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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To put paper on the seat when using the loo in public?

223 replies

BrownEyedGirlv2point0 · 20/02/2018 18:31

I've had people argue that it is ridiculous to do this. I, personally, feel more comfortable. I know it wastes more paper but it's better than squatting to avoid actually touching the seat. Plus, if someone has left a mess there before me, I'll know. They say you can't catch anything from touching a seat but it still creeps me out. What do most people do?

OP posts:

treaclesoda · 21/02/2018 08:44

If you're worried about germs I don't understand why you wouldn't just clean the seat first? A miniature spray bottle of disinfectant would fit in your handbag.

dantdmistedious · 21/02/2018 08:47

If we ripped all the toilets out and replaced them with squat holes a la France in the 80s there'd be outcry. Just sit in the seat.

TheHodgeoftheHedge · 21/02/2018 08:54

May I ask, for Those of you who hover and "build nests, what do you do at home? Do you sit like normal or do the same thing? I assume in most cases there's a whole family of you (plus any guests) using that toilet too...or is it just catching diseases from strangers that is the concern?

You're also the pains who keep blocking and flooding our toilets at work as they can't cope with the huge wadges of tissues flushed down them but that's a rant for another say

TheHodgeoftheHedge · 21/02/2018 08:54

*day!

Celticrose · 21/02/2018 09:13

Was there not something on the Good Morning lately that there are more germs on your average dishcloth than a toilet seat. Just saying

BetterEatCheese · 21/02/2018 09:20

You're not touching the seat with your face or hands, just the back of your things which are then tucked away in your clothes and likely showered regularly. I don't get this at all

mummaCL · 21/02/2018 09:25

I always give the seat a quick wipe but don’t hover. Sticky trolley handles in supermarkets bother me more.

Ljlsmum · 21/02/2018 09:25

I’m more worried about all of these women who seem to expect that there bum holes and fanjo’s are actually touching a toilet seat. It’s only thigh region that comes into contact with anything. I do give the seat a good look and wipe cos of all of these hoverers. Those of you hovering are putting your bladders at risk of infection by not emptying properly too. If you’re so obsessed with it why not just carry wet wipes with you wipe th3 seat and put them in the sanitary bin.

BarbaraofSevillle · 21/02/2018 09:26

There can be 200,000 times more bacteria on a kitchen sponge than a toilet seat.

Cockmagic · 21/02/2018 09:28

I just sit on the toilet, like a normal person.

SaskaTchewan · 21/02/2018 10:56

there are more germs on your average dishcloth than a toilet seat. Just saying

yours maybe, but mine are ok thank you very much.

slashlover · 21/02/2018 11:01

The paper isn't exactly clean though, public toilets don't have lids and When you flush a toilet, the swirling water that removes your waste from the bowl also mixes with small particles of that waste, shooting aerosolized feces into the air.

strawberriesaregood · 21/02/2018 11:06

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BadaBoomBoom · 21/02/2018 11:07

After chemo I was very vulnerable to germs and bugs so I had to carry alcohol sanitizer with me everywhere. If I ever had to use a public toilet I would just sprinkle some on the toilet seat and wipe round it with toilet roll.

BadaBoomBoom · 21/02/2018 11:09

and wet wipes.

mehhh · 21/02/2018 11:09

I hover, I can't stand most toilets and public toilets are the worst so I avoid for as long as possible!

slashlover · 21/02/2018 11:16

The posters throwing screaming tantrums over having to wait an extra 15 seconds for the loo

It's more than 15 seconds though, and if it's a busy toilet then all those extra seconds add up, not to mention the complete waste of paper.

TeasndToast · 21/02/2018 11:27

If you accidentally sit on a seat where someone has dripeed and your legs and bum get wet from someone else’s piss and you have a strangers wee on your jeans for the rest of the day, well, that’s a special kind of hell far as I’m concerned.

Kokeshi123 · 21/02/2018 11:28

"The posters throwing screaming tantrums over having to wait an extra 15 seconds for the loo"

Are you familiar with the mathematics of queue theory? 15 seconds extra for each person quickly adds up into a hefty queue.

BarbaraofSevillle · 21/02/2018 11:45

A quick glance and wipe of the seat sorts that problem. No need at all for all this nesting and hovering.

Koke Anything like that would be far to rational for many posters on this thread.

viques · 21/02/2018 11:52

I wish the seat hoverers would hover with the seat UP so they don't leave dribbles of their piss for the rest of us, after all, if they are not touching anything before they deposit their precious unicorn tears it shouldn't matter that they are not touching the toilet bowl rather than not touching the seat.

ASqueakingInTheShrubbery · 21/02/2018 11:55

If the bum germs stay put on my bum, I'm not worried. After a wee, I pull my knickers and tights up, encasing the germs. I put my germy clothes in the wash at bedtime, and don't have any reason to touch my thighs or bum unless I'm washing myself. I try not to think too hard about door handles and have been known to anti-bac my hands once out of the loo if the handle I have to use after washing my hands looks iffy, but I'm not overly worried about bum germs. They're behind me, after all.

JassyRadlett · 21/02/2018 11:58

The posters throwing screaming tantrums over having to wait an extra 15 seconds for the loo, screeching “SPESHUL SNOWFLAKE SPESHUL SNOWFLAKE” over and over again simply because not everyone does everything the exact same way they do are coming across as the most precious of all snowflakes.

Your gift for hyperbole is probably linked to your baseless paranoia and your commitment to pointless, ineffective ‘solutions’ to your irrational fears.

Your paranoia inconveniences others, both by having to wait, having to wait longer because the paper numpties have clogged toilets with their ‘nests’ and having to clean up after the hoverers.

If you think it’s reasonable, you’ll just own the fact that you think the inconvenience to others is worth it, and live with the amused, raised eyebrows without shrieking ‘snowflake!’ in self-defence. No?

specialsubject · 21/02/2018 12:05

hovering and then pee-ing on the seat is skanky. If you must, at least clean up afterwards. Don't forget the floor.
covering the seat with toilet paper is wasteful and hence skanky.
anatomy 101 - excreta comes from two well-designed holes, not through the bits you sit on. That is why there is a corresponding hole in the centre of the seat. Clever, eh?

btw the 'don't squat on the seat' poster is used in places where there are Western toilets but lots of Asian tourists. We don't know how to use each other's toilets. The sign is to stop dirty feet going on the seat.

and from here, it looks many don't know how to use the toilet they were brought up with.

you'd better never stay in a hotel or in fact use any toilet except your own personal one.

the only mildly precious should follow the suggestion to carry spray, clean the seat before use. And after if you've made a mess.

NataliaOsipova · 21/02/2018 12:07

It must be exhausting being so worried about something as basic as sitting on a toilet seat

It must!

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