# Have you ever accidentally used the wrong bathroom? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 2, 2010, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-accidentally-used-the-wrong-bathroom/555819 "2010-10-02T05:09:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![perfectparanoia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@perfectparanoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/perfectparanoia)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-accidentally-used-the-wrong-bathroom/555819/21 "2010-10-02T20:26:48Z")
I have a severe case of tiny bladder and have to pee all the time. I usually have to pee so bad that I am not very observant. I have gone into the men’s room by accident about 20 or 30 times; of those times, I have not noticed until after I was past the point of no return about 5 times. Occasionally, I have encountered men in there with me and they don’t seem to mind. I have also used the men’s room on purpose at many concerts and sporting events. When the ladies line gets too long and I gotta go, I just yell in that I am coming in and that they don’t have anything I am interested in and do my business. I would totally be into unisex bathrooms everywhere. It would make things so much easier. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-accidentally-used-the-wrong-bathroom/555819/22 "2010-10-02T22:07:15Z")
So there we were at an art gallery. One of my friends, who suffers from Alzheimers, went into a washroom while the rest of us waited in the hall. After a while, I noticed that she had gone into the wrong washroom, so I mentioned it to her husband. Rather than he or I going into the men’s washroom to retrieve her, we decided to wait to see what would happen. After a while, she came out and said that she thought that her mind was playing tricks on her, for she thought she was seeing men in the washroom. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-accidentally-used-the-wrong-bathroom/555819/23 "2010-10-02T22:29:50Z")
Once in college, I ventured out to L.A. for a workshop related to my major and they put us up in the UCLA dorms. On the floor I was staying, somebody had scratched out the first two letters on the sign for the women’s restroom, so that it read “MEN.” I went into one of the stalls and saw they had those little boxes for used tampons. That was odd I thought, but I really had to go, so I just kind of brushed the concern aside. Luckily no one had come in while I was in there, and it was only after I had done my business and was walking out the door that some other guy saw me and said, "Dude, that’s the ladies’ room. I turned around, looked at the sign and noticed sure enough that the letters had been scratched out. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-accidentally-used-the-wrong-bathroom/555819/24 "2010-10-02T23:19:09Z")
I did once on the fairgrounds because I’d had a few, needed to go really bad, and the line outside the women’s toilet was about one mile long. Everyone just laughed at me. As kids we tricked my brother into going into the women’s room at the local German restaurant. The signs on the doors were in German, a language we weren’t really skilled at but they had the silhouhettes of a guy in pants and a woman with a skirt on the proper doors. Me and my sister convinced my brother to go to the ladies’ room by telling him that in Germany, the men wore dresses. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-accidentally-used-the-wrong-bathroom/555819/25 "2010-10-02T23:31:14Z")
I was at a robot supplier, and without exception (except for the \*one exception that caught me) the restrooms were always in the same order along the wall: men’s room, women’s room. It’s an easy pattern, and one you get used to quite quickly. Except that that pattern is broken in the cafeteria. So I, needing to use the bathroom, dodge into the first one along the wall. Luckily there was a woman there that made me realize what was going on before I unzipped anything. There was (maybe still is) a faux Mexican restaurant near a different company where I used to work. The bathrooms are well-marked and hard to confuse. They have frosted glass doors clearly marked “Gentlemen” and “Ladies.” On the inside of the men’s room (I didn’t get to check out the women’s) on the back of the frosted glass with backwards, reflected, frostly looking letters is the word “Ladies.” Now I’ll tell you, it doesn’t matter at all if you just finished using a urinal. The first time you walk to the door and see the backwards “Ladies” you definitely have some type of reaction. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-accidentally-used-the-wrong-bathroom/555819/26 "2010-10-02T23:56:48Z")
Once, about 20 years, I was coming off a flight at Montreal’s Dorval airport (as it was then known) and on my way to customs. I was exhausted and had to go to the bathroom really bad. I thought I had read the sign correctly but when I went in there were only stalls, no urinals. It was empty, so I couldn’t tell for sure, but I really had to go so I used one of the stalls. Nobody came in while I was going. When I was done I was more relaxed so I could see, as I exited, that indeed I had gone in the women’s room by mistake. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-accidentally-used-the-wrong-bathroom/555819/27 "2010-10-03T01:31:13Z")
When my gay men’s chorus is on break, lots of guys need to use the men’s room. Rather than standing in line, some of us go to the ladies’ room. Sometimes there are one or two women in the building, and they know not to go while we’re on break. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-accidentally-used-the-wrong-bathroom/555819/28 "2010-10-03T02:13:29Z")
No, but a couple of times I have pushed on the wrong door and realized my mistake before going in. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-accidentally-used-the-wrong-bathroom/555819/29 "2010-10-03T02:49:39Z")
Yup, and I was quite embarassed by it, too. I pulled into a busy truck stop convenience store for fuel, coffee, and smokes, heading from one customer to another, and needed to hit the men’s room as well to recyle that morning’s coffee. It seems I followed (on a kind of auto-pilot sorta thing) what I _thought_ was a short, obese, bald, black guy into what I thought was the men’s room. Turns out it was a short, obese, bald, black gal. And she went into the lady’s room. :smack::smack::smack: ---
**Author:** ![Ruby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-accidentally-used-the-wrong-bathroom/555819/30 "2010-10-03T03:56:02Z")
Funny story. An acquaintance, a real southern belle type with a heavy accent, told of a time that she entered the bathroom and thought to herself, “My, those are odd shaped sinks…” It took her a few minutes to realize that she was looking at the urinals in the mens room. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-accidentally-used-the-wrong-bathroom/555819/31 "2010-10-03T05:02:40Z")
Nope, I only got as far as opening the wrong door and noticing gents at the urinals - fortunately none was looking towards the door at the time. I was at a pub and guessed wrong which of the cutsie names for the bathrooms meant which gender. ---
**Author:** ![cwthree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@cwthree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cwthree)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-accidentally-used-the-wrong-bathroom/555819/32 "2010-10-03T05:28:10Z")
This thread wouldn’t be complete without **Sampiro** ’s story. Just in case he doesn’t show up, [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=11139183&postcount=55) it is. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-accidentally-used-the-wrong-bathroom/555819/33 "2010-10-03T05:49:26Z")
> [@cwthree](#): > > This thread wouldn’t be complete without **Sampiro** ’s story. Just in case he doesn’t show up, [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=11139183&postcount=55) it is. Wow. It took me a few seconds to figure it out. But wow. What a reminder. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-accidentally-used-the-wrong-bathroom/555819/34 "2010-10-03T08:42:17Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > > [@Peeta\_Mellark](#): > > > > Ladies’ rooms have couches? > > Well I’ve never seen couches in the actual tiled bathroom area, they are usually in an antechamber you walk through before entering the bathroom. (And I’ve usually only seen them in fancier places like theatres.) The couches are very handy for nursing mothers, too. I always hated nursing in public (I was adept at covering up, and most people didn’t even realize that I was nursing) or going out to the car or into a bathroom stall to nurse. The car was generally too hot or too cold, and nursing in a bathroom stall is just icky. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-accidentally-used-the-wrong-bathroom/555819/35 "2010-10-03T10:52:28Z")
Let us briefly mention the bars with the “cute” signs on the restroom doors.:mad: ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-accidentally-used-the-wrong-bathroom/555819/36 "2010-10-03T18:39:32Z")
> [@Maiira](#): > > I did once in high school. I walked to the right-hand room and found…hey, wait a minute, the tile’s looking a bit different. I wonder if they changed it… > > Then I saw the urinals. :smack: > > Luckily, no one was around at the time, but I beat a pretty hasty retreat. What was mindboggling was that I’d used that bathroom hundreds of times. They hadn’t switched the rooms or anything, I’d just blundered into the wrong one. I think I just had a massive brain fart. And again…:smack::smack::smack: I should point out that in the above referenced episode, I didn’t actually use the restroom at that time. Or later. I turned beet red, squeaked out an “Excuse me!” about-faced, and went to the men’s room. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-accidentally-used-the-wrong-bathroom/555819/37 "2010-10-03T18:53:43Z")
[The Family Circus](http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/2443/familycircus0740.jpg) has already covered this ---
**Author:** ![lindsaybluth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90db22/32.png) [@lindsaybluth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsaybluth)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-accidentally-used-the-wrong-bathroom/555819/38 "2010-10-03T20:15:50Z")
Yep. A few times, actually. None of them terribly memorable, but one thing _was_ clear was that none of them had urinals. The sight of a urinal and I obviously would have high tailed it outta there, but every time it’s happened the place is empty and normal-looking…and I only am aware of the problem once another person comes in :smack: ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-accidentally-used-the-wrong-bathroom/555819/39 "2010-10-03T22:10:12Z")
> [@ExTank](#): > > > [@Maiira](#): > > > > I did once in high school. I walked to the right-hand room and found…hey, wait a minute, the tile’s looking a bit different. I wonder if they changed it… > > > > Then I saw the urinals. :smack: > > > > Luckily, no one was around at the time, but I beat a pretty hasty retreat. What was mindboggling was that I’d used that bathroom hundreds of times. They hadn’t switched the rooms or anything, I’d just blundered into the wrong one. I think I just had a massive brain fart. > > And again…:smack::smack::smack: > > I should point out that in the above referenced episode, I didn’t actually use the restroom at that time. Or later. > > I turned beet red, squeaked out an “Excuse me!” about-faced, and went to the men’s room. I meant to quote my own previous post. How I got **Maiira’s** in there is beyond me. I’m going to quit posting. If I smack myself in the forehead one more time, my brains are going to start leaking out of my ears. ---
**Author:** ![Rubik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/dec6dc/32.png) [@Rubik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubik)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2010, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-accidentally-used-the-wrong-bathroom/555819/40 "2010-10-03T22:14:10Z")
I ended up in a cubicle with a chick once, so I could talk about another girl in the bar I was kinda courting, you know… I must’ve been the only guy in the joint who genuinely took a girl into the bathroom to talk, and the bouncer still jumped the door to peer over and throw us out. Ironically a happy memory. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-accidentally-used-the-wrong-bathroom/555819.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-accidentally-used-the-wrong-bathroom/555819.md?page=3)