to ask (some of) you to stop hovering and just stick on the bloody loo seat?

[MardyBra]

You might think you have missed the seat, but you have probably left a fine mist of wee, which I don't spot until I have got up and discover that my thighs have been dampened with someone else's urine.

Thank you for your co-operation.

I'm an archaeologist, I've learnt to wee in pretty much any setting in front of nearly anyone, and I've used squatty potties in Hong Kong and China, but somehow first-world public toilets manage to be scarier than anything else I came across. Seat full of yellow drops, UGH. WIPE. AFTER. YOURSELVES.

It's a deal Chasing.

I've got to admit, that being all rural and low class, I will think nothing of diving behind a hedge or bit of scrub but there is something specially awful about a public loo with splashes of piss on the seat.

We're like the United Nations of Public Loos

Ohh, I would never ever ever sit on a public loo without wiping the seat first (several times).

If the loo is less than lovely looking I lay a layer of loo paper all over the seat and sit on that.

YANBU at all!

Warm seats are pretty horrid too. But not as much as wet.

I don't mind hoverers, but please wipe the seat.

Wet AND warm is the worst. They seem to specialise in that at my local shopping mall.

I wipe, hover, and then wipe again.

er, what's wrong with squatting? seat folded away from any possible horrors AND it's hygienic as you don't touch anything.

I would be a hoverer if my thighs weren't too weak to hold me up for long enough to wee. I don't understand when there's wee on the floor, or the door! Is that what happens when hoverers fall over mid-wee?

allaflutter what is unhygienic about sitting where someone else has sat? You won't catch arse germs from a toilet seat.

Hovering (as mentioned upthread) can mean the bladder isn't emptied properly, and can lead to spray/dripping on the seat which the next user finds.

Just sit the fuck down!

Not a hovererer.

Except at festivals. Always hover. My friend went to the toilet in the middle of the night, sat down - in a pile of steaming shit. The big hole in the ground had filled up over the rim of the loo seat puke

I hover. BUT I have it down to a fine art, in that I don't hover a foot above the loo, only just holding myself above by a couple of centimetres, so no stray spray escapes from me!

I have an aversion to public toilets and will avoid at all costs.....but I am such a clean freak it would be awful for me to leave a piss pool for someone else! Yuck.

Hoverers unite! We are not all dirty Gerties you know!

YANBU! And hoverers... Wiping down is nicer than nothing, but It's Still There

My mum also tried to raise me as a hoverer, but after a nasty leg injury as a youngun left me stuck sitting in other people's pee (and realising that people like my frail grandmother must be in the same boat) I decided that hovering is deeply antisocial. You're unbelievably unlikely to catch anything from putting your thighs on the seat, and if anything other than your thighs are on the seat, you may need toilet lessons...

I'm just talking about manky toilets, I sit down on most toilets, but still always wipe before and after anyway.

Inevitably there has been some academic work done on hoverers:

"This study investigated whether British women prefer to crouch over public toilet seats, and measured the effect of such a voiding position on urine flow rate and residual urine volume. Of 528 consecutive women who attended a general gynaecological clinic and completed an anonymous questionnaire, 85% usually crouched over the toilet when using a public convenience, 12% applied paper to the seat and 2% sat directly on public toilet seats. When using a friend's bathroom 38% of the women voided by crouching. Results were similar for 155 patients attending a urodynamic clinic, 80 of whom were studied while voiding in both positions. There was a 21% reduction in average urine flow rate and a 149% increase in residual urine volume in the crouching position. Women undergoing urodynamic tests should be asked which voiding position they used before abnormal results are interpreted. Patients with a reduced functional bladder capacity may benefit from being encouraged to sit comfortably on the toilet whenever possible."

Crouching over the toilet seat: prevalence among British gynaecological outpatients and its effect upon micturition
Moore & Richmond 1991

YouHeard

Re: emptying the bladder fully.
I'm quite happy to empty my bladder in a public toilet just enough to ensure I don't actually wet myself in Marks and Spencers. I can always drain the remainder in the comfort of my own home!

I would actually prefer to have squat toilets here.

My biggest horror is when children are at that age when they have to not only sit on public loo seats but grip the sides to ensure they don't fall down the hole.I used to break out into a sweat every time,and almost immerse them in anti bacterial hand gel afterwards....

Urgh. Experience has left me with the habit of getting a whole wodge of tissue and wiping the whole seat and the inside edges and then putting down a sheet of paper and sitting on that before I wee in public toilets.

Dd is not allowed to touch the toilet seats. I hold her arms and make her go.

I hate public loos.

YANBU. I hate hoverers. Get a grip and sit the fuck down.

What do you hoverers actually think you'll catch??

I've hovered myself in really filthy loos (public park in winter in the Moscow suburbs) but most loos aren't that bad especially in service stations / shopping centres etc.

I'm unsure which bacteria people think they'll catch through the skin on their thighs.

They're probably all over you anyway! And living in glorious equilibrium for we have evolved together to be harmonious.

toilets can splash water when they flush as they have no lid. it is not always hoverer.