Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Surely this sign is unnecessary - Indonesia

107 replies

hotelinfo · 22/08/2025 06:22

On a very small (but quite well-known) islsnd, but lots if tourists. Not much going on today, as you can probably tell, so I'm posting this sign in the hotel room bathroom.

Obviously crouching loos are common in some areas, but who really needs to be told not to crouch on a hotel loo seat?

Surely this sign is unnecessary - Indonesia
OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
IjustbelieveinMe · 22/08/2025 11:57

I work at a university in Australia and believe me the toilets we share with international students need signs like this

steff13 · 22/08/2025 11:35

I would assume that they wouldn't go to the trouble and expense of making a sign if they didn't think it was necessary.

Glitchymn1 · 22/08/2025 11:34

I wish I could get into that position 😂I’d end up on the floor or in the toilet.

VikingLady · 22/08/2025 11:32

This sign was in the student halls when I was university. I was in the halls where most of the Malaysian and Chinese students were, and squat toilets were what they were used to.

Some of them clearly did not read the signs. I always needed shoes, or possibly wellies, to go to the loo.

CrochetHooked · 22/08/2025 11:23

AlpacaMittens · 22/08/2025 08:45

Here we go...

Show quote history
Hmm

I used to work in a DHL warehouse and can attest we had these signs. I'm sorry if that bothers you.

I would say the signs made a difference where I worked, but it was easy to assume they didn't have any impact.

I'm trying not to feed the toilet trolls here... Unfortunately, the mathematical reality of a workplace that has a women's toilet with less than ten cubicles, in a building with hundreds of employees, staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, means there is always going to be a couple of people on each shift who absent-mindedly use the toilet like their own ones at home. Habits are strong!

My experience was that DHL management aren't too great at actioning repairs, which meant any broken toilet seats were like that for a week every time, which again makes it easy to over-estimate the number of staff who aren't following the signage.

However, I have a good comparator, because prior to DHL, I worked at a warehouse that was being newly set up. Initially there was no explanatory signage instructing people on what type of toilets had been installed, and that resulted in much higher level of toilet breakage in the first month than I saw at DHL.

Pollqueen · 22/08/2025 11:20

applegingermint · 22/08/2025 06:24

Lots of people. My university also had signs up requesting that you don’t squat on the toilet seat.

My uni too in east Midlands

Mapletreelane · 22/08/2025 11:12

I first saw these in McDonald's in Moscow in the early 90s. And there were footprints on the seat sometimes . (I was a UK student studying in Moscow McDonald's was our weekly treat)

jamnpancakes · 22/08/2025 11:07

arcticpandas · 22/08/2025 10:56

I never sit down on public toilets but squat. I'm 5'7 so I imagine someone very short who wants to do the same thing might get that idea. But they can just put toilet paper on the siege which is what I do for my children when they had to use public restrooms.

It's nothing to do with being short - it's a mish mash of reasons eg type of clothing and experience of other types of toilet.

lotsofpatience · 22/08/2025 10:59

You don't know what you are talking about. If those signed are there it's because obviously there have been incidents in the past. Do you honestly think that someone would say " oh yes let's put a sign here that nobody needs just because I want to spend my time and money in useless stuff"?

Æthelred · 22/08/2025 10:57

I first saw signs like this in St James House, Pendleton in 2013.

FreezingColdHere · 22/08/2025 10:56

hotelinfo · 22/08/2025 06:25

I have never seen this anywhere else

It is everywhere in Japan
In airline toilets
In the loos at Heathrow

arcticpandas · 22/08/2025 10:56

I never sit down on public toilets but squat. I'm 5'7 so I imagine someone very short who wants to do the same thing might get that idea. But they can just put toilet paper on the siege which is what I do for my children when they had to use public restrooms.

LittleArithmetics · 22/08/2025 10:55

I've seen dirty footprints, so people obviously do try it.

BMW6 · 22/08/2025 10:55

Well they obviously put them up for a lark OP 🙄

luckylavender · 22/08/2025 10:53

hotelinfo · 22/08/2025 06:25

I have never seen this anywhere else

You can definitely see them in the UK

jamnpancakes · 22/08/2025 10:53

You obviously haven't travelled much if this is a surprise ?

StarlightLady · 22/08/2025 10:51

Someone has come up with a compromise solution 😀

Surely this sign is unnecessary - Indonesia
CashonlyBakery · 22/08/2025 10:47

Definitely necessary

I have seen these signs in various countries including in UK

Idontjetwashthefucker · 22/08/2025 10:40

We had a sign like this in our toilets at the last place I worked...in Media City, Manchester, due to the number of times the seat had to be replaced.

Amount of times we had to wipe the seats free from grit and dirt

Underthinker · 22/08/2025 10:28

Edit: wrong thread.

Cutleryclaire · 22/08/2025 10:14

My 3 year old needs this sign!

Mustreadabook · 22/08/2025 10:13

I found out why this sign makes sense in Thailand. The squat toilets are not they type that I used to see in France as a child - they were ground level, with a hole in the ground. The Thai ones are a toilet bowl raised a few inches off the ground with foot rests on the rim. Like a very short western toilet in fact.

TequilaNights · 22/08/2025 10:01

I have seen these signs in the UK.. they are clearly necessary if they are being put up.

HRTQueen · 22/08/2025 09:57

If you used to using a squatting toilet western toilets will feel strange and the same if you are used to using a western toilet then using a squat toilet

we all like to be comfortable when we go to the loo

IthinkIsawahairbrushbackthere · 22/08/2025 09:57

My parents had this sign in their bathroom - Dad saw it in a weird discount shop and it appealed to his sense of humour!