Why MUST I put the toilet seat down?

Hey, we have the periods, cramps, pregnancy, giving birth to a watermellon, and menopause so I think you guys can handle putting down the toilet seat so we don't fall in in the middle of the night.


And don't forget to flush!

Because if you don't put it down then that means that she has to touch it (with her hand) on the underside of the seat which touches the rim everytime she wants to pee. And she shouldn't have to, because she isn't the one who a) needs it to be up in order to pee and b) may have sprayed urine on the rim when they were distracted and misdirected their flow.
You should have to because you're not only the one who needed it up, but you're also more likely to have messed up the rim on the underside of the seat than she is.
I think that's very logical.
Besides it's the chivalrous thing to do so she doesn't ever have to worry about falling in again.

Yeah, and that too

Yup, it's a terrible divide.

You need my patented Sense-O-Schlong! Just wave certain body parts in front of the sensor and the seat automatically rises! And further miracles -- it closes again at the sound of a zipper! What's a mere $1500 + shipping + handling + taxes + waiver fee for peace between the sexes!

(If you've ever accidently dropped your car keys into the toilet, you'd understand the value of the lid.)

The real question should be: Why can't man change the toiletpaper roll when it's empty?

Don't get me started on the toilet roll now! Doesn't seem that anyone I've ever lived with knows where and how the toilet roll goes

So, Aidan, the entire uinsanitary lifting and lowering of the seat should fall squarely on the mans shoulders? Women should have no responsibility at all? Isn't that unfair? After all, it's easier to lower a lid than it is to raise one!

Not to put too fine a point on it, but yes, and I'll tell you why. Because you sometimes need the seat down too, right? So, for two people, there are four toilet use scenarios- three call for the seat to be down- and only one calls for the seat to be up. So the most practical and efficacious position for the toilet seat to be in for all concerned is the down position. If you want it up-then you should put it up- but then have the good breeding to return it to it's most useful position- which is down.

But I have noticed that in houses where there are primarily men (two of my sisters only have boy children-they're the only woman in the house) that the toilet seat is almost always left up- and maybe that does makes sense for that type of household.

But EVERYONE should always wash their hands...

This has always been my proposed solution in co-ed houses: make everyone close the toilet completely! Everyone wins (or loses, which amounts to the same thing). As Tico mentions, it's practical, and it means everyone has the same responsibility. (I was going to say "everyone has the same duty," but I didn't want to invite comments on the awful pun.)

I say,


if you want him to put the seat down the way you need it when you use it,
then you need to put the seat up the way he needs it when he uses it


its called compromise.

Shewolf said:

But then everyone is constantly touching the damn thing....I don't know...especially with kids who you don't really know if they're washing their hands or not, I'd rather just have 50% touching it and spreading germs around than the whole 100%- you know what I'm saying?


Exactly. And in my house, I'm the one who actually scrubs the toilet and the bathtub and the shower and the sink and washes the dishes and cooks the food and does the laundry, etc. and so it seems to me that whatever male uses the toilet, could simply put the seat back down the way he found it. It's just kind of a matter of respect.
But actually it's never come up as an issue with any of the males I've ever lived with (in shared housing, etc.). I guess most of them were raised with sisters or something...because as I said, I thihk the habit is ingrained in boys who have a lot of females in their families- I was raised in a household where the ratio of females to males was 5:3- so that's just what I grew up expecting and my brothers grew up expecting to have to do.

But I don't think it should be a make or break issue- by any means- I can see both sides (and the whole lid idea- I've not only dropped keys in but have lost tooth and hair brushes that way as well).

Well, I also only broke my rib once out of all the times that I went biking (I bike every day). Do I want to break it again? Hell no!

...I fell in many many more nights, and yep, it's usually in the middle of the night. Not that it bothers me too much, it was more of a surprise.

Here's where I break sisterly loyalty.


I don't give a damn.


However, now that I have read about loos spraying germs all over the bathroom when flushed, unless the lid is down, I am with the lid closers.


No germs, and equal opportunity lifting.

Nobody laughed at my joke? >schniff<

Let's try another tack. The following story may or may not be true, but I think all the guys will get it:

A "friend" and her husband went to bed one night with no amatory intent, but while they were discussing the days events, things got humourous, then silly, then torrid. You know how it goes. But, suddenly the wife had to go to the bathroom, and she said, "Don't do a thing without me" as she got up from the bed and trailed her fingers down his body, lingering at certain parts. With a final sultry look, she slipped into the can. Not two seconds later came a gentle plash and a bellow, "You effen idiot!".

Sex was not had that night.

Don't let this happen to you, NickFun.

yep, that sounds sensible to me.

With unisex toilets popping up all over now, should there be a protocol? Women put the seat up and men put it down? What if there is another woman standing in line when you come out after having dutifully put the seat up?

Having raised two sons, watching as they came running into the kitchen saying, "Come look Mommy, we can make an "X." You get the picture, one standing on either side of the toilet, while turning around to make sure I am watching, causing a flood of pee all over the bathroom.

Putting the lid down every time is the only sane way to handle the problem of....spray? Drops? Boys and men, bless 'em all.

I was a spoiled married person - my husband routinely put the seat down.
The both of us didn't put the lid down, all that much. (Hmm, which generates more mold?) There was no yammering about it. I did fall in a few times in the middle of the night, seem to remember laughing, if not right away, thinking I should have put the light on.

I've had my own place for a while now, and have grown more ornery. I don't like the look of the contraption at perpendicular. The toilet contraption, that is. It's my house, put the seat down at least. No, I don't have a sign. Otherwise, gross city.

Now, given the unlikely chance I'll ever cohabit again, I'd say in my bathroom, my way, in his, his (and he gets to clean his).

Back in my marriage, we shared a small bathroom for twenty some years with no grousing either way. Bless his annoying mother, I newly appreciate her.

This could all be solved with a little luxury.

Back when I and a friend had a gallery and studios and subleased to a theater group, in the mid seventies in Venice, and lived there too, she got the ladies room and I got the men's room. Her small 'bedroom' faced the rather busy street, and mine, even smaller, faced the back yard with the disassembled spanish church and the shed with the morning glories all over it...

anyway, mine had a sink, a urinal and a toilet stall. I painted the walls as a jungle mural, and she did the ladies room with some rather surreal flowers.

I bathed at friends' places or a set of showers at UCLA, and she used her boyfriend's place. Though I do have one photo of me using the kitchen sink in time of hygienic need.

Since then, I've learned about bidets, love 'em.

So, I postulate a his and her bathroom with, yes, a urinal (I used to put a potted plant in mine, except when the theater was in session for rehearsals or shows), a regular toilet, and a bidet. Plus bathtub and shower. Oh, and adjacent Ofumo room, or whatever it's called, the japanese tub, preferably with sliding doors to open air and meadow.

Osso honey, you do know how to live. I'll take everything mentioned, now that I know that the Ofumo is a good thing and not for people who have gas.