I believe the original intent of the phrase was mockery, that someone was just claiming a need to hit the bathroom to get out of helping with the clean-up after a meal.
But in my case, I find that whenever I submerge my hands in a tub of hot water, such as when you wash dishes, I have an immediate urgent need to urinate. (Unless I have happened to hit the bathroom within the previous hour or so.) I’ve simply got to go or risk pissing my pants. This has been true for me my entire life, from whenever it was I started doing kitchen duties (maybe seven or eight?) and continuing until now, about 60 years later. Also applies to other situation, like hand-washing delicate clothing, I just encounter it in relation to dish washing way more often.
I just assume it will be so. My routine goes: eat a meal, clear the table and put away left overs, then hit the bathroom before I even run water to fill the tub. No point in getting my hands wet and soapy and THEN having to do a bathroom run.
Is this yet another personal weirdness, or do others find this happens to them?
In recent months/years, it’s almost Pavlovian that when I walk into the kitchen, I need to immediately head to the bathroom before doing whatever needed doing in the kitchen. Maybe it’s just one of those things that I only notice when it happens, or maybe my routine is such that when I need to do something in the kitchen, it’s been long enough that my bladder is full.
It’s definitely not just you. There’s a trope of a juvenile prank based on the idea that you can get someone to wet their bed by putting one of their hands in a bowl of warm water. No idea if it actually works, but it’s been in a zillion movies and TV shows.
Not dish-washing, but getting my whole body wet, when taking a shower, a bath or go swimming. I always have to preemptively pee before one of these activities, or else the urge to pee instantly sets in after I hit the water.
I’ve never had that issue and we tried the bowl of hot water trick on a cousin but did not get a result.
However, as I age, my body has become like the traveling horse when he sees the barn. The moment I pull into the driveway, my bladder speaks up. I could have not had anything to drink, been running errands, or even just putting the trash can away after it’s emptied. My body demands a trip to the bathroom. Irritating, that.
Happens to me, too, when I wash the dishes, and I wear gloves, so I think it has to do with the sight and sound of water. I also remember successfully pranking someone as described above.
The Lil’Wrekker had to give a urine sample as a small girl.
She could not do it.
The nurse said let’s try the warm water trick.
It didn’t work.
We had to take a specimen jar home and catch her pee.
She fought that til the next morning.
I couldn’t believe she held it all night.
Say I’m out running an errand and the thought enters my mind that soon it will be P-Time. The sensation gradually builds as I finish my errand, but it is not uncomfortable nor urgent. Now I’m driving home and the bladder sensors start pinging more aggressively. I’m pulling into the driveway now and the warning lights are flashing and the sirens are winding up. I’m in the house, pace now rápido, and with the bathroom in my visual field I hit DEFCON 1. All of the urine may or may not make it into the bowl,
This is a little different but it makes me chuckle…
When we were kids, we’d walk down the road to the other end of the block to the creek to play. I distinctly remember on several occasions that when we’d get there, my brother had to run home to poop. It was annoying because I couldn’t be down there by myself so I had to go with him and then we’d be done playing for the day.
Last year for Earth Day I invited my parents’ neighbors and their kids to walk around the block with me to pick up trash. When we got to the creek their older son turned around and immediately started running back home. Turns out he had to poop.
Some 30 years later, two different boys, same distance & same creek. So funny!!!
(FWIW this creek has no affect on me. I walk by it every day with my dogs. It does not give me any internal distress.)
Funny story about the creek; reminds me of a time when my three neighbors and me, all girls around 10 years of age, decided to take a hike further than we were allowed to go. We wanted to get to a small creek on the outskirts of the town and build a rock dam across it, as you do. As soon as we began working in the water, the youngest girl started begging to go back home, because she had to poop immediately. None of us wanted to turn back, as it was quite far and not enough time to return and play. She didn’t want to go back by herself, so we made her poop right there in the field!
