Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To use the disabled loo to avoid sitting on turds?

259 replies

HellHathNoFury · 18/04/2009 14:24

I was in Sainsburys earlier and in the queue for the loo. I was desperate and waited for a while. Eventually it was my turn, and this little old lady hobbled out and so I went in and saw she had left a whole actual nugget of a turd on the toilet seat.
At the back.

I am PG and it was not something I needed to see so I backed out and legged it off to the disabled loo.

When I came out I was told off by a man in a wheelchair for using the disabled loo. Couldn't be bothered to explain turd incident. Just walked off.

AIBU?

OP posts:
islandofsodor · 18/04/2009 14:26

How did he know that you wern't disabled?

YANBU. However afterwards I would also have informed a member of staff so they could make the topilets usable again.

hobbgoblin · 18/04/2009 14:28

Well I have always ignorantly assumed that the disabled loos are not there to aid disability by incontinence as such. Therefore those who need to use them are just as able as anyone to wait to wee (or poo, evidently). I don't think disabled loos are there to avoid disabled people having to queue are they? Hence, what is the problem with other people using the disbaled toilet if other toilets are busy, unavailable or turdy?

Original poster
HellHathNoFury · 18/04/2009 14:31

hobgoblin, I agree.
It wasn't like he had to wait long, it wasn't like I parked in a disabled bay, he just seemed rather vexed that I dared pee in the special bog!
(btw I did see a member of staff running in to attend turd as I was leaving )

OP posts:
MrsMattie · 18/04/2009 14:32

YANBU.

When you're pregnant, anything goes, I say.

That guy wasn't go to die just because he had to wait a minute or two to go the loo, was he? Idiot.

DSM · 18/04/2009 14:32

Agree with hobb.

I cannot understand why people think that disabled toilets are only for disabled people?

MamazonFirstladyofFilth · 18/04/2009 14:34

i think you need to be disabled or have a disabled child/partner/parent to fully understand how infuriating it is when able bodied people feel it is thier right to use something that is there to make life as a disabled person just that little bit easier.

whilst there are situations where people could be sympathetic to you using a disabled loo it was wrong and you should have just asked for the other toilet to be cleaned.

MamazonFirstladyofFilth · 18/04/2009 14:35

DSM - well there's a bit of a hint in the name

Marne · 18/04/2009 14:35

I always use disabled toilets when i have the dd's with me, i have had a few strange looks.

MamaHobgoblin · 18/04/2009 14:36

I agree - disabled loos are there in order to facilitate disabled people using them, not so they can avoid queuing. I often use them if there's nobody in sight who looks like they'd need to.
to turd on seat. I'm often tempted to call after some rude woman to ask her to wipe her pee up, but I've never encountered a poo on the seat!

MamazonFirstladyofFilth · 18/04/2009 14:37

if the mens toilets were a bit dirty and a bloke walked into the ladies would you all think it was ok? i would imagine there'd be a few comments made and a fair amount of huffinng and tutting.

Other than extreme situations there is no need for an able bodied person to use a disabled loo.

muggglewump · 18/04/2009 14:38

Yanbu, I'd have done the same as you. Even if they'd cleaned the other loo I couldn't have used it as I'd still have turdy visions

MrsMattie · 18/04/2009 14:38

Exactly@Hobgoblin. When I have my buggy with me and when was pregnant, I especially^ have/had no qualms about using disabled toilets.

DSM · 18/04/2009 14:39

My sister is disabled.

I still don't see why people would be offended if an able bodied person used a disabled toilet? The toilets are not solely for the use of disabled people. Its nonsense to suggest that people should wait for regular toilet cubicles to become free, or use a dirty toilet when there is a clean, disabled toilet available.

If you are in a public toilet, and there are say, 5 cubicles, one of which allows disabled access, and there was a queue of people, would you allow a disabled person to the front of the queue?

DSM · 18/04/2009 14:42

mamazon - why should a perfectly good toilet sit empty when there is a queue of people waiting to pee? On the off chance that someone in a wheelchair comes along? And if they do, god forbid they might have to wait a few minutes like everyone else.

islandofsodor · 18/04/2009 14:42

In smaller places there is often only one disabled toilet anyway. Eg our local library has one loo with a doc m pack for ladies and one for men.

Ewe · 18/04/2009 14:43

I have a stomach problem that often means I vomit with little or no notice, most of the time I control it with meds but sometimes it for whatever reason happens anyway. Many of these occasions I have had to duck into a disabled toilet to avoid vomiting everywhere, I have also got dirty looks etc.

In your shoes, I would have probably done the same thing, especially when I was pregnant!

onagar · 18/04/2009 14:59

This is a different situation to taking up a disabled parking space for hours.

I was thinking about this when I waited to use an ATM machine. There were two side by side and one is lower so someone in a wheelchair would find it easier.
Now both get used by everyone. In effect there is one queue and you use the next free one. If a wheelchair user was in that queue they would have the same wait as anyone else.

Actually worst case the next free one would be the standard one so they'd need to let the next person behind them go to that, but a trivial difference.

The same applies to the toilets. If there is no queue then use the standard ones obviously, but if there is then use the next free one and don't give it another thought.

saint2shoes · 18/04/2009 15:05

Would the op like dd's disability, then she can use the disabled loos when ever she wants.

DSM · 18/04/2009 15:08

Saint - disabled toilets are there to allow disabled people access to a toilet. They are not there solely for disabled people.

Still can't understand why disabled people shouldn't have to queue like everyone else?

herbietea · 18/04/2009 15:09

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Original poster
HellHathNoFury · 18/04/2009 15:09

I am glad it's not some unspoken rule, some line that I crossed!

When I am at the train station I sometimes use the disabled window, and as onagar says, the lower ATM... but this dude gave me a hard time saying 'don't you know this toilet is for wheelchair users?!'

YES, it had a wheelchair logo on the door, but it was empty, I am bladder-challenged, and I thought 'oooh I'll risk it'!

OP posts:
saint2shoes · 18/04/2009 15:10

ok So I will use P&t bays now, i mean they are oly there to make life easier for parents of tots.

Original poster
HellHathNoFury · 18/04/2009 15:11

But Herbietea, no offence, but if there were 3 wheelchair users needing the loo at the same time, you'd have to queue, right?

Also, in the outlet shopping mall in Swindon the only baby change is in the disabled loo, so surely you'd have to queue while people change nappies?

OP posts:
nancy75 · 18/04/2009 15:12

i have a bowel problem that means on occasion if i have to go, i have to go straight away (sorry tmi) if there is a queue for the loo's i will use the disabled one, and have once been confronted by a person in a wheelchair about it. i do not consider myself disabled but equally am not prepared to not make it to the loo in time if the disabled one is empty. i also dont see why i should have to explain my bowel problems to somebody just because they happen to be in a wheelchair. tollerance goes both ways. just as those with a blue badge aren't always in a wheelchair, neother are those using a disabled toilet.

herbietea · 18/04/2009 15:12

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn