Unisex public bathrooms

[Deleted]

Are you for or against this type of thing. I think it's the wave of the future...  

[Formerly SK]

100%  .  Less lines for the women's bathroom, less hassle for transpeople.  

[Deleted]

I would not want to be in a bathroom stall next to my daughter in another bathroom stall.

[Tiny]

Mar 30, 2015 15:59:31 GMT -5 oped said:

Are you for or against this type of thing. I think it's the wave of the future...  

I'm for it... but I doubt the way public bathrooms currently are configured will continue to be the norm.   I think we need to re-evaluate the typical public bathroom - rows of stalls and sinks in a room.   I think we need change/enhance this very vital public service. 


I've been a couple of medium sized public areas where there are individual rooms (with toilet, sink, place to change a baby, handicap accessible, etc) usually 2 to 6 of them  instead of one big room with stalls and sinks.   I've also spotted places where there's the tradition "lots of toilets and sinks in room" combined WITH several (again 2 to 4) individual bathrooms (toilet, sink, place to change a baby, handicap accessible).     The individual rooms usually have a sign with both a male and a female stick figure.  

Maybe that's the way to go - a combination of rooms with toilets/sinks (maybe men or women only)  and then individual rooms.

I suspect it's hard to get building planners/architects to give up the floor space needed to handle individual rooms for crowds of people - unless they go the Porta Potty route.   I'd also think they'd probably still want to designate men/women on something like that for high volume places (sports staduim?) cause - you know - people get sloppy.     But, then if you are at a sports stadium I would think you'd kinda expect that - what with all the adult beverages and the general more 'wild atmosphere'...



  

[Tennesseer]

When you gotta go, you gotta go.

[weltschmerz]

Mar 30, 2015 16:32:10 GMT -5 @hickle said:

I would not want to be in a bathroom stall next to my daughter in another bathroom stall.

Why not? Is she under the impression that you don't poop or pee?

[weltschmerz]

So you're ok with your hypothetical young girl walking into the average men's bathroom at a sports stadium? How about the sports bar/restaurant on game day

I've done it since I was a young girl. If the line was too long for the ladies room, and it was urgent, I used the men's. Nobody ever said Boo.

It just isn't that big a deal.

[Robert not Bobby]

Bad idea.

I stand and piss, ladies sit and pee...it could get messy, and not in a good way.

[Deleted]

Mar 30, 2015 16:47:43 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

Mar 30, 2015 16:32:10 GMT -5 @hickle said:

I would not want to be in a bathroom stall next to my daughter in another bathroom stall.

Why not? Is she under the impression that you don't poop or pee?

Do you want to be sitting in a stall next to your dad?  Some father daughter activities are best not shared.

[Deleted]

I don't have a problem with unisex bathrooms, but I think some children might.

[weltschmerz]

Mar 30, 2015 16:52:46 GMT -5 @hickle said:

Mar 30, 2015 16:47:43 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

Why not? Is she under the impression that you don't poop or pee?

Do you want to be sitting in a stall next to your dad?  Some father daughter activities are best not shared.

As long as we're not in the same stall, why would it bother me?

[Deleted]

Mar 30, 2015 16:58:26 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

Mar 30, 2015 16:52:46 GMT -5 @hickle said:

Do you want to be sitting in a stall next to your dad?  Some father daughter activities are best not shared.

As long as we're not in the same stall, why would it bother me?

I guess it wouldn't.  Different strokes for different folks .  It would bother me.

[Shooby]

Blecchh.

[Deleted]

I guess most children wouldn't even notice if you didn't tell them. Lots of little kids go in opposite bathrooms anyway with a parent. 

As SK said, it lessens lines for ladies and eliminates transgender issues.

[Virgil Showlion]

Go for it. Hopefully women don't mind washrooms that look/smell like an elephant made entirely of urine, feces, and paper towel staggered inside shortly before exploding, which pretty much describes every public men's room in existence.

[Deleted]

Mar 30, 2015 17:00:45 GMT -5 Virgil Showlion said:

Go for it. Hopefully women don't mind washrooms that look/smell like an elephant made entirely of urine, feces, and paper towel staggered inside shortly before exploding, which pretty much describes every public men's room in existence.

You need to start hanging out in better establishments.

[weltschmerz]

Mar 30, 2015 17:00:45 GMT -5 Virgil Showlion said:

Go for it. Hopefully women don't mind washrooms that look/smell like an elephant made entirely of urine, feces, and paper towel staggered inside shortly before exploding, which pretty much describes every public men's room in existence.

You've never been in a public ladies room, have you?

[weltschmerz]

[Deleted]

Mar 30, 2015 17:07:31 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

Not everyone poops together though.

[Virgil Showlion]

Mar 30, 2015 17:03:40 GMT -5 @hickle said:

Mar 30, 2015 17:00:45 GMT -5 Virgil Showlion said:

Go for it. Hopefully women don't mind washrooms that look/smell like an elephant made entirely of urine, feces, and paper towel staggered inside shortly before exploding, which pretty much describes every public men's room in existence.

You need to start hanging out in better establishments.

Anything I would call an "establishment" has private washrooms or individual washrooms.

I'm thinking more along the lines of malls, gas stations, ground floor university washrooms, any anything that routinely sees a lot of "traffic".

Mind that men invented urinals so that we didn't actually have to touch that urine-splattered toilet seat at any point.

[Robert not Bobby]

Mar 30, 2015 17:04:57 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

Mar 30, 2015 17:00:45 GMT -5 Virgil Showlion said:

Go for it. Hopefully women don't mind washrooms that look/smell like an elephant made entirely of urine, feces, and paper towel staggered inside shortly before exploding, which pretty much describes every public men's room in existence.

You've never been in a public ladies room, have you?

Jeeze Weltz, don't deflate my last held belief in the fairer sex...you are supposed to be more genteel, etc...mind you, my ex wifes farts could kill a continent...and she was all of 5'4".

Anyway...later.

[Virgil Showlion]

Mar 30, 2015 17:04:57 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

Mar 30, 2015 17:00:45 GMT -5 Virgil Showlion said:

Go for it. Hopefully women don't mind washrooms that look/smell like an elephant made entirely of urine, feces, and paper towel staggered inside shortly before exploding, which pretty much describes every public men's room in existence.

You've never been in a public ladies room, have you?

I'm consistently told that they're bad, but not as bad.

[chen35]

I almost always have to wait in line for the bathroom at college or professional sporting events. 

[weltschmerz]

Mar 30, 2015 17:36:17 GMT -5 @sroo4 said:

So would you want unisex bathrooms in schools too?  I could see that getting interesting in middle school/ jr high. 

How about school locker rooms?  

Where do you people pee that you experience these long lines...airports are the only places I can think of where I've had to wait in recent past. 

Concerts, hockey games and other sporting events.

[kent]

Mar 30, 2015 17:00:45 GMT -5 Virgil Showlion said:

Go for it. Hopefully women don't mind washrooms that look/smell like an elephant made entirely of urine, feces, and paper towel staggered inside shortly before exploding, which pretty much describes every public men's room in existence.

I'm going to disagree on this one Virgil.  I actually had a part-time job as a janitor MANY years ago and have to say the women's restrooms were REALLY bad compared to the men's.  The "stuff" they left laying around and the things they wrote on walls would make a sailor blush.

Yes, I am a man of many talents!  

[giramomma]

Mar 30, 2015 16:52:46 GMT -5 @hickle said:

Mar 30, 2015 16:47:43 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

Why not? Is she under the impression that you don't poop or pee?

Do you want to be sitting in a stall next to your dad?  Some father daughter activities are best not shared.

Bah. My DH is going to have to buy my DD's feminine products. And likely handle discussions of birth control with a dr if it comes to that point. He goes to costco, the grocery store, and handles most of the dr appointments for the kids. Along those lines, I also know that there is a very nice young man that works a sporting goods chain store that prefers his cup/underwear to fit tighter than looser. I found that out when asking about cups for DS last year.

Besides, I find it entertaining when my nearly 3 yo walks in on DH as he's peeing. Because you know, she's curious. And I like to see if DH is still agile.

DS (11) also announced to the whole household that he was wearing a cup when we had an impromptu Nerf Gun fight this last weekend. He changed into his protective gear, because the 3 yo could not aim very high, and got DH in, well, a sensitive spot. DS was not wanting to suffer the same consequences.

I guess I don't see what the big deal is. And when we travel with three kids, having unisex bathrooms would be way easier to deal with.

[giramomma]

Mar 30, 2015 17:36:17 GMT -5 @sroo4 said:

So would you want unisex bathrooms in schools too?  I could see that getting interesting in middle school/ jr high. 

How about school locker rooms?  

Because having different gendered bathrooms prevents kids from messing around/getting into trouble?

What a kid might see in a bathroom is much more tame to sexting and oral sex parties that happen in Jr High. At least in a bathroom shirts stay on. Can't say the same about sexting.

I accidentally walked into the boys locker room either in 8th or 9th grade. It wasn't that interesting, just a bunch of white butts?

[Cookies Galore]

Mar 30, 2015 16:52:39 GMT -5 Robert not Bobby said:

Bad idea.

I stand and piss, ladies sit and pee...it could get messy, and not in a good way.

Messy like a pee for all? Pee fight? It's not like I'm going to walk into the bathroom and forget that I have sit parts! :-p

I've used the men's room many a times over the years. When I have to go, I don't care who's at a urinal! I'm not looking at anything good, and if I were, well, I've seen those a million times.

[Cookies Galore]

Mar 30, 2015 17:36:17 GMT -5 @sroo4 said:

So would you want unisex bathrooms in schools too?  I could see that getting interesting in middle school/ jr high. 

How about school locker rooms?  

Where do you people pee that you experience these long lines...airports are the only places I can think of where I've had to wait in recent past. 

Sporting events, concerts, etc. I ran a 10k a few years ago that began at a small stadium, so actual bathrooms instead of porta potties. It was a few minutes from starting and the line to the women's room was crazy long. I used the men's room.

[kittensaver]

There are already unisex bathrooms in many places around my world (I live in a very large urban setting). Many public accommodations have three bathrooms: one for men, one for women and also "family" bathrooms (where both genders and all ages can enter). These are really helpful for opposite-sex parents attending to babies and small children, and disabled persons with opposite-sex attendants. Any number of places also have "single use" unisex bathrooms - anyone can use them, but only one person at a time. It would be great to see more of these kinds of arrangements. They address everyone's needs.