Beyond disgusting

[takeittakeit]

We are luckily enough to be in Paris watching some of the Olympics - it has been fantastic - bit hot and steamy, poor air con but waiters actually trying to understand my poor french rather than the usual dismissive look!

Staying in an average 4star hotel, air con average but it has been vv hot and humid. Old converted office type building, narrow corridors and 4 small rooms on our floor.

We came back last night to a stench - only way to describe it. Then realised what it was, the American family in the room opposite had left their childs diaper folded up on the floor outside their room - not bagged. Their door is opposite ours about 1.5 metres away.

Went into our room, aircon had not been on all day and it honked. Opened windows sprayed deodorant no luck.

At 2330 - had had enough, knocked gently on their door, baby crying so not asleep. Mum opens it with a second diaper in her hand, bent down and put it on the floor by the other one and then said can I help you?

Now fairly obvious at this point one of her DCs has the trots - but who in their right mind thinks it is ok, to wrap up your childs diaper and leave it on the corridor for other guests to smell.

I politely asked her to put them in the bin
REsponse : I can't they smell so bad.
ME: Why do you think it is OK to share your childs stinking shits with other guests by leaving them in the corridor - my room stinks
REsponse: this is normal in the USA
ME: Well normal in Europe is to bag them and put them in the garbage, can I suggest you do that and take them outside to a bin on the street.
REsponse: No way, it is too late and started to close the door
ME: You really are disgusting - and promptly kicked the diapers into their room before she shut the door
REsponse : you can't do that
Me: watch me, either you bin them or I will bang on your door every 5 minutes, wake up your kids until you do

Two other doors opened to see what was going on - both American families who defended their friends actions.

So I offered to bang on all their doors until someone put them in a bin.
Stand off - I raised my hand to bang on the door and one of the men picked them up and legged it down the stairs.

I have not smelt anything quite that bad for a long long time.

They called me all sorts of names but seriously this can not be normal American behaviour?

The world doesn't cater to you.

I don’t think anyone actually shit in the corridor…

@SevenMarshmallows- Great minds 😁

”Nappies” and “diapers” are exactly the same thing.
People in the UK call them nappies.
People in the US call them diapers.
Different countries, different names. It’s true for lots of items, like knickers in the UK and panties in the US.
An example sentence would be, “Don’t get your knickers in a twist.”

@ttcat37

"I’m not saying it’s thuggish to not want to smell other people’s children’s nappies. It is thuggish to bang on the door late at night, start an argument, kick nappies into a room (?!) then threaten to wake up everyone and their kids until someone does what you say, when you can just call down to reception and ask for it to be dealt with in a calm and polite way like civilised people."

I don't think the people who left the nappies outside their room are civilised or polite either

I have lived in New England for 22 years now, and stayed in many hotels in different bits of the USA. Never seen anything like that kind of behaviour. Good for you, OP.

Regardless if she couldn’t leave to go to the bin, they should have been in fragranced nappy bags (more than one if necessary to contain the smell) and put in her bathroom bin not left in a communal area presumably for the hotel staff to dispose off.

I have generally found Americans to be ultra-polite. You had the bad luck to bump into 3 lots of stinkers at once.

OP, I like your feistiness. Too many people Brits are afraid of confrontation and often for good reason. But you put those mofos back in their place.

You are my personal hero.

So the OP should endure the stink because someone else's child is ill even though Op has paid just the same for her experience of the hotel as the person causing the stink and therefore just as entitled to enjoy her stay

Entitled thuggish behaviour - seriously -a gentle knock and a request - met with aggression and told by one of the other men - it is not that bad - yet he bagged it and ran down the stairs.
Our rooms had balconies - they could have put it out there not on a carpeted floor.
Polite request - no raised voices until the friends started calling me names and mentioning my origins.

I had opened windows, sprayed deodorant but had no intention of asking the poor girl on night reception duty to come and clen up someone else's shit - she was not being paid to do that.

If she had been a Mum on her own - I would have asked her if she needed help but having seen all 3 families at breakfast - I knew she was not.

Nothing against Americans - have travelled widely and lived in the US for 2 yrs - had never encountered this type of behaviour but they all claimed it as some US cultural thing.

And yes my shit does stink but is in the toilet and flushed away - not put in a diaper and left outside someones door.

I pushed them with my foot across the threshold of the door, as was vrey wary that the full belted kick I wanted to give it might back fire on me and burst and shower my foot in shit!

Can not believe anyone justifies their behaviour regardless of nationality - which incidentally they brought up - not me.

IT is absolutely NOT normal in the states to do this. They were just vile and disgusting and entitled to think this was acceptable behaviour.

My life has been very much without shelter at times, which is probably why I can recognise OP’s behaviour as embarrassing, aggressive and a massive overreaction.

Why should the staff deal with it?

I’ve seen the same thing in Edinburgh! It was an outdoor seating area but I was still surprised to see a child out in a potty in full view of other diners. I told myself if would just be a wee and noting to get worked up abiut, next time I looked up potty was sitting there with a steaming turd and child was bent over having its bum wiped in full view if everyone! I was absolutely gobsmacked not to mention suddenly not very hungry 🤢

I thought this was going to be yet another mumsnet post where someone did something utterly egregious to you, and you just quietly fumed, vented online and got annoyed with commenters not somehow fixing the crime for you, whilst leaking their backbone down your thigh.
I was however very pleasantly surprised that you not only told them what for, but also booted their turd back into their room.
Bravo!
You are exactly the kind of person I like to be friends with.

You obviously feel some bit irrational or guilty if you've posted here looking for back up..I'm sure you're happy to see all your fellow selfish , arrogant uncaring, self centred friends have backed you up. A decent person would offer a helping hand not ridiculed a family with sick children.. I hope you're never in that position yourself.

Oh wow, OP, how brave of you. Did everyone clap and cheer?

Usual MN anti-American stuff.

It’s not normal behavior here. Which is why this never happened.

Why didn't the stupid man take the nappies to an outside bin in the first place?

I lived in America for 17 years and this is absolutely not normal. I think the mum was just pulling something out of the air to defend herself in the face of an attack. The Americans are rabidly hygienic, showering twice a day, laying towels over exercise bike seats and handlebars at the gym, cleaning down the gym equipment after they've used it, snubbing baths because you're supposedly washing in your own dirt (I mean, how dirty do you have to be for that to be an issue??) and refusing to use jars of moisturiser or cleanser instead of pump bottles, because fingers. Even if it's just your own fingers. I've never known a people so clean.

The DP should have got a supply of thick bin bags and he should have been taking them outside continually. The mum could hardly do it, looking after the baby as she was.

That's so beyond gross. Wow.

What do you think the op should have done to help? What would you have done to help?

The op reads American though, with 'diapers' and 'garbage'. Is this a reverse and you are the nappy-neerdowell

All they had to do was use fragranced nappy bags and leave them in the bin.

I bet people are always taking advantage of you.

I agree, someone had left an unbagged nappy on the bench ( and scattered half a packet of biscuits on the floor)inside a changing cubicle at the swimming pool yesterday. There is a bin at the door less than ten feet away.

Would you like me to help you by going to reception and getting some bin bags for your dirty nappies?

That would have been my opening. Life is too short to be physically kicking up a stink over dirty nappies. If they’d refused I’d have asked housekeeping to deal with it. The housekeeper can then either deal with it or inform the parents of consequences the hotel might have in place for uncooperative guests.