Do you sit on a public toilet seat or hover?

[Sprinkleofspice]

I’ve never got the hang of hovering even though I have fairly strong thighs. Increasingly I’m seeing pee on the floor or seat in public toilets (not just in outdoor buildings but train stations, shopping centres etc.) which makes me think more women are hovering nowadays - which in turn seems to actually be making toilets/seats dirtier. I would love it if they all had the spray dispenser in the cubicle to wipe the seat but I very rarely see this.

So, do you hover and if so how do you do it while not touching any part of the toilet with your clothes and relaxing enough to get all the pee out? I was also going to ask how you aim into the toilet but it seems like a lot people can’t manage that bit!

I sit. What's going to happen?

If everyone sat, I wouldn't hover. Why is there always piss and shit everywhere apart from inside of the toilet? On the lid, on the floor, even on the walls. The only place I've seen worse than the UK for this is Malta. It's disgusting. I've been tempted to wear adult diapers rather than use a public toilet even in somewhere like Next!

Agree. What would you even catch? What's supposed to be on the skin of our buttocks and the back of our thighs that is being passed around via toilet seats?

Sit. If the toilet looks visibly dirty or the seat or floor is wet, I would not use that cubicle. I always wash my hands with soap and water afterwards, and try to avoid touching the door or other touch points when leaving because, let's face it, the non hand washers or the 'flip water vaguely in the direction of their hands' are all around us, but I don't worry about sitting on the seat. Or flushing the loo with my hand. Are there seriously people putting the soles of their shoes on the flush? Disgusting buggers.

I sit. It isn't healthy to hover.

I sit unless it’s a disgusting toilet.

I sit! I find pee covered seats infuriating and unnecessary. What do people think they are going to catch?? I have also lived in countries where you have to pee in a hole in the ground and that was enough hovering!
As a side note, in the West, I think we are a bit obsessed with cleanliness, I read a thread where many were saying they wash their towels after every use because of ‘dead skin’ FFS! I think its unhealthy to covers everything in bleach/antibacterial spray, we need germs!

I sit - I don't want the poor person after me having to put their shoes or bottom in my pee. I'm absolutely horrified at the state I see people (fellow staff, in female staff only) leaving the loos in some days. Pee all over the seat, the floor, toilet tissue and sometimes even wrapped sanitary products on the floor too....it's disgusting.

Sometimes I can also tell that people have used them like a squatting toilet - you'll see a nice big pair of dusty footprints left on the loo seat that they don't even bother to wipe off afterwards. That's even more gross!

I always sit but I always squirt some hand gel on clean tissue paper first and wipe round the seat, even if the seat looks clean. I do the same when I’ve finished so it’s clean for the next person too.

I’m very very particular about many things and in particular cleanliness in all its forms but I sit.

I am being treated for pelvic floor disorder and in my very first evaluation I was asked about hover or sit and I embarrassingly had to admit I am a sitter. The physical therapist said good…hovering is so very bad for your pelvic floor. I was shocked to hear that.

I always sit. Give the seat a quick wipe with loo roll out of habit then sit.

I was using a toilet in a hospital recently and saw this sign up - if a hospital says you ought to shut the lid then I think shutting the lid is the right thing to do everywhere!

If you had the spray dispenser it would get nicked.
Unless it was chained to the wall.
Sit or hover? Depends on how dirty it is.
If it's my works loo then it's a guaranteed hover as that thing has not been cleaned in years. Otherwise I wipe any wee off the seat, then sit.

I cover with toilet paper

Unless you have open weeping sores on the back of your thighs, it is insane to give a moment's thought to hovering. Your skin is an amazing organ that most pathogens cannot cross (I say "most" because contact poisons do exist, but the level of paranoia needed to suspect anyone might put such a substance on a public loo seat is very unhealthy and no way to live). It doesn't matter what bacteria might realistically be on a public loo seat, they are not going to be able to cross that barrier and will just get washed off when you have a shower. Literally the only precaution you need to take is that you shouldn't use a public loo immediately before going to a naked yoga session in which you learn the cat-like flexibility to lick the back of your own thigh (my cat spends hours at a time doing this but sadly I cannot)

I'm nearly 40. Have sat all my life, nothing has ever happened to me.

The hoverers tend to be the ones who pee on the seat!

The whole hovering thing is pointless when so many people don't put the lid down before flushing anyway. If you find the lid up then everything is going to be contaminated anyway.

I sit and always flush loo with some toilet roll don’t use my hands

cracked seats 🚽. an under-discussed 'topic' 🤔

Neither. I put loo paper on the seat and then sit down. Nothing new, I've always done that ever since a teenager, so 40+ years. Same in other house's toilets too, not just public loos.

Nice to see some "nicer" public places have those disposable toilet seat covers in a dispenser on the wall next to the loo.

@MoonlightMemories

Sometimes I can also tell that people have used them like a squatting toilet - you'll see a nice big pair of dusty footprints left on the loo seat that they don't even bother to wipe off afterwards. That's even more gross!

I really don't understand people doing that. We've had tradesmen working on our house who've left muddy/oily boot marks on our loo seat. Just why do they have to climb on it to do their business? It seems to be getting more common too especially in places like railway stations and fast food restaurants - never used to see it, but now it's very common. No wonder a lot of loo seats get broken, cracked, or the fixings break if people are standing on them.

What do the hoverers do if they need a poo? I can't imagine doing a hover poo!!

It got so bad in my workplace at one point that they had to put reminder posters about it for a bit and about how dangerous it is -neither the seat itself nor the bowl are designed to take the weight of an adult and could easily crack (I DON'T recommend looking up toilet bowl injuries 😣) in that manner.

As well as being dangerous and inconsiderate to other users and themselves, I just can't understand how they do it without falling off and how on earth they get off once they're up.on it, as it's fairly high up. Unless it's a disabled loo, most don't have bars or anything to grab onto that a squatting loo in their native country/culture may have. I just don't get it!

I had this too with a tradesman! It was only one bootprint though so it didn’t make sense what he’d been doing, unless he was cocking one leg up on the seat and aiming his pee using gravity 🤔