Help! She's standing on the toilet seat!!

Of course she knows.

When Soviet tummy hit the student hostel where I stayed in Moscow, the toilets were grim.

The hostel had an international client group and you knew which students were squatting, because the heads would bob up and down above the cubicles.

This was a problem because our loos were supposed to be for women only, but some of the men couldn't be bothered walking up the next floor for the gents.

And she was squatting on the seat because she didn’t know otherwise so needed advice - a sign seemed the best way to inform.

They are still common in France and also called Turkish

It's pretty gross if they've walked on pavements of spit, pee and dog pooh.

Take it down once she's got the message.

I think that if you stand on a toilet seat in outdoor shoes for any reason then you should clean the seat before you leave.

Get the signs up, better than others noticing footprints, potential for gossip to start and an atmosphere to develop, it’s also preferable to getting the fire brigade out if things go wrong and her leg gets stuck in the toilet or she knocks herself out falling and is trapped in the cubicle

Often the "aim" is not good.

This. I work in a uni and we get this every new academic year. We also have signs that say sanitary bins are for sanitary products only as in some countries, used toilet tissue is not put down the toilet, but in a bin.

You can get signs for the purpose. It is a cultural difference and one which is neither better nor worse except loo seats aren’t designed for full body weight and will break.
People should either sit on the seat or squat on the rim and damage should not occur, but the seats are not designed for squatting.
Providing a step where people prefer to squat is thoughtful.

Some of my fellow students from Glasgow Uni did their Russian placement at Voronezh Uni.

One lad had us in hysterics in the common room one day, recounting the time he had Voronezh tummy and had to use the hostel loos urgently. He landed the one with the broken lock.

The loos there were bricked around. He described trying to balance, whilst holding onto his trousers and his dignity and trying to hold the door shut with one leg...

Believe you me, when you were heading to the Soviet Union for a placement, one of the first things you did was to check whether any of the older students could tell you what the loos were like.

My first time, a group of us were in Krasnodar during the 1980 Olympics. We were taken on an excursion to the Russian Black Sea resort of Gelendzhik.

We were taken for lunch in a restaurant. Afterwards, there was the usual queue at the ladies'. There were only two, we were told.

As we waited in line, we asked the first girls to come out "Are they proper toilets?"

They nodded in affirmation, but had a weird look on their face.

When it came to my turn I got there the same time as a rather posh spoken middle-aged lady who was there as a mature student.

We entered. The toilets were indeed 'proper toilets' and beautifully clean.

Instead of a door, each toilet had what appeared to be a transparent pink shower curtain. There was wall between the toilets - only a three inch high pink porcelain divider.

I looked at it dumbly, wondering what to do. My companion went ahead so I followed.

I tried to look straight ahead, but then heard the mature student intoning: "Well, it's certainly one way of getting to know your fellow traveller!"

I doubt if this lady would be embarrassed provided signs were put in all the loos and maybe an unrelated sign was added, eg 'please wash your hands'. It might be helpful to add a notice (in all the loos) that UK toilets are not designed for squatting and may break if used in this way.

And the signs with diagrams and please don’t poop on the floor. Apparently if you normally squat to poop (hole in floor toilets) …. It can be very difficult to get poop out if you relax sitting on a toilet seat.

www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/no-permit-toilet-sign-dont-step-1917110825

I'd definitely go the signs route. Western toilets are not designed for standing on, it isn't safe and if it breaks she could be hurt.
I would look into adding a removable stool that is made for squatting though, if you google squatting platforms there are several that are made for the job

I did wonder why I was regularly seeing footprints on the toilet seat in the Costa's that I go to.

Why on earth would it be “all you can think of when you look at her”? Is it all you can think of any time you see a colleague walk in or out of the bathrooms?

I always wipe down the seat before I use the loo anywhere that isn’t my house so the shoe prints wouldn’t inherently bother me- I’d be worried about the toilet seat breaking though as western toilets aren’t designed to be stood on, so I agree get some signs up.

But also the toilets are different, at ground level. But the squatting point stands (or not)

A butt cheek is not the same as the bottom of the shoe & this may not apply to you but most people's a-holes will fit in the seat hole...

@frillygillymilly 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

How can anyone stand on a toilet seat? Surely you’d slip and fall in or off? That’s ridiculous 🤣 plus gross getting muddy feet on the seats and the obvious fact you’re going to crack it one day!
Squat toilets aren’t off the ground like ours are, so why would someone do that? I don’t even get how it’s physically possible.

Tbh in a lot of Asian cultures, they're just a lot better at squatting than us. Half my family is Asian and it's a running joke. Even with regular yoga I can't squat with my feet flat to the ground and bum near the mat without toppling over. I've seen a 70 year old aunty do this for hours with no discomfort. My Japanese friends rib me for it too. Honestly a lot of squat negging in my life.

Some of the toilets in the Soviet Union were 'regular toilets' but bricked up around them.

I seriously wish I had not clicked on this.

There was no need for signs until the Indian lady turned up so…

After the break-up of Yugoslavia, DH and I went on a trip to Serbia.

We stayed at a lovely caravan sit in Ptuj in Slovenia. They had two sets of toilet blocks. Those just marked "WC" were western style toilets. Those marked "Turkish Toilets" were spotlessly clean squat toilets.

I was relieved [no pun intended] to see the "ordinary" toilets. Sometimes during my travels, the only facilities available have been squat toilets...and my knees aren't what they should be.

When I was a student in the former Soviet Union, the toilets were all western style, but many of the students stood on them. However, they used lift the seats.

They did get very messy, however.