could decorate it with the team colors, and even with having to swap it for the stadium seat, he should still save time.

I wish my wife had more realistic views like ReNae'. She absolutely refuses to sit on a public toilet, even when there is an emergency. Since she was in high school and the years that we dated prior to our marriage, she has always carried a small packet of toilet seat tissues (about the size of a pocket-size pack of Kleenex) in her purse and she puts one down to sit on. We have been biking on trails in the park or hiking and we've had to go back to the car where she left her purse so that she can get one. Sometimes you can see that she's anguished but she will hold it in until she has her piece of paper to spread out across the seat. In recent months she's been trying to get our 6-year-old daughter to use them, but Abigail just calls them "ass papers" and rolls her eyes when they are mentioned.

Gotta love that Abigail and her disdain for those "ass papers". If we have more perceptive children like her, perhaps less trees would need to be cut for all the TP that goes over the seats for no other reason than to appease the neurotic parents who were inevitably raised by an earlier generation of neurotic parents. My wife and I are raising our three girls progressively and without introducing the "fear" of germs on those filthy public toilet seats. They've been taught the importance of sitting down to pee or crap--an entirely natural activity that shouldn't be made complex--by squatting or seat covering. Good God! Those that want to make a natural cleasing process so sinister and complex still have one option: hold it but they shouldn't blame others when they are diagnosed with urinary track infections or colon cancer.