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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to find books and magazines by the toilet unnecessary and unhygienic

175 replies

SunsetMojito · 13/01/2013 21:50

I have even seen a magazine rack placed helpfully beside one!
Boak!
and how long to you actually need to spend in there that you cannot manage without reading?

OP posts:

stephrick · 14/01/2013 17:44

I keep Ripleys believe it or not in the loo for the kids to read.

MrsWembley · 14/01/2013 17:55

My DD's actually taken to picking up one of her daddy's magazines when she's in there... Usually Sports Boat & Rib or the RNLI mag, before anyone gets worried

MrTumblesSpottyBum · 14/01/2013 18:53

We've got a book called Passing Time in the Loo, which is quite handy. I'm always a bit disconcerted the pages fall open out at the Gandhi biography bit.

MrsKeithRichards · 14/01/2013 19:11

Ds had issues with poo for a while, he wouldn't give himself a chance to actually go so we took to sitting him down with a book.

DPotter · 15/01/2013 01:59

re- eating apples on the loo - it's not the high fibre content that does the trick but something called the gastro-colic reflex which follows eating anything. it increases gut movement - squeezing the contents along. so whose ever MIL it was had the right idea !

we have books / mags / newspapers and dare I say it toilet brushes in our bathroom & loo. My DP reckons we should wash our hands before weeing as pee is sterile (normally) and we shouldn't be using dirty hands to wipe !

diddl · 15/01/2013 07:45

Now I have to say that most things don´t bother me at all.

But actually eating whilst on the loo-even I find that bleurgh!

Eliza22 · 15/01/2013 09:22

A magazine rack in the toilet? Ahhh ! Revolting. Someone ought to take a sample from the rack and see what "grows" in the Petrie dish

gasman · 15/01/2013 10:10

I'm a doctor (in case the name isn't a clue in this context).

Someone once went to all the trouble of writing a formal written complaint about me because I'd suggested that their constipated 7 year old might like to try reading on the loo to see if it helped (toilet time concept).

They were firmly in the OPs camp. I have to confess until that moment I hadn't realised that some people didn't read in the loo. Virtually every private bathroom I used then and now is full of reading material - medical journals, comic books, private eye, land rover owner, you name it I've read it in the loo and so have most of my friends/ family.

I'm not a great subscriber to poo particle theories. They seem to get everywhere but genarlly most people seem to remain healthy - so what is the problem. Bugs are part of life. No?

Bogeyface · 15/01/2013 10:21

Ironic really Gasman because that letter must have shown without shadow of a doubt that anal retentiveness is hereditary, and therefore why the child was so constipated!

BuggerLumpsAnnoyed · 15/01/2013 10:22

but I don't get why its dirty. isn't it the act of wiping that makes one dirty? Therefore as long as you're not handling the book after wiping then you're fine

EuroShagmore · 15/01/2013 10:40

I quite agree BuggerLumps. Left hand holds the book, right hand does the wiping. There's nothing unhygienic about it.

SunRaysthruClouds · 15/01/2013 10:43

My parents still have the same books - mainly Giles annuals - in their loo that I used to read when I lived with them. I left 30 years ago and still read them when I visit.

Mind you it might be a bit risky to put them anywhere else in the house now.

Thumbwitch · 15/01/2013 10:59

hahaha, bogeyface! Very clever :)

I was going to say about the gastro-colic reflex but see that DPotter got there first.

SunRays - I used to have Giles annuals in the loo as well, excellent reading matter!

OP - YABU. I would never have finished Sophie's World, Catch 22, and a few other books if it weren't for having them by the loo. Stephen Fry's Paperweight was also useful, as was Hector Hugh Monroe's Saki. I love looking at other people's loo books as well - one friend has lots of Peanuts books, another used to have humorous animal cartoons, another had the little book of etiquette or somesuch - great fun!

As for the unhygienic aspect - bah. People are so over-excited about hygiene these days, we're not meant to be bacterially sterile!

Flobbadobs · 15/01/2013 11:01

Oh yes the Giles books! And the Gambols
My uncle used to have a large bathroom with a full bookcase in it. When we visited them people would disappear for ages to the bathroom!
DH takes his laptop. I think I have mentioned buying our tent while he was on the loo before...

Polyethyl · 15/01/2013 11:09

I don't find it necessary to read on the loo, so there were no books in there. Until an old friend visited. On seeing that I had no loo books, he quietly went to my bookshelf, selected a book, and retired to the loo for half an hour.

The book has stayed in there ever since.

As he chose the book from my "to read" shelf, I believe that I shall never now read that book, because I couldn't bring myself to touch it, after where it's been. But my father and husband enjoy reading it in there - so perhaps my chum did the men in my family a favour.

MrsBeep · 15/01/2013 12:42

Well this thread has been great entertainment to me on the loo this morning. Didn't have to touch any of my 'loo library'.

MurderOfGoths · 15/01/2013 15:05

MrsBeep And you have such an impressive loo library too (though you laughed at my loo library! )

Pandemoniaa · 15/01/2013 15:16

As he chose the book from my "to read" shelf, I believe that I shall never now read that book, because I couldn't bring myself to touch it, after where it's been.

I'd like to think this was tongue in cheek.

But if not, I'd merely ask, how you deal with anyone who has, er, exposed themselves to the Place of Poo Peril that is your lavatory? When they emerge are you wearing a full chemical protection suit yourself? Do you cover the furniture lest there is still a lingering miasma of toxicity about them? Or do you invite them to leave, immediately, via some sort of back passage used only for the hasty exit of anyone who may have had a poo in your lavatory?

IfNotNowThenWhen · 15/01/2013 15:22

I'm still laughing about flyingfig's DIL having the special telly on a trolley wheeled in for his Sunday Poo.
I am actually shaking with laughter picturing this. Who had the honour of "wheeling it in?"
Was it his lucky wife?

IfNotNowThenWhen · 15/01/2013 15:23

Sorry that should have said FIL !

McNewPants2013 · 15/01/2013 15:25

www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2259969/iPotty-gadget-lets-toddlers-watch-videos-iPad-toilet-training.html

Now that is cool :)

McNewPants2013 · 15/01/2013 15:28

www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2259969/iPotty-gadget-lets-toddlers-watch-videos-iPad-toilet-training.html

MrsBeep · 15/01/2013 15:39

MurderOfGoths you have fish magazines alongside 'knitting today'. It's a bit comical you must admit? Anyone who saw your 'loo library' before meeting you would think you were about 50 years old!

We currently have F1 magazine, a book on weather, a book on drawing and a new Mark Thomas book. Oh...and Where's Wally?

MurderOfGoths · 15/01/2013 15:41

Brodicea · 15/01/2013 15:43

I get constipated so I have to read or play solitaire on my phone while I'm on the loo.

The only problem is now I always need a poo if I play solitaire on a journey or at home - a pavlovian response!

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