I do it all the time – probably a result of my notorious inability to tell left from right and my general absentmindedness. I especially have trouble with those round entrances where one side is men’s and one side is women’s. Many times I’ve gone in to do my business in a stall only to come out and find that there are urinals in the room and a bunch of men at the sinks. I just quickly wash my hands and leave.
My thoughts exactly. My mama taught me to go when and where I had to go, and that a port a potty is nothing compared to the outhouse back on the farm, so suck it up. I thank her for that all the time.
A few weeks ago, I was at an event where people tend to use a local shop’s restrooms, 2 identical one-seaters marked his and hers. Of course the men’s was empty while there was a line for the ladies.
Two sisters (???) in their 60’s ahead of me in line were arguing about using the men’s room.
#1 sticks her head in and says “looks normal.” #2 says “You go ahead. I’m waiting.”
A minute later #1 sticks her head back in and says “it’s clean enough and there’s TP in there.” #2 says go ahead.
Another minute, another check, and #1 says “smells ok” but still doesn’t go in.
I decide to go in, do my thing, and on the way out #1 says “well, how was it?” like I had just gone on a scary adventure. I tell her it’s just fine, no difference, she shrugs, and still doesn’t go in.
What the hell was she so simultaneously fascinated by, yet afraid of?
This is pretty standard in a lot of large buildings. I have no knowledge per se, but I think it’s to balance the water pressure.
I’ve walked into men’s rooms twice because of this stupid process. Once in high school, once on my first day on the job. Both times they were ‘occupaido’.
I didn’t know men could scream that hi.
Happens semi regularly if I’m at a bar that uses “funny” men/women signs that do not clearly spell out men/women. Sorry, I don’t know what stupid circle and arrow or circle and cross I’m supposed to be assholes.
We have one in town that has a devil for the men and an angel for the women. That one is easy. 
I hate the ones in ethnic or theme restaurants. Maybe they can get away with hombres & damas with 99% accuracy on the 1st guess, but I doubt most Americans will know damen & herren are. They’re asking for an international incident there.
One morning at my first job, I walked into the bathroom, and saw a woman washing her hands. “Oh crap - sorry,” I said and immediately walked out, silently cursing my obvious stupidity. I turned around to use the other door, and noticed the skirted silhouette.
I waited patiently for her to finish up and leave, then I went in to use the correct restroom.
What sound does a woman make when she sees a male in the bathroom? She Screams.
What sound does a man make when a woman is in the bathroom? “Oh, hey”
Do men and women’s bathrooms have different pressures?
Same here (except I’m male)
Reminds me of a time at a convention and there was a female janitor mopping up in the men’s room. I just walked right over to a urinal and did my business. My friend was freaking out - “There’s a woman there!” but seriously, what was she going to see? Especially given the size of that particular bathroom - there had to be two dozen urinals and an equal number of stalls.
At my first high school, almost all of the student bathrooms were located near a set of double doors separating one section of the building from another. In every location, the Men’s room door was closest to the double doors.
Well, except in one location. I didn’t realize this was reversed in this particular location until I was sitting on the commode doing my business. I started reading the rather vulgar graffiti and realized it wasn’t the type of stuff boys would write.
Fortunately, I don’t think anybody saw me enter or exit.
Service plaza on the Pennsylvania Turnpike on our way to Illinois for Christmas. Clean-shaven (Mom always preferred me that way) and wearing a parka. Turned left because I expected that’s where the Men’s Room would be then abruptly stopped for a few seconds while my brain processed the notion of unisex bathrooms along the PA Turnpike.
um, actually both make no noise. Because it’s not a big deal. I shared a bathroom with a bunch of men in college. Including showers and urinals.
If a man walked into a woman’s bathroom, most women wouldn’t bat an eye or care. There’s nothing to see in a woman’s bathroom.
I once walked into the women’s restroom at O’Hare airport. Thought it was odd that there were no urinals, used a stall, washed up and left. On the way out, I passed a woman who gave me a strange look and then noticed the placard on the wall. Fortunately, it was 4am and the terminal was virtually empty so the restroom was vacant the whole time I was in there.
Walked into the women’s room at Tokyo Disneyland several years back. No uproar, nobody saw me except a janitor who came over to tell me I was in the wrong room before I went into one of the stalls (I did think it was odd there were no urinals).
In my defense:
- It was the end of a long day and I was exhausted
- One of the lights in the fairly dim corridor to the bathrooms was out, so I missed the turn-off to the men’s room.
- I was carrying a 3-year-old, so my field of vision was limited (and contributed to the exhaustion)
- Female janitors in the men’s room are a common sight here, so that didn’t ping any alarms
I think I did in Poland.
Outside the touristy areas, instead of a written indication of which is which, the toilet doors are sometimes marked with either a triangle or a circle. No-one had mentioned this, and I had no freaking clue which I was supposed to use the first time I came across it, so I just peeked in, found both empty and picked a random one.
Apparently I should have used circle, but I don’t think I did 
I probably have but don’t recall the circumstances. However I do recall a Tex-Mex restaurant nearby that tries to make you think you used the wrong restroom, after the fact. They have a quite convincing frosted glass panel on the exit door with the word “women” appropriately written as if seen through the back.
They got me good first time, despite having just used a urinal.
Years ago, I was at a Tex-Mex restaurant with my BFF. (Cafe Adobe on Westheimer for fellow Houstonians.) We were basically there getting hammered. I got up to go to the restroom and the first door I see is labeled ‘Senores’.
“Aha!” I think. “That’s the plural of senoras!” (It’s not.) So I walk in <realize I’d been there about a thousand times and used the restroom every time> and I think “That’s odd. I don’t remember the bathroom looking like this. Since when do they put urinals in ladies rooms…also why is there some guy peeing at a urinal in…”
My brain clicked in, and I realized I’d gone into the men’s room. I gave a startled shriek (which terrified the peeing guy whose back was to me) and ran across the hallway to Damas.
The IKEA in Schaumberg Illinois.
I had been there a few times before and knew where the restrooms were. They are in the same place on each of three floors. So when nature urgently called I booked it over to the nearest one and entered the door on the right since I had remembered the men’s was on the right.
No one was milling about at the sinks but every stall was taken. Except for the very last one at the end. So I rushed in just in the nick of time. While I was sitting I noticed the guy in the stall next to me was wearing some very feminine footwear. Just as I was laughing to myself thinking “dude, nice shoes, did you borrow them from your wife?” a few people entered the restroom and I heard voices. WOMAN’S VOICES!! And come to think of it, WHERE THE HELL WERE THE URINALS!
Holy crap! How did I end up in the woman’s bathroom? Turns out that even though the restrooms are in the same place on all three floors, for some reason on one of the floors the women’s in on the right and the men’s on the left.
By that time of course there were a bunch of women coming and going out of the bathroom while I contemplated my escape. I opened the stall door and made a bee-line for the exit. However, there were two ladies standing in the way chatting that I had to slip between. They stopped mid sentence to give me a funny look as I passed them. With as straight of a face as I could I stated “The one on the end is working now”, hit the exit door, and never looked back.
When I was a kid I almost killed my uncle with the bathroom door (it opened inwards, towards the toilet) while he was taking a piss. In my defence, he was visiting and I was usually the only one who used that bathroom.
I did end up sheltering in the women’s restroom during a tornado warning in HS. If we’d been in the boys, we’d probably would have drowned in all the piss on the floor.:rolleyes:
Was working out of our Detroit office years ago, got done with a long day on the road, got back to the office and headed for the nearest restroom. I was not totally familiar with the layout, since I was a visitor. Walked-in, the restroom was empty and I went to a stall and sat down to take care of business. A moment later, the door opens and I hear “clik-clik-clik…”, the door to the stall next to me opens and closes and someone sits down next to me to take care of their business. I realized I saw no urinals as I entered, and then it dawned on me I was in the women’s restroom, and there was a woman peeing and breaking wind next to me. What to do, what to do?
I decided the wisest course was to sit still and wait for her to leave, then get up and scurry out of there. Which I did, and went undiscovered. However, there was a few heart-pounding moments as I considered what I would say if I was revealed. Never saw who that was, thankfully.
My father would have situations where he’d pick the wrong stall, but sometimes on purpose when he REALLY has to go. That happened to me at one time too, but really, everyone makes a mistake here and there.