to think there is something wrong with Americans?

[TheBloodManCometh]

In Colorado, here for 5 weeks.

Why the HELL is there a half inch gap on either side of the door in all public toilets?? You can see everything going on!!!
This has been the case everywhere I've been in America?
AIBU to be both baffled and embarrassed

lighthearted btw. I don't really think there's something wrong with the Americans

Scone, was it you who asked why no cream served with coffee?

Try Fenwick's - always given the option of cream or milk in there.

kitten it was awful awful awful.

Yes, it was, YouTheCat. Thanks!

British public loos have proper doors that indicate vacant or occupied and have no gaps at the sides. Some are completely sealed (I like those and are usually the nicer loos in restaurants). Others (like in airports and rest stops on the motorway) have gaps at the bottom of the door (small) and the top (can be bigger).

The toilet can be self-flushing or not.

In Mexico the loos all seemed to have ill-fitting doors, as per USA, but the doors were also short. Did not seem to bother the Mexicans, who were used to it, and much shorter than me, but I had to sit on loo and scooch my head down to the side.

This was vital as in the classy joints I went to, the loos were often at the back of the bar - with no other door in between. No scooching meant that you'd make eye contact with the whole bar as you did your thang.

The really odd thing is that Americans are - massive stereotype here - quite a lot more prudish than the Brits. And we are very prudish. So it's just baffling that they have massive gaps round their toilet doors.

Makes having a 'natural break' (hate that phrase) very stressful.

No no no what fresh hell is this??

Loos with see through gaps, loos with no doors and loos in the actual bloody bar?

Jesus I can feel my rectum sealing airtight and my bowel retracting to my tonsils as I type

There were see-through doors in the loos of a bar we went to in Madrid a while back.

I had to go into the bar next door and use their loos.

Haha, Scones.

Where we are right now, there are a lot of Canadians. In the Trip Advisor reviews, half of the reviews are Americans complaining about the lack of toilet etiquette!

If it's an anti-drug-taking thing, wouldn't a blue light (to make the veins hard to find) be better than the horror of gappy doors ?

I'm assuming that cocaine, etc. is only a problem in clubs; IV use is a problem in shopping areas and public loos generally; the ubiquity of these doors suggests a problem not limited to night clubs.

I'm not buying this drug-taking argument. I think it's because Americans like them: some kind of yearning-for-the-unbridled-frontier, or something.

Ds1 was telling me about someone on the train to Shrewsbury earlier today who accidentally leaned on the Open button on the toilet door, revealing his mate sitting on the toilet to the rest of the carriage. I'm not convinced that I believe him (surely that can't be possible?) but it made me chortle anyway.

Cream is not popular and people see cream with coffee as rich and highly fattening, so milk is served instead.

Regardless of the fact lattes etc have probably as much fat and richness as a simp!e dash if cream in coffee.

Ah, thanks for the info.

Americans more prudish than Brits? I have no opinion either way but somehow this surprises me.

I did use a loo in the forbidden city back in 88' and there wasn't a loo door just three walls and a hole in the ground affair, I seemed to attract a crowd as I was blonde...large gaps would be fine in comparrison

On the subject of prudishness: My (very lovely) father-in-law is American and can't bear baths. he vastly prefers showers. I think it may have something to do with the idea that, in a bath, you are sort of stewing in your own fluids and dirt.

He's far too polite to go into details but I can tell he thinks that baths are a peculiar British perversion.

Harriet that is precisely why I refuse to go in the new fangled automatic door toilets. I like a nice solid LOCK on my loo. Not a button that may malfunction at any moment.

No no that just won't do.

French toilets sound positively threatening.

I have used a 'village loo' in deepest N. Vietnam where is was normal for people to look

And another, long drop, where the pigs tidied up the erm, debris. That delight was China.

I always thought that the American 'I'm just off to the bathroom' was because it was considered rude/TMI to say 'toilet' which suggests a certain prudishness about toilets.

Back to the poo shelves - how does one release the poo from the shelf once it was been inspected, dare I ask?

Those German loos........As if you're supposed to have a good old prod around!

I'm always impressed by Spanish restaurant or bar toilets.

The norm is for there to be only one toilet for each gender, but they are usually a lot bigger and nicer than my bathroom at home really nice with lovely tiles, fittings etc and automatic lights on/off sensors, which can be a bit disconcerting until you get used to them, or if you sit still for a bit too long and the light goes out leaving you in pitch darkness.

I once got the shits from dodgy seafood whilst in a trendy bar. The toilet cubicles had short, slatted saloon-style doors. It was mortifying.

Iscream the only restaurant I ever walked out of was in Morocco.

Went to the loo which was a hole in the floor with 2 footprints and the standard hose contraption so the user can wipe their nethers with their wet hands

Only the chef came out just as I went in and realised there were no hand washing facilities at all.

Is it wrong that I'm feeling a bit sad about never seeing or using a fancy or strange toilet?....

I did have a bath in a disc room once in France though. It was interesting

I think I would be eating Immodium morning, noon and night if I had to use gappy door toilets! We once stayed in a caravan with another couple and I had to ask them to stand outside whilst I used the loo, so mortified am I of the chance anyone might ever here my going about my business!

Luck I hated those shelf loos where you'd stand up and your turd was looking at you from far nearer than is reasonable.

OnIlkleyMoor from memory I think when you flush the water comes out fr om the back of the shelf part and kind of sweeps the poo down into the water at the bottom.except if you have one that gets stuck and refuses to budge.