Maybe that girl thought that seeing some else actually producing would help with her efforts.

Doniker will like this - a girl who "carries a rather large bush".

I say let people poop in peace! No watching.
Producing waste since 1967

Yes I like hairy women and the "rather large bush" comment did arouse me.

But don't women that where thongs usually shave down?

This incident sounds more like something that would go on in a men's room, with glory holes and whatnot.
When I worked at a department store we had this problem; guys would rip the toilet paper dispensers off the partition walls and then widen the screw holes with a screwdriver.

Peepers and gay men would hang out in the bathrooms looking for action.

And that's why I carry a large screwdriver with ME, so that when they peep I can poke their fuckin eye out. Damn Pervs.

doniker, Why doesn't this not surprise us. Next you'll be asking for a poll about pubichair maintence. Wax vs. natural.
Producing waste since 1967

Just wanted to say that most gay men would NEVER do that.

Yikes! What would Miss Manners think?
Powder room etiquette has gone downb the tubes.

Frank, I think it straight men who do it. I think gay men having better cruising places than a men's restroom. Well, of course unless you are George Michael. Sorry Frank...I couldn't help myself.
Producing waste since 1967

Doniker, what kind of action can a guy get through a screwdriver hole in a partition?

As for the story, interesting but it left me wondering how a chick could crap in her own bush..................

The eye in the peep hole was just a distraction from the hidden camera in the ceiling. Consider yourself lucky there was toilet paper in there. You should have used some to plug the hole. Oh yea, buy the way, your description of the cleanup reminds me of the first family -- Bushy Bushy Bushy.

CEP, the screwdriver hole was just for watching. Many a time I was in a stall at work and some pervert looked at me through the hole.

They would then sometimes "signal me" by putting a hand under the wall into my stall and waving. One time I guy threw a 10 dollar bill into my stall.

I would just tell my boss and he would chase them out and things would quiet down for a few weeks but they would always come back.

The perverts made there rounds thoughout the mall bathrooms.

You carry a rather large bush? Would that be a juniper, a boxwood or a pussy willow? And why not just leave the shrubbery on the bus?

Why not wipe from front to back? This would seem to have the advantage of carrying the smear away from the foliage. Of course, depending on the consistency of the dingleberries, it might leave tracks up the back, but it would seem to be a more sanitary way to deal with the problem. Unless, the bush wraps all the way around to the sacrum, in which case, ass wiping technique might be a secondary consideration to forest management.

In any case, call an arborist for further assistance. Or even a lumber jack. I hear that they're also okay.

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Yo Quiero Taco Bell.

Jeez, doniker, what's the name of the department store that you worked at, so that I know to avoid it? "Betty's Inflatables" or "Waxman's"?
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Yo Quiero Taco Bell.

It was Kaufmann's (it is now a Macy's) at the Great Northern Mall in North Olmsted, Ohio

why not wax? sounds like a bacteria breeding-ground.

One extra point for Deja.

My wife has told me several times of being observed by tween and younger girls in the restroom. I wonder if its a young girl thing? Anybody?

I know as a young lad, I had no interest in observation in public shitters. And I don't remember being observed by children.

Jocelyn - great story, obviously a very atisfying poop, and most of all you are right to be suspicous of anyone who uses an open stall in preference to ones with doors on!!

A rather large bush?? Hmmmm not very flattering but yet intriguing nonetheless. I dont understand do you usually wipe from front to back? I would imagine, no, HOPE that most females wipe that way. I cant imagine why someone wouldnt mind their own business in the bathroom without checking up on others or feeling that this is their mission in life.
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The Thunderous Crapper 63 Enjoying home toilet advantage since 2004!

Just like Jocelyn, I was in a similar situation last week. Traveling, I was at a regional mall, and blindly trying to find my way around, about an hour after my food court lunch, I knew I would need to find a ladies room--and fast. Being that it was at the tail end of lunch hour, it was busy. There were about a dozen stalls, and a group waiting for each (or in some cases for one of the occupants to get done). I tried the handicapped stall at the very end of the line and it was busy, but next to it was an open stall. Vacant!!! I laid my purse down, pulled down my panties (luckily I was wearing a loose skirt that could help shield me), but I stopped from sitting down just short of the seat to crap to draw from the liberal amount of toilet paper on the roll and placed a sheet over each side of the seat, across the front, and across the back. When I turned around to sit down, there were three girls about middle school age watching me and one was even snickering. It only took me less than two minutes to completely empty my bowels, but in doing so I noticed the girls passed the stall one more time with their eyes directed on me and took turns using a sink not too far to the right of the stall which had a mirror which is what I suspect provided some of the additional laughter I heard while wiping. I flushed and walked toward the sink, causing the girls to scatter toward the doorway. They were snickering and each looked into the stall that I had used on their way out. Like Jocelyn, I'm not sure what to make of it. It may be that DungDaddy's wife is right and this is a trend. Or is it the usual immaturity and insecurity of that age group? One of these days, each of those girls may be in a situation where they have to use an open stall. What's the old saying: What goes around, comes around?

Oh God! I would have gotten "sphincter lock" and whomever watching me do my doo would definitely suffer a severe verbal beat-down. Is nothing sacred?

The only way I'd used the doorless is if I was back in Egypt.

You are a better person than I, Jocelyn. I would have been hard-pressed not to toss my shitrag over the stall...but that, of course, would be turd terrorism. Perhaps a smarmy, "Enjoying the show?" would have passed these lips...

My old department store had a very well-known glory hole in the men's room. So well-known, in fact, that it was written about and storied in various underground publications in town. The cops were constantly there on undercover operations, and finally put the whole scene to a happy halt.

One fond memory I have of that bathroom is having a mother walk up to my register and say, "Excuse me, my son is shrieking in the men's room. Is it okay if I go in and get him?" I think my eyes became ten times the size of that glory hole as I wildly gestured and sputtered to get him NOW. The kid was okay, he just locked himself in the stall--oh, and he was about 4. What a cluelss mother--who just stands there when their four-year-old is screaming in a public men's room?!??.
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Assaulting toilets since 1977!

Like Valorie, I've been the victim of lots of eyes from, what we are now apparently calling, tween boys. I'm a 27-year-old graduate student and I supplement my teaching assistant stipend by working part-time at both a mall and theatre. I have a pregnant wife, need I say more. The tween boys, while they spend money at the mall and movies, are deliberately messy in the bathrooms (peeing over toilet seats, playing with their hands and butts in the stalls to see if they can trip the flushing sensors several times in succession, putting drink cups, cigarettes and chew in the urinals, and in some cases, trying to flood the sinks by just leaving the towels in them.

Last month, I threatened to turn two boys into security. While on my break, I had stayed on the toilet for about 10 minutes taking a shit and listening as at least two boys came in banging stall doors, noisily dropping toilet seats (one was slammed so hard I wouldn't have been surprised if it had been loosened on its hinges), and peeking for three or four seconds on a couple of occasions into each of the four or five occupied stalls. My pants were up but I heard a father in the stall next to me who had a very young girl on the toilet peeing, telling them to get lost or he was going to call security. I was the next out and caught the two boys messing around at the unrinals. It looked like they were trying to/or just had cross-peed into adjacent urinals. Because of their age (11 or 12) they didn't have any ID on them and said their parents had just dropped them off. Although I don't work security, I know the stores have a hassle to even get the police out within two hours when shoplifters are being detained. My worry, however, is that such actions could escalate. They seemed to smirk when I told them it was inappropriate to look into the stalls and I cut off their feeble explanation at mid-sentence. (They NEVER would have looked in the stall if they had known it was a girl in there).

As I see it, and from the postings of Jocelyn and Valorie, these tweens are unsupervised and just hanging out. Unfortunately, their lack of maturity leads them to trouble. When I'm driving back to my apartment, I see large numbers of both boys and girls walking from area neighborhoods to the mall and some even come by city transit busses. What they wouldn't be bold enough to do individually, they are encouraged to try when they are part of a larger, immature group.

Valerie - I agree with PdG entirely! Being English, I've no experience of open stalls and just can't imagine using one anyway. I think I'd gamble on my control!!

I can imagine the kids looking at you and sniggering. I went to a boys grammar school, and anyone who pooped got a similar sort of reaction. But why for god's sake!!? Not like we don't all do it!! I just think it's a childish thing made worse by the sort of taboos that exist around pooping.

Back 15 years ago when I was very young, and my mom would take me into public bathrooms, I remember her being suspicious just like Jocelyn was. As I got a little older and she allowed me to go in on my own, I sometimes thought she might be trying to tease me. I was about six or seven when, for the first time while we were on vacation, mom let me go in alone. I was on the stool peeing and feeling really good about my independence (I was that BIG girl now!)when I heard a rustling-type noise from one of the other five stalls. This was an Interstate rest stop bathroom and I was the only occupant because you could easily hear the main door open, individual stall doors shut,etc. Next I heard a fast scraping noise and something drop against the floor in the stall next to mine. I was buying a little time by staying on the stool the extra five minutes or so, but the drive was so boring and I was perplexed by the noise. From behind me, I felt something furry rub up against my right leg, and then between my legs, immediately below where I had my shorts and underwear dropped. Initially petrified, I jumped up, looked down and ended up spooking a medium-sized kitty that went scampering off--actually sliding due to the slick concrete floor--into the next stall. I've told the story many times to friends, but boys especially are interested in knowing if it was a male. Was I victimized by a pervert? I do know that even now in public restrooms I don't sit any longer than necessary.

Even if you're squatting to shit on the ground and there's a real "rather large bush," you're still BEHIND it. The sheer physics of getting shit on either bush in either case are mind boggling.

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What do you mean you didn't see it? It was right next to the toilet!

MQ, that's the first time I've spewed coffee on the screen in WEEKS! You crack me up. Thank you.

What I would like to know , is if your Shit Stank, and if yer bush stank? did you need spincterine?

What I would like to know is who the fuck gave you permission to mess around with the question marks?!!?!?

I have some Bush toilet paper. Perhaps that is what she was referring to .
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SamDamnit!
The Emir of Crapistan

_SamDamnit just made my day! Hope Evelyn doesn't get jealous. ______
Press on warts, who would buy those? -Well, hags mostly.

_Sorry, C Everette, I know I'm weird this morning, there must be gas in the room.______

I like how the story is the stalls have eyes great similarity to the movie also ur story is great when i was i believe 13 my family was going skiing in wisconsin and me and my brother walked into a truck stop and there was a guy already pissing in the bathroom so we both took the outer urinals cuz the weird creepy guy pissin was in the middle one halfway through my piss the guy farts and looks at me as if to blame it on me well the guy decided he needed to poo cuz he went to the stall and for his little bastardish movement of blamin a fart on me i shut the lights off on him

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i have met many people that talk like asses i have not however met many asses that talk like people

Great story, Christy! I could have been constipated for a week, been sitting on that Interstate rest stop stool like you, and literally have shit myself into a heart attack by having the cat come up behind me and rub against my leg. Come to think of it, I would have emptied my bladder too out of freight. My worse shituation came last month when I was on the stool at a park during a concert. I looked down and saw a bug on the seat about to get on my leg. I jumped up so fast that I did shit at that moment and didn't get any of it on my panties. And I did inspect them carefully for the little insects. Usually my boyfriend accuses me of overreacting, but he admits he would have been freaked out too. Are we at a point where you just risk too much excitement to get a public shit in these days?

Cat Hater asks an important question: "Are we at a point where you risk too much excitement to get a public shit in these days?" From the examples given--a cat sneaking up from behind the toilet, a bug running up your leg, being observed by children, among others--I would say yes. To that list, I would add verbal harassment. I waited 15 minutes for the first toilet to open and I might add dirty stall at the airport (but like Jocelyn suggests I had to go so bad I didn't really look or think about what I was sitting in). As I was sitting forward on the seat and spreading my legs more to get one very large shit out, I had both a child and parent knocking at the door to tell me there was an emergency waiting to happen. With my plane boarding in five minutes and one large shit that was not going to pass easily, I had more immediate issues. After about two minutes I made the mistake of standing up to reposition myself, and the automatic flushing sensor went off. When I sat down again, the mother and child started making more nasty comments such as "Give someone else a chance....*******!" Nobody would have wanted movement in my *******more than me. About five minutes later I was able to pass part of the shit and was still able to make my flight. However, without the harassment I'm convinced I could have produced more and done it faster.

Shawna - absolutely - no one should be hassled whilst carrying out this act. But the root of the problem is that often there are obviously not enough stalls are there?

Not often, but occasionally, I have sucked in my pride and will use a doorless stall. There's usually no line and since I usually wear a dress, I basically don't reveal that much and I keep my panties up high enough to be just shy of stool level. The biggest obstacle for me is that some parents, especially in places like arenas and airports, will take their young sons in and have them use the open stall because there won't be any accidents while the child is waiting and it's easier to keep an eye on them. Why parents don't just lift the seat or offer the boy a hand in lifting the seat I don't know. But there's almost always adequate toilet paper with which to wipe off or even cover the seat. I usually just wipe it off before sitting down. My mom says that as a college student I'm more "adventureous" than many women she knows. I just know that the doorless stalls work and make sense for me.

My sentiments exactly, Missi!I started using the doorless stall as an option several years ago while I was in high school. Because at places such as schools where the guys won't pee over the seat, they are both faster and cleaner. It's a fast-down pee or dump while the others continue to wait and bitch about being late. There's almost always toilet paper available and I find, if the women in the bathroom tend to be a little older, there's a lot less gawking and more empathy. The best feeling for me is to walk in with a group of women, watch them disperse into the crowd for various stall and two or three minutes after taking a doorless stall, wiping, flushing, washing my hands and seeing the frustration on their faces as they continue to wait and wait and remain unsure of how long it will be until they can finally relieve themselves. It's the best of the options available.

I think I understand why some womens public restrooms will be a doorless stall or two (well, maybe I don't but that's OK, I guess), but while coming home from college for Thanksgiving Week I came across a situation at an Interstate rest stop in Kansas that I thought was grossly appalling and probably child abuse.

There were six or seven stalls; one toward the middle of the room had no door. I would never use an open stall but what drew my attention to it was there was a boy about five sitting on the stool, and I could see he was frustrated and perhaps had been crying. Like all boys his age (I remember when I had to take my three younger brothers in) he had his sweats and underpants all the way down to the floor and he was sitting there swinging his legs because they were too short to reach the floor.

I took the stall immediately to his right. The seat looked relatively clean, so I placed my butt on it without hesitation and started what was a lengthy pee that I had been holding for about 50 miles. Almost immediately I heard some yelling from what I assumed to be his mother who was in the stall on the other side of him. She was upset with him because she had wanted him to go into the mens bathroom alone for his crap, but he didn't want to be separated from her. She was saying belittling things to him about how he was not going to be successful going at school without her there, and that by not allowing him to have a doored stall, she was hoping he would give the mens room a try. She also told him that when she got done, she expected to see some "results" in the bowl. It was 3 p.m. in the afternoon and there were plenty of other women coming in and seeing him just sitting there, upset and at a loss for privacy.

I never got to see the mother but she sounded really mean and demeaning to him. I finished, flushed,exited my stall, washed my hands and noticed that he was still sitting there frustrated when I left. Although none of the other women were giving him any special attention, I felt so sorry for him being forced into that situation by such a callous mother.

I don't know much about child development (I'm a fine arts major), but I fear that that boy is being scarred. My parents divorced when I was four and I remember when I was out with my dad in public places, he offered me the option of going in on my own when I thought I was ready or he would continue to take me into the mens room. I think it was the summer before lst grade. We were at Adventureland and I was finally confident enough to go into the ladies room on my own. That evening at dinner he surprised me with the biggest sundae I had ever seen.

Why more parents don't understand simple child development issues is beyond me. I was taken to a counselor a couple of times after my parents divorced and I remember hearing the word "issues", over and over. I worry about that boy and fear he's going to have some "issues" in a few years.

As the mother of two young sons (7&5) I am appalled by Privacy Please's report. I understand that the mom was probably trying to wean the boy from using the ladies room and gain the confidence and independence that comes from using the sex-appropriate bathroom. I just don't think humiliation is going to get the job done. Also, the remark that she had better see "results" in the bowl puts too much pressure on him to produce. Such mothers, while probably well intended, are exactly the type of parents that cause children to view public bathrooms as shameful and dirty places that should be avoided. At places like K-Mart and Barnes & Noble, I started letting my youngest go in on his own right after he started kindergarten this fall. The first time he crapped on his own three months ago was at our mall's Sears store. He came out with a big smile on his face, asked for a high-five and got it.

Appalled, you bring up some good points, although if she gave her son a choice (use the men's room next door or use the open stall here in the ladies room)she probably hoped he would select the mens room. As a single father, I have my daughter out several times a month. She's 5 1/2 and prefers the mens room with me when we're all alone but when she has a friend along, she's perfectly willing to go with the other girl (her friends are 5 or 6) in the ladies room. I guess it's just a matter of comfort and support. What I never have nor will I ever do is require her to sit on an open stall toilet in the mens room. Occasionally, we have been in mens rooms where there are no doors period, and we always leave to find a doored facility. A young child who's embarrassed now could develop some real hang-ups down the road, or worse yet, raise the next generation of the family the same insane way that Privacy Please observed.

In this thread I have noted some references to the flush sensors, which I think of as the electric eyes of the stalls. I hate those things: they are noisy--nearly deafening, some of them--and they spray water, sometimes right up on my bottom. Last week I went into a Home Depot and had to poop. I went into the men's room, entered a stall, and the thing flushed as I came in. It flushed again as I sat down, slightly wetting my bottom. Thirty seconds later, I had just pushed out some poop, leaning well forward to do so, and it did it again, sending water droplets tainted with my poop throughout the facility, since I was not covering all of the seat. After I finished, I leaned forward to wipe, and it did it again. When the wiping was completed, I stood up, and it did it again. Then I left the stall, and it flushed one last time (for me, that is; I heard other flushes going on down the line for other guests). That was six flushes, none of them at my command, all with a lot of water and spray. In my part of the country we are having water rationing right now, and if I had used that much water on my lawn, the water police would have been to my place within minutes. "The stalls have eyes" is a good title for this column, but the eyes I thought it meant before reading it were the sensors. It is as though we lack the discretion to flush our own toilets, so the Nanny of the Stall has to do it for us; only that Nanny has a sort of diarrhea that calls for multiple evacuations when we poor uninformed users would have flushed only once.

As the mother of five daughters (4 thru 14)I too resent the sensors used in public restrooms. My 4 and 6 year olds should be gaining confidence in going in and getting up on the stool themselves, going, wiping and washing their hands. However, they get totally spooked by the sensors going off every time they step down to reposition themselves when they are preparing to crap or just move around or play with the toilet paper roll. Two days ago my youngest was shopping with me at the mall and said she had to pee. She had to go so bad that she was already taking her sweats down and ready to get up on the stool when I stopped her because there were droppings on the seat (how can you tell urine from the toilet water flushed with each trip of the sensor?)and while I was grabbing for the last bit of toilet paper to wipe the seat off, she had an accident. It didn't help when I sat her up on the stool and her leg movements as she positioned herself then set the flusher off. Finally, after I got her cleaned up I needed to use the toilet for the crap that I had been holding for more than an hour. I sat down, finished within two minutes (the maximum allotted time when you have an upset and restless child in tow) and noticed that I had previously used the last of the toilet paper. She went next door and got me a handful from an open stall, and within a minute we were on our way to the sinks. During our two minutes there we could not hear the toilet flush. We looked again on the way out and sure enough it handn't. My poop was still prominently displayed.

What is the point of these electronic sensors? Surely they are a waste of water? I know some people like to have long craps with the deposit of logs spaced out over a period of time - won't this set off several flushes?? Quite ridiculous!

The doorless stall situations brought me back to 1984 when I first moved to New York. I was in Penn Station and needed a poop. The ladies room was a cavern full of screaming kids and homeless women cleaning up. The line for the stalls was LONG! There seemed to be about 12 stalls, 6 on either side and the line just didn't move. After slowly moving forward I could feel a log trying to bust out. I noticed that the first stall on the right had no door and not one person was using it. So I asked, one by one, the women in front of me if they were going to use the doorless stall and they all said no. So I asked if it was OK I use it and they said sure. I ran in and sat down. My skirt was tight so there was very little in the way of modesty plus I open my legs wide when I poop. As the logs finally emerged, almost every woman who went passed looked in at me! But boy was I glad of that doorless stall as I could not wait another 10 minutes!

Go girl! We're from the same perspective although I was only 6 in 1984. It's ludicrous to be standing in the large crowds in airport or civic center bathrooms when I've needed to drop a log or pee for sometime and only feel frustration. You mention children and that's a big part of the problem. Mom goes in and does her thing and each of the three or four tax deductions is vying to be the next user of the stool. One could have a urinary tract infection or burst their anus under such confusion. And although the room may smell, I've found the doorless stall to be the cleanest and I have no problem placing my butt on the seat. Also, there's more toilet paper on the roll than in the other more heavily used stalls. Occasionally someone--especially a teenage will look at me in disbelief. The last time that happened I just pointed between my legs into the bowl. The proof was floating in the water and she knew it!

This happened about 5 years ago when I was like 11 or 12. I was at the circus with my sister who is 2 years younger than me. This was at our city auditorium where the restrooms are huge, like 20 or 25 stalls on each side of a wall. Well me and her had to go down to the bathroom. She had to pee and I had been holding my crap in. But since it was intermission and I had to take her in, I decided that I should finally get rid of my crap. I don't think I had gone for 3 or 4 days and, of course, me and her had eaten a lot of junk food. When we got into the bathroom, it was packed. Lots of mothers with their daughters and chaos, and like it looked like there would be a long wait. Jan didn't seem to mind pushing forward in the line that, when I looked back, was extending into the hallway. However, since I had gotten myself up and out of my comfortable seat, I started to feel more pain and was worried about messing in my pants. I noticed to the left there were two toilet stalls without doors. A young boy, like about kindergarten age, walked into the first, dropped his shorts and underwear all the way to the floor, and started peeing into the bowl. I immediately claimed the other stool, dropped my jeans and panties, and I was popping poop before my butt even got adjusted to the seat. Within seconds, though, the boy came to my stall entry and I was like thinking why are you standing here watching me. My jeans and panties were luckily for me at stool level, but he persisted just staring and then snickering at me. Finally, I heard a woman angrily call his name, and come and snatch him. She had gotten done in her stall and she was pissed that he had wandered off. She said something about me being "inappropriate" and seemed to blame me. Despite the time-saving temptation, I've never used an open stall toilet again.

Embarrassed Emily wasn't doing anything "inappropriate"--I don't know what the mother was thinking. If that would have been my son, he would have been disciplined for walking away from outside my stall and invading someone else's...privacy/partial privacy/space. When I was growing up and the roles were reversed, when my dad would be in the stall taking his crap, he would demand that I basically stand nose toward the outside of his stall door and he insisted that I always be close enough so he could see my feet.

I suppose it would have been hard for Emily to have said something to the boy as he was staring her down. Because she had her jeans and panties at stool level, I doubt he could have seen much but it's the privacy issue and he should have been supervised by his mom. He should have used the stall that his mom used so there could have been closer supervision, and, of course, she could have shown him how he could pee without dropping his shorts and underwear all the way to the floor. Also, since he was unsupervised, I wonder if he left his "calling card" on the seat for the next user.

A few months ago a pro football stadium, there were a couple of doorless stalls, and due to the crowd some younger children using them. Two high school-age girls were walking by and staring at and snickering at a 7 or 8 year old girl who was on the stool and crying. The younger girl got the last word in, though, when she raised her right hand, flipped them off and told them to "rotate on it!" Such confidence at a young age.

It's asinine, totally asinine, for Emily to complain. It's as simple as this: if you select an open stall and you are dumb enough to sit down knowing that there are a dozen or more people using various stalls and waiting for stalls to open, people are going to see, watch and potentially make fun of you. Hence, the reason why most of us will wait for a doored stall to open or better yet, find another lesser-used restroom at a place such as a civic center or auditorium. I also get pissed when my friends complain about how they are reluctant to sit on public toilet seats. Well, what do they expect? A seat, toilet as clean as they have at home. Public restroom users need to face reality and that means that public bathrooms are going to be of questionable cleanliness. If you don't want to sit down and go, then hold it until you get home. There aren't a lot of alternatives!

The finger from the 7 or 8 year old girl who was being harassed for using an open stall in Reality Please's posting (01.06.2008) deserves some sort of award. I say shit and pee when you gotta, where you gotta and let the chips fall where they may. I probably would have asked if I could have taken her picture. What a posting that would make on the Internet!

It might have been a low rent US Senator. You saw an eye ball, how about toe tapping or a hand reaching under the stall ?

Result Lady's posting (01.02.2008)suggests a form of child abuse in teaching young children that expediency is to be emphasized over privacy. I would never want my 6-year-old daughter or 5-year-old son sitting on an open-stall toilet. Sure, I'm with them at the airport or the city arena and with my presence I can block the "eyes" of others, but if they were to get in a habit of frequently doing that, in places like school or at the swimming pool where a lot of children congregate, my children would be setting themselves up for teasing--and possibly something worse.

Young children can be so mean to their peers and open stalls just invite it.

By the way, that flip-off and the verbal taunt from the young girl is Privacy Please!'s posting is extraordinary. My two, however, would never have the nerve to say anything and probably just break down and cry.

I've got news for Ruth Anne: it's not child abuse if a child selects an open stall toilet and sits down and uses it in the proper way. If others don't give him/her the privacy he/she deserves, it's not abuse but rather one hell of a learning experience. My 8-year-old just once used a doorless stall at an airport where the lines were long, but about 10 seconds after seating herself, she called out to me (I was in the next stall) that she was going to get up and come in with me because sitting with no privacy "sucked'. I don't think I'm going to have to worry about her getting herself into that situation anytime in the near future. Like my mother use to say: experience is the BEST teacher.

At places such as the mall and our civic arena my daughters, ages 8 & 10, have sometimes offered to take a doorless stall because they have to pee badly and don't want to wait.

Only a fool would use an open stall and I'm not about to let them make such a mistake. I don't think it's appropriate for a parent to OK a choice that's going to result in several dozen others--total strangers, I might add--watch them relieve themselves.

Children at this age just don't have the necessary mature judgment in such cases. That's where a parent needs to step in with a firm 'No'!

Mens bathrooms are notorious for doorless stalls, and if anything, I see the situation getting worse. What I do when I'm out with my son and he has to crap is that I stand blocking the "doorway" while he gets up on the stool and does his thing. Then, occasionally, when I need to crap in a public place, my 6-year-old will stand in the doorway, arms folded, and to the best of his ability give me my privacy. Last week we were in a two-stall bathroom at the mall and Matthew was in his usual position as I was crapping away. A priest walked in and was headed toward the stalls. Matthew said, "my dad's pooping so you'll have to use the other one (pointing)." The priest laughed and said something to the extent that he wasn't going to question my constitutional right to take a crap.

Urinals almost never have doors...maybe a small dividing wall to allow for some privacy, for that extra shake or two, or ten...but my problem is standing so far back, some stupid fucker always moves in front of me, and gets all upset when I piss on his back...
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The proper order is kiss me, then go smell the other dog or cat's butt. I cannot stress this enough.

Bilge, you need to "arc" it about 7 feet or so upwards. This should help unless maybe Yao Ming is pissing next to you.

my arms get tired and sore trying to hold that fucker over my head.....

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The proper order is kiss me, then go smell the other dog or cat's butt. I cannot stress this enough.

That would of freaked me out if someone was staring at me through the crack or hole in a stall. People like that are different
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Russell the shitting queen

Last summer I was with my dad to begin my usual 3 week visit with him. We were at an I-35 rest stop in Iowa. I went in to crap at 3:30 a.m. in the morning. Two of the 3 stalls were busted and had crime tape in X form over the door. I was also amazed that the stalls were only half as high as in most places. I went to wipe the seat off and my toilet paper seemed to stick to the seat like nothing I had seen before.

I decided to squat crap. I pulled up my dress, dropped my underwear to the floor, and squatted over the stool. A couple of balls of crap dropped and unfortunately hit so hard that the water splashed up on both me and my dress. I lowered myself more when the third piece was about to come, but not before two girls who were like about 10 or 11 came running in and saying to one another that they could see my head and that my face looked like I was in pain.

They must have looked and giggled for another 30 seconds or so. I lowered myself even farther and eventually I could feel one of my thighs on the seat. I just said fuck it and lowered the other. Within 5 seconds I dropped onevery long and large log and I kept my head lowered as I wiped from the seat level.

Finally, I heard an adult voice call for them and they scattered. I waited about a minute before I tried to slowly slide myself off the seat. It was slow going and there was a pop when I finally reached the front. I went out to the car without even washing my hands because I was still somewhat freaked.

I'm 6'4" tall and also find that my head towers above the stalls in some of the restrooms. Although I don't remember using a toilet on the interstate in Iowa, I do know that I experience discomfort when I shit in such public toilets. That's because the toilets are so low compared to the size of my lower legs. Unless I spread my legs really wide (so much so that they practically touch the stall panels) I don't really get the comfort of sitting on the seat but rather just the very back of my butt and tailbone touches. Some of the seats are very uncomfortable and part of my head is easily seen over the top of the front door and partitions. And occasionally (and this is especially the case in some malls) in bathrooms I have to duck down and under a support beam of sorts that holds all the toilets in the line together. Most of the time when the bathrooms are really crowded I try and keep my head as low as possible because I believe in giving the other users their privacy. At least I probably won't be growing any taller because I'm 25.

Excellent post, Teresa; consider joining PoopReport. I sympathize with your "visibility" issues; it sounds like you are handling the problem in the right way.

What Stac do you feel that was that made the "pop" as you slide yourself off the toilet seat? I've had some of the same problems as you did when I've tried to squat crap and like you I just end up sitting down on the seat and hoping for the best because I get easily pissed and I also value my comfort. Although I'm not as tall as Teresa, I do have issues also with part of my head above the partitions and what my grandma once joked about "getting a cheap thrill."