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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Aibu to point public?!

51 replies

pregnantpause · 22/08/2014 16:20

I have ibs. It sucks. I can manage my symptoms now thankfully, but in the past, on times, many times in fact, I have been caught short in public/ in work. It's embarrassing, but nothing I could do about.

Today in work someone had pooed. No mess but very smelly. Cue a discussion amongst the team that it's 'disgusting' to poo in work, and they never would! One even said 'I have ibs and I'd never poo in public!' ( funny type of ibs where your symptoms have always been so manageable that you've never been caught out)

I argued that well, you know- shit happens. Everyone now thinks I'm the pooer. But seriously- ten out of eleven people swearing blind that they've never and would never have a poo outside of home?! I seem in the minority here? Aibu to poo in work?

( btw I am not the pooer- there's over a thousand people in the building so could be anyone)

OP posts:

Original poster

pregnantpause · 22/08/2014 16:21

Poo not point though I bet this is different to what you thought when clicking

OP posts:

TheReluctantCountess · 22/08/2014 16:21

I never believe people who say they don't poo at work. When you have to go, you have to go.

Username12345 · 22/08/2014 16:24

Er, no.
YANBU.

But I do hate doing in outside the home. If I can hold it in I will. But sometimes. You've just got to go.

KatoPotato · 22/08/2014 16:27

Every morning when I get to work, that's when my constitution kicks in!

Not sure why people are so keen to pretend they don't need to do what nature intends? If you gotta go, you gotta go?

Pippin8 · 22/08/2014 16:28

Yanbu.

I'll reluctantly go at work as I work 12 hour shifts. But, if I'm anywhere else, including friends or relatives houses, I'll try & hold it in.

Hassled · 22/08/2014 16:30

I would if I really really had to but otherwise, try to save it for home. Not because I have issues about using the work loo, just because of smell / noise embarrassment.

But in your circumstances, there doesn't sound like you get to have any choice in the matter.

hmc · 22/08/2014 16:36

I don't have ibs but I poo in a public loo when the need arises. It's bizarre but some people do seem to think it is beyond the pale. I remember as a teenager exiting the toilet cubicle and some middle aged woman commenting to her daughter - "Ewww that's disgusting - I would be ashamed" because I'd left a whiff in my wake. I was completely bemused!

CrohnicallyDepressed · 22/08/2014 17:02

I have Crohn's disease, and can count on one hand the number of times I've pooed at work- in fact I've done it once. In 8 years. It's not a conscious thing, I don't hold it in, but it's very rare for the need to arise outside of my own house/other places where I feel comfortable. As a child, I often didn't poo for the entirety of a 2 week holiday. I can sit on the toilet and try to go, but nothing comes out at all! So the IBS sufferer might be telling the truth after all.

It does have it's downsides though- as I get closer to home the urge intensifies and has resulted in some very close calls (including one time where I was returning from the vets 10 minutes away and had to abandon my pets on the doorstep and leave the door wide open because I didn't have time to shut it!).

bluesbaby · 22/08/2014 17:19

10am every day without fail. Wherever I am. I'm like clockwork!

LapsedTwentysomething · 22/08/2014 18:11

My DM has never been a public pooer or farter. Now she has advanced cancer and the drugs are causing diarrhoea. Because of stupid repressed attitudes to shit it means she's more or less housebound, but if someone like the stupid woman mentioned upthread commented on any smell caused by it I'd be confronting her with the uncomfortable facts.

zeeboo · 22/08/2014 18:14

I would never poo in public. But in a toilet cubicle with the door locked? Yes, wherever that cubicle was located.

Fairylea · 22/08/2014 18:16

I suffered with awful ibs in my early 20s. Once I literally shit myself in the cinema and had to sort myself out in the toilet which I was then horrified to discover had no toilet roll so I used my £12 hot date night new knickers. Was not the date I imagined.

Anyway. .If you gotta go you gotta go.

Having said that, now my ibs has inexplicably improved I never poo anywhere but at home. For me I just seem to go when I wake up and that's that. Dh thinks I'm weird. He poos whenever and wherever the need takes him.

Floggingmolly · 22/08/2014 18:21

If there are over a thousand people in the building; why does everyone think it was you?

BoiledPiss · 22/08/2014 18:25

I went yesterday at work and not only did it smell bad it was so big it wouldn't flush, four bloody flushes and a poke with the bog brush later it was gone... I left the toilet immaculately clean.

Not bovved one bit, i had to go!

TheGirlFromIpanema · 22/08/2014 18:25

I would never poo in public. But in a toilet cubicle with the door locked? Yes, wherever that cubicle was located

But yes, ^^ this exactly!

Fcukfifa · 22/08/2014 18:26

I used to love going for a poo at work. I used to sit and think I am being paid to poo

Frontier · 22/08/2014 18:26

I don't have any conditions or other reasons why I might need a poo at short notice but it's honestly never occurred to me not to poo wherever I happen to be when the urge arises. Not actually in public, that would be odd, but on the nearest toilet.

As for work, I'd far rather use their time/toilet paper then mine

I couldn't actually tell you where I was when I went yesterday!

Original poster

pregnantpause · 22/08/2014 18:29

They think it was me because I defended the pooer. Instant guilt in their opinion

OP posts:

ShadowStar · 22/08/2014 18:30

Nothing unreasonable about pooing in a public toilet cubicle, whether at work or not. That's one of the things they're for, after all.

Pooing in public outside of a toilet cubicle? That would be something to avoid if at all possible.

MonstrousPippin · 22/08/2014 18:34

I poo when the need arises no matter where I am. Doesn't bother me. That's what toilets are for?! Doesn't bother me what other people do in there either. It's totally natural. So long as you don't make a mess, I can't understand why anyone would care! Get the poo out and enjoy the rest of your day feeling comfortable and happy!

fluffyraggies · 22/08/2014 18:34

The second i leave the house my body clams shut and refused to off load for days! When i go on holiday i don't get the urge to poo until apx day 3 or 4. (holiday shits tummy upsets are different obviously)

PuppyMonkey · 22/08/2014 18:34

I always used the separate disabled toilet at my last place of work when I needed a poo (disclaimer, there were not actually any disabled people working in our office at the time).

Another job I had was at a very small company with half a dozen of us sharing one tiny toilet off the kitchen area. Lordy, I don't know what it was about that loo but I only had to walk through the door and an enormous urge to have a poo would overwhelm me - often several times a day.

They'd kindly provided a little air freshener spray thing in it but I was still about it because I'm quite sure the others noticed. Nobody ever said anything about it though.

Still, good to keep your bowels open isn't it?

unrealhousewife · 22/08/2014 18:35

Depends what you mean by public. On a street corner I would say YABU even if you cleared up after yourself :)

LapsedTwentysomething · 22/08/2014 18:37

God I always get the urge in WHSmith or suchlike.

taxi4ballet · 22/08/2014 18:45

I used to work in a fairly large office block, and in the loo every day was a massive floating log (if you know what I mean)!

Everyone used to wonder who, and of course nobody was owning up. In the end somebody started a chart showing the days it appeared and the days it didn't, and then matching that up with the holiday list - sure enough we eventually worked out who it was. It did take months though...!

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