To ask if squatting on the toilet to do your business is really a thing?

[AmazonPrim]

I visited a suppliers office for work (a major British company with a swank Central London head office). I used one of the loos in the lobby (there was 3 unisex loos, each with their own separate door and sink inside completely separate from the next).

On the back of the door was a sign showing a person squatting with their feet on the seat and a line drawn through it to indicate no squatting. Like this was a common problem they were dealing with? Do people actually squat with both feet on the seat to do their business on a western style toilet?! I know squatting toilets are common in parts of Asia, but they are on the ground. If I tried to squat on a western toilet I would no doubt fall in and break my ankle

This brought my thoughts back to about 15 years ago when I dated an Asian guy. We went to his mums house to visit her and his sister. His dad was away on business so it was just the mum and sister at home. I went to use the toilet and the seat was up which I thought was a bit weird since there were no men in the house. Anyway, I put it down, did my business and came back and we visited and ate lunch. I went back to the loo again before we left and the seat was up again. My boyfriend at the time hadn't been to the toilet the entire time we were there. So why was the seat up again??

I didn't have the confidence to ask him, but the first scenario about the signs in the office loos got me thinking about this situation as well.

A penis beaker?

I proudly squat on the toilet seat for #2s! But only at home and in bare feet obviously. I’m European. Haven’t fallen in or broken the toilet seat yet. It does help move things along without having to strain.

I went to a very multicultural university and in the library toilets there were similar signs translated into many languages! I asked the librarian and she said the toilet seats were getting regularly broken and/or covered in muddy footprints!

Have you heard of murder documentaries or murder podcasts? 🤫

Yes, very common for people of different cultures to wreck the shit out of office toilets doing this.

Whenever there's a sign in an office toilet advising someone not to do something I.e "put sanitary products down toilet" "leave shit all around the toilet bowl" it's usually because some morons need telling several times!

I put my (bare) feet on the loo seat when sitting on it. Only at home though.

I read an account of an American woman who was teaching in China.

One time in a rural area the "facilites" she was directed to were a thin ditch full of running water in a field out the back, where you were supposed to squat with a foot either side. The Chinese people in the shop came out to watch her in action, presumably because a white women doing her business was a novelty.

Another time she was in a public bathroom with waist high stalls, and several female relatives of her Chinese husband gathered round to chat to her while she was doing her business, and couldn't understand why she was trying to shoo them away.

Or, a half filled glass of water after someone's taken some meds.
The original penis beaker didn't exist. I very much doubt these ones do.

I used to work in London with plenty of women who would take a bottle of water to the toilet to wash themselves after every wee or poo so this is totally believable. Dry wiping without washing in western cultures is pretty unclean when you think about it.

Maybe the real question is why do us westerners have such unergonomic toileting habits. Squatting with the ability to wash (rather than just wipe) would make us all much cleaner and less constipated.

Wow OP when you said squat, I thought you meant sort of hover above seat, I had no idea that people actually stood on the toilet seat!!! How dangerous for one thing...... Every day a learning day!!

Oh absolutely. These threads always make me laugh as I always think how come you get a bit of shit on your hand or elsewhere- would you wipe it off with a tissue and think that was OK? So why is it OK not to wash your arse.
I just tend not to believe any post referencing PB. And less so any poster who "has been told".
Like, you're sitting at your desk and are "told" that the men you work witj wash their dicks? #didnothappen.

Very normal in rural China and even in some cities. I got very used to communal squatting. I just stared ahead and hoped I could get it over with quickly.

The most ew one I used was a toilet at a very small airport, that was a couple of holes in the floor, with no doors, and a women working at her desk opposite. I swear no-one believes me when I tell them that. If anyone traveled through Jiayuguan about twelve years ago and can back me up, I'd appreciate it! That poor woman. I wonder if it was some kind of punishment?

These threads always make me laugh as I always think how come you get a bit of shit on your hand or elsewhere- would you wipe it off with a tissue and think that was OK? So why is it OK not to wash your arse.

Umm….because you don’t open doors, handle food, greet people with your arse? At least I would hope you don’t.

@fuwari people squat to urinate too, hence they are facing the toilet. I don't think 'professional' squatters would need to be told which position to assume to ensure their 'toilet' actually went into the toilet.
I had a riveting conservation at work once with an East Asian guy who said that when he came to the UK he developed bad bowel problems from using our toilets. He had to revert to squatting and the problems went away.

We have this at work squatting on seats and breaking them
also the delights of half filled cups of water complete with shitty finger prints on them

Wow how did you come to that conclusion!? I think shoes on toilet seats are gross, but I know why people might do it.
But you know, when in Rome and obv toilet seats here weren't made to stand on

The only time I’ve seen these signs was in Iceland.

Did they also have to have signs on the freezers to make it clear they were not toilets, to avoid having to mark down the prawn rings and Lewis Capaldi pizzas to half-price as 'shop soiled'?

I'd really struggle to do this and I'm not even elderly yet. People have said about how difficult old folk find it; do people in cultures where this is the norm just build up different muscles over their lifetime, or are old people basically just excluded from being able to use toilets?

Whenever there's a sign in an office toilet advising someone not to do something I.e "put sanitary products down toilet" "leave shit all around the toilet bowl" it's usually because some morons need telling several times!

In general, in all aspects of life, I find that the only people who ever bother to read signs are the ones who already have enough common sense not to need them - and then wonder why on earth people would need to be told that.

I now have this bizarre image of somebody standing and squatting - and wobbling, struggling to stay balanced - on a Japanese toilet with the music button that suddenly starts to play 'Surfin' USA'

I had this when I worked at the Home Office over a decade ago. The staff toilets were amongst the filthiest I have ever encountered. Signs all over the doors about no squatting and REMINDING people to put used toilet paper IN the toilet.

I have worked in countless government offices since then.. and never encountered anything similar.

In what persons right mind would they choose to take a shit on the floor in the corner of a stall rather than sit for a minute on a toilet and flush their business away.

We had this at work & Ive seen it at uni & a public toilet. Not the corner but the front of the toilet. Why go the effort of being so close to the toilet? 😆

My son used to do this when he was little. One day I heard him screaming and he had leaned forward while squatting to the extent that the waste pipe had come away from the wall. I can see the logic of the position but our toilets aren't designed for this.

He does find a bidet very helpful as a foot bath though!

i grew up with bidets, they are fab for foot baths!

Also at work we had someone who put their sanitary towels in the cistern which eventually caused leaking. Why do this instead of a bin?

We had this at work & Ive seen it at uni & a public toilet. Not the corner but the front of the toilet. Why go the effort of being so close to the toilet?

It does make you wonder, doesn't it? If that porcelain thing with the inbuilt mechanism to flush away the bad stuff is a total irrelevance to you, why not just save time and squat and grunt in the middle of the office?

Same with smearers: I can understand when people have severe learning difficulties or SEN, but you hear cleaners reporting finding this frequently in the toilets of offices where nobody has these circumstances or needs.