A bidet - yes or no?

[Quattrocento]

Redoing main bathroom and changing things around. Am wondering about a bidet. I would rather like to have one - dd thinks the idea is rather revolting and the boys are keeping well out of the debate (whistling and trying to pretend they did not hear the word bidet).

So then, a bidet, yes or no? Would it put you off the bathroom if you were a hypothetical purchaser?

LOL

Never tried it

Get one of those super duper Japanese loos.

Ours came with the house.

Cat sometimes drinks out of it...I wasj my mooncup out in it (can do this without moving off the loo). Otherwise entirely obselete in a household where people shower daily IMO.

it would be disastrous for me. I would soak my clothes, I would spray the toilet seat, I would waste heaps of toilet roll mopping down the seat and my arse, I would have to stay in teh toilet for 10 minutes hoping that the big wet patch all over my clothes would dry off. Awful.

It was on a hose, pointy, I guessed you just you just pointed it at the bit one wanted to rinse?

Anyway my fanj smells of roses, no extra rinsing needed

Pointy, that could be a good historical interpretation of the rise of the bidet in mediterranean societies. I will investigate.
Mind you, I still feel that there's nothing better than a bidet first thing in the morning.

Hello Franca! Fancy meeting you here!
Was just going to say we use ours for loads of things- Dp washes his feet in it mainly, but I do use it for its intended purpose in the summer. Very refreshing.

I can't stop laughing. This thread has made my day. I've never known what a bidet is for, and god bless the internet for having a website (and MN) to explain everything to me.

PMSL

Now do I wipe or wash away this wee....

Oh hello Bucharest. Yes, me and Sputnik tried to convert the masses...

They are very common here in Spain. In fact many Spanish women that I know think that the Brits are dirty because they don't have one. I have 2 [gloat gloat]

But I have never used them might have a go later

Oh lots more good suggestions thank you. I don't think I like the sound of that Japanese loo - I am technologically challenged and have to get the children to show me how to switch the TV on (no exaggeration - but this is usually because they have Gadgetry plugged in to every TV in the house). A loo with a remote control panel for spraying and washing and making flushing noises as well as actually flushing would scare me

The shower head next to the loo sounds like a good idea though. I still like the sound of that super-dooper shower with body jets and extra nozzles.

Franca if you find out how the bidet became so popular in Meditteranean countries, do let us know. I'm inclined to the theory of there being so much more amorous activity

Well Quattro, there is apparently a book. It's in Italian. I wonder if should translate it and launch it on the UK market.

Have also read bits of "Storia sociale dell'acqua" (Social history of water), which again shows how bidets were viewed with great suspicions in the western world, at least until ww2. Mainly because bidets were associated to images of prostitutes and brothels.
The bidet emerged in France and Italy in the 18th century and was immediately viewed, in the English culture, as "a continental impropriety", to which was preferred the quicker and more straightforward shower (the colder, the better, see John Floyer "The history of old bathing (1701-1702).
According to the book, the bidet found in Italy - the country most permeated by catholic traditions - its most relevant success: Italians consider the installation of a bidet as a sign of civilization. Etc etc etc.
(you asked)

The history of COLD (not old) bathing

I have to return to your lappish shower head, marmy.

It's all very well for you to say, it was on a hose so you just point it.

Stop and think. Since when has pointing a hose upwards or at an angle, with a target the size of an arsehole, been an easy task?

And how do you then dry? Not on a communal towel, surely (though amongst people who sit naked in saunas in public squares, who knows?) and if you use toilet paper it would stick to you in big white streaks.....

I would be at the centre of a Pointy-type slapstick routine too.

yeah, squeeze even tighter, that's a bit like my arse hole .

You'd need to look out for those signs you often get in public toilets that say 'CAUTION! VERY HOT WATER!'

Your bum might look like the Japanese flag.

LOL at Japanese flag.

I am having a problem imagining Marmaduke's suggestion - how do you do this wedging thing? Doesn't the loo-seat get in the way? See I definitely need to use a loo-seat. Also it might create a flow in the wrong direction - back to front rather than front to back IYSWIM.

This thread runs and runs...
Am watching to find out answer to Blu's question about drying. Fascinating.

Bidet great for:

• washing after poo
• washing/freshning when one has period
• washing kids feet (especially after a day spent barefoot running in the garden)
• washing kids bits quickly when they've wet themselves
• shaving fanjo and legs
• keeping bath toy basket
• soaking laundry
• def NOT for chilling booze

have one (italian). DH (english) had one before he even met me.

like franca says you do not use one in other people's house unless you stay overnight and yes they are clened often, like the toilet would I guess. Italians, like the spanish, obviously think it's weird not to have one and see it as a sign that one is cleaner as it's an extra wash on top of daily showers!

A bidet would be a negative selling point for me. Yuck yuck yuck to a device specifically for cleaning arses. I don't worry about what previous owners have done in our loo or shower but a bidet would be off-putting. And I'm with Pointy, if I tried to use one it would end in disaster.

The showerhead had the same hard handle bit on it as a non fixed shower, so a silvery hose thing and then the showerhead.

If you put the hard handle bit under your cheek in the crease where it joins your leg and pointed the holes of the showerhead upwards, it would be point blank range to your arsehole, would it not?.

an extra wash on top of daily showers?
I think you are aloowing your imagination to run rampant with ideas of smelly bottoms and fandans. I have never whiffed anyone else's bum unless very close to it. Apart from two occasions on a bus when someone had obviously had unprotected sex very recently without washing afterwards.

marmy, are you joking?! You would wedge a public hose handle into your bum cheek without knowing what flotsam and jetsam had flicked onto it nor how well it was wahsed in between?

I think they may have whiffy fanjos due to all the excessive washing, tbh, it disturbs the natural ph. Viscous circle.