to be bewildered by bidets?

[ttalloo]

I've never had one other than on holiday, and even though I know what they're for , I've never used them (other than for dumping wet swimming costumes in) - I really wouldn't know how...!

The Japanese loos do the Bidet thing, then blow warm air to dry your bits.

You can also press a button to play a flushing noise or music for when your bottom's being a bit ermmm noisy.

Love them. Hubby and I spent the 1st hour in our hotel room just playing with the toilet .

hmmm, there are quite a few countries where having proper toilets & not even using paper to wipe themselves is quite common.

let's face it, hygiene is an expensive luxury which only the 'westernised' cultures have turned into some kind of art form.

Isn't it cleaner to use water as opposed to wiping anyway.

My Grandma always used water.

So, at the risk of soundingly shockingly ignorant, does one wipe and then use a bidet, or use the bidet instead of toilet paper?

(I'm a bit nervous of ever visiting Japan after reading some of these posts!)

Weren't bidets all the rage in the 80's? All the new/posh houses had them then, don't see them as much these days.

both, you do both

I think the Japanese would be nervous about coming to the UK if they read this thread

My Cypriot relatives are always shocked that we don't have bidets here, which always makes my mother laugh, as her generation grew up without even toilets - just a hole in the ground in a hut at the bottom of the garden.

But I've never plucked up the courage to ask any of my relatives exactly what to do with a bidet - IRL you'd have to feel incredibly comfortable around someone to do that!

instructions

I did like the way they included this tip:

"If you are a visiting guest, it is not okay to pat yourself dry with the towel that the host has provided for the use of drying hands. "

I went to a Japanese restaurant in New York where the loo had 'front spray', 'back spray', 'back spray light' and 'hot air'.

Now that I could get used to.

lol at back spray and back spray light

I would quite like a bidet, but how would I stop the kids constantly using it to float their ducks?

Also, DS (2) already thinks that the fact that his willy floats on the surface of the bathwater, is the funniest thing ever, I'd never get a chance to use it.

When first coming across one on holiday in France in the 70s, we children christened them 'bumwashers' and have never renamed them since.

Don't you splash up other people's bits of poo-y water?

I would like one though- esp a Japanese musical one with hot air blower attached.

nooooo

drain, rinse

I'd like one I think.

Trouble is, everywhere I've ever stayed which has had one has the bloody thing installed parallel to the wall so that only a one-legged woman could use it.

We had a bidet for years in our old house and I only ever used it for two things:

• Bathing my sore bits after the birth of my dcs (aaah! bliss!)

• Rinsing out the potty.

I can't say I miss it........

i have to say this thread is quite amusing. as a muslim, we always wash ourselves with water, and i think a bidet is an over-engineered method to do what muslims around the world just do with a jug over a normal loo!

i haven't read all the posts, but some places they do have the built in bidet in a loo, but these are difficult to use, a jug is so much easier! the only modern method which works over a jug is a shower head/douche.

washing myself after the loo is just such a part of my life that when im out and i don't have a jug or bottle to use, i feel really unclean. and really it is unclean to keep urine or poo on you, a tissue can only get rid of so much.

i found it fascinating after giving birth reading threads on here about people with stitches having to wash themselves as advised, to avoid infections, and just not knowing at all how to do it. it's just so easy, and so much more hygeinic!

oh in terms of method, you wash then use tissue

same as the above we just have a jug, takes up a lot less space than a bidet. would prefer the shower thing than a bidet those are good, dont think we could have it put in in rented flat though. a jug does the job anyway

We have just gutted a cottage and put a brand new bathroom in. DP requested a bidet (the bathroom is quite large). I said I didn't mind. I am quite looking forward to it now, having read this thread (it's in situ but not plumbed in yet). However, DP seemed very urgent about the bidet and I do wonder if he has a particularly dirty bum, or a fetish.

I'm loving this thread.

We have a Clos o mat toilet upstairs which is for dc's to use due to their disabilities.

I must say that the first time using it was "interesting", as it washes with a jet of warm water, then dries with warm air after.

Where has this thread been all my life!

I thought I was the only person in the world who had, um, ishoos with the contraptions.

I once heard about a family from Cornwall who all used the loo the wrong way round for generations. No-one had seen them use it, of course, so they had never been corrected. They just taught their children to face the cistern.

I thought I was like that with bidets, so avoided them.

I shall use them with aplomb in the future.

Washing feet in a bidet??

We had bidets in the bathrooms when I was growing up. After I moved to the UK though we've been using a jug, keep meaning to install one of those spray thingies near the toilet since it's a faff to keep refilling the jug.

If I go out and have to use a public toilet I have a shower as soon as I get home as it feels so grubby to not use water. It should be rinse and wipe people, not just wipe!

We used ours to bath our DS in when we were abroad as we didn't have a bath there at the time. Now he just uses it as a way of playing with his bath toys!