Pooing in public loos - yes or no?

[samarrange]

Inspired by about half of the posts in this thread (which is basically on a different topic, but its OP mentioned public loos and things kept, er, moving).

It seems that MN is totally split on whether having a poo in a public loo (or, presumably, a pub, the library, the office, anywhere that isn't your home or your hotel) is either "the worst thing imaginable", or "completely normal, what's all the fuss about?".

so....my point still stands? Either you need a poo or you don't, if you can wait an hour or two until you get home then you don't need a poo?

And as pp's have said - for the people who are saying not in a million years - perhaps they are lucky enough to have never needed one desperately but hypothetically if they did (I.e. stomach bug) surely EVERYONE would go if desperate, as no matter how embarrassing or gross you would find going in a public loo, shitting yourself in public would obviously be worse.

OP I find the options a bit confusing because surely everyone only goes for a poo when they have to? It's not really a fun enjoyable activity that you'd plan your day out around!

Fair enough! Obviously when you gotta go, you gotta go. I guess I was just trying to give categories that sum up people's attitude to the prospect of having to do it, if that makes sense. 🙏

For what it's worth, my answer would be 1, but I'm trying hard to think when the last time was that I actually went for a number 2 outside my home or the place where I had either spent the previous night or was going to spend the next one, and it's a very long time ago. So I guess there is some unconscious control going on even though I'm telling myself that I don't mind.

I’d rather not but if I need to go I need to go!

I don't have a bowel condition, but I generally dont get the urge to go until about 10am, so have no choice but to go at work. I don't deliberately wait, I really hate it when there's a colleague also in there, but that's just the time my body tells me to go.

My Grandma, who was an old fashioned hospital matron once apon a time, said the best medical advice she was ever given was ‘never ignore the call to stoole ‘ as if causes all sorts of other issues. She lived, healthily, til her mid 90’s so take from that what you will.

If it makes anyone feel better, I went for a poo at work today on the single toilet in the office. Ended up blocking the toilet and I had to flush three times. Then as soon as I got out, I saw a woman I KNOW walk past me into the same toilet 🙃

I got brought up not to be bashful about using the crapper. My dad used to tell me that if you get in the habit of holding it for long times you'll have bowel trouble later in life-- and I have a very healthy system down there. Dad set a good example: he'd poop in any sort of facility, even the old style stinky rest stop outhouses. Growing up I usually took a crap at school in the morning even though the school bathroom stalls were doorless for guys. I just accepted it was normal for guys to see each other on the toilet and as a teenager my usual response to anyone who made fun of me for it was to say "Hey, at least I won't be full of shit like you." Or "What do you do? Shit your pants in school?" Of course plenty of other guys did use the school toilets too and there was a sort of comraderie about it even though we pretended not to notice each other. (OK, sometimes two good friends would be sitting next to each other and they'd talk about the details of what they were doing.) As an adult I've shit at work, in stores, restaurants and bars, ski resorts, gas stations, rest stops, portacans at public events, camping outhouses, a few time leaning against a tree on a hike where there's no facilities, in doorless stalls like my school, and once in a place that didn't even have stalls, just crappers with no partitions. It's good to be able to shit anywhere and not care!

Doesn't bother me, if I gotta go then I go