To be annoyed at the lack of bathrooms

[Applecharm25]

I have my period. I can feel that i need to change my tampon.

I'm out walking round my city. There are no public bathrooms anywhere near me.

I see a sign for a bathroom in a small shopping centre near me. I walk in. The bathroom is actually in a shop. I'm told that the bathroom is only available for paying customers.

So now I have to get in a long queue and wait further and buy something while I really need to change my tampon.

Surely there should be better toilet services available.

No, I beg to differ. I have learned that the stock answer to a polite request is met with ‘no, it’s not a public toilet.’

I doubt staff care really. They are told to answer no.

Maybe staff who read a lot of MN worry about ‘cheeky fuckers’ stealing bog roll and squirts of soap.

But really we don’t need another category of person/CF to feel superior to in this neck of the net do we?

I heartily encourage everyone to use a pub toilet - they’ll like it even less if you’re a woman of a certain age and piss all over their floor 🤷‍♀️

There wasn't. He opened the egg in the prefects bathroom. Cedric gave him the password. showing my age

I find it strange that, despite this being an international forum, and not even hosted on a .co.uk domain

It is a UK website which is available internationally. The majority of users are in the UK.

'Bathrooms' is an import from the USA.

That's what they call toilets, lavatories, WCs.

It's their way of being 'coy' about why they are using the room.

No one in the UK ever used the word 'bathroom' for a public toilet until about 20 years ago, unless they wanted a bath or shower.

Or if they went to someone's house they may have said 'Can I use your bathroom?' (Because they were in a house, not a pub/cafe/ supermarket/ hotel.)

If you need the loo, look for pubs, cafes, supermarkets, fast food outlets (Burger King and McDonalds).

Hello everyone,
We are getting a lot of reports about this thread so we just wanted to say that we have no reason to believe the OP is anything but genuine.
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MNHQ

But society is perhaps not ready for us to adopt "shithouse".

😂

I find that people usually use the word bathroom in the UK if they're in ‘polite’ company and want to be less graphic than with family/friends.

We have a number of public loos in the local big town (M&S etc) and one where you have to pay (which I prefer to use as its always in good condition).

Don't men need toilets? The men I know do, particularly the older ones. We need public toilets for men and women unless we want people just going on the street.

I think so!

I don't use tampons but when I change a pad, I can guarantee I will need a wee as well.

Those of you saying it's not connected, I don't think you realise how close all the organs are!

Another day in the life of Mumsnet 😅

I've been caught out before a few times, went into a Costa, explained I will buy a coffee but can I just use the bathroom first? They always say yes, I go, and then queue for coffee.

I think it would be unreasonable to use facilities without buying something

Moaning myrtle went to a different bathroom through the pipe work. She haunted the girls toilets that did not have an actual bath in.

I'll show myself out....

Men need toilets but it's much easier for them to nip behind a bush.

People who say women aren't in more need are being disingenuous.

Aye, but that takes up the space so actual disabled people can't get in and as the OP claims not to need a toilet, it seems rather unfair to then use the disabled toilet facilities to do this.

Also if you have your own RADAR key, and you use the facilities in a place where they keep them locked and hand out the key to those who ask for it, you're going to end up having someone opening the door on you, mid manouvre.

This is because most places that hand out keys will fit the RADAR lock the wrong way round allowing it to be unlocked from the outside even if a key was used to get in (fitted correctly you'd have to take a screwdriver or coin to it).

Lol this thread is stupid, who cares about the word bathroom. People in the UK do use this word, it's sounds more polite than loo or toilet and restroom is what they say in the US. Who cares that's not what op is asking. There aren't many public toilets now because councils have closed most of them. To be honest you wouldn't really want to use them they are used by druggies and often are gross. The only answer is to use a pub or restaurant. I always go to toilet before I go out can normally wait a couple of hours before needing it again. The only issue I've ever had was when pregnant and I couldn't hold on, couldn't find a toilet I actually went in the law courts they let me in as felt sorry for me as I was so desperate. I can imagine this could be an issue though with ladies on menopause when they have very heavy periods that can just start very heavy. Not sure the answer maybe always wear a panty liner just in case but being caught unawares like that I imagine is quite horrible.

Surely if your tampon needs changing urgently it is probably a while since you used a ‘bathroom’ so it’s probably prudent to have a wee, or if you had recently been to the toilet it may have been prudent to change your tampon at the same time.

Any shop or supermarket that has an in store cafe has to legally have a toilet for customers.

That was the prefects bathroom not Moaning Myrtles.

I’m not sure every women wants to walk in to a public place marked ‘for periods only’.

I think we all know now what Myrtle was probably moaning about...

Multiple things in this thread are weird. I've never seen a pub or shop with a sign saying bathroom here. I'm never known a city centre with nowhere to go to the toilet, department store, supermarket, coffee shop, McDonald's? And if there's none of those things then it's not much of a city centre and why were you there?
It's just a period op, I've never had similar issues. When you're on your period you plan accordingly, it's not that hard.

So you use the bathroom at home? So you don’t actually need any changes - either shop elsewhere when on your period, which means a bus ride to where they have loos or shop local and change your tampon before you leave the house.

The lack of tampon specific changing facilities?

@Applecharm25 If you're needing to change more than once every couple of hours, double up by using a pad as well, or even period pants as well as your tampon.

Because this is a site for mums. A lot of us cannot remember what it was like to have a functional pelvic floor and some can't even sneeze without peeing so the idea of putting a tampon in without peeing first absolutely boggles the mind.