I’d say it happens about once a year. It has happened at work, at airports, at Walmart and other stores. I’ve done this more times than I can count on my fingers and I always have the same reaction “huh… they must have removed all of the urinals” and then it dawns on me. At an airport I got as far as going into a stall before it hit me and then had to plan my exit. It was a busy restroom, I eventually just had to walk out and keep my head down and walk away from that area as quick as possible.
Anyway, does this happen to anyone else fairly frequently, or is it just me?
At Universal Studios Islands Of Adventure. The past two or three restrooms had been set up men on the rightside womens on the left. I saw two restroom doors and headed right. I never use a urinal so I did not notice there were none. I did what I had to do, exited the stall and was washing my hands. A woman asked me “Are you okay?” It dawned on me. “I’m on the wrong side aren’t I ?” I apologized profusely and left in a hurry.
A few weeks ago I was at a gas station off the highway and there were 4 of us ladies standing in line for the single-stall women’s room. A guy came out of the single-stall men’s room, and I went in and used it. When I came out I said to the other ladies “Just use it. It’s clean, there’s no guys waiting.” And they did.
One time for me. After a tiring day on the road I entered the empty restroom, entered the stall and closed the door, and sat down to take care of business. A few seconds later the restroom door opens and I hear the unmistakable click-clock of heels across the tile floor. The person entered the stall next to mine, closed the door and sat down, and I saw her shoe under the stall wall. By now I realized my error but it was much too late to escape - I had to wait it out. The person finished up and exited, I waited a few more seconds and then jumped up and ran out of there. Since then I always double- and triple-check the signs on the doors before entering.
I’ve certainly deliberately done the opposite. Not often, but it does happen every few years.
As to walking into the wrong one, sometimes the signage is real confusing. That makes it a lot more likely.
One of my “favorites” I encountered at some airport somewhere was the typical T-shaped entrance where you enter off the main corridor down a short wide stub hallway and come to a T where men’s is one way and women’s is the other.
These rocket surgeons had put a sign way over on the left with the male icon, the word “Men” and an arrow pointing to the right. And of course way over on the right was a sign with the female icon, the word “Women” and an arrow pointing to the left. If you went to the side near your icon or word, you were in the wrong place. You had to see the arrow, and notice the pointy end was not where you expected it to be in order to go to the correct place. That last step seemed too hard for lots of people. Me included the first time.
It was “fun” to sit out in the main corridor and watch the confusion and doubletakes, plus no small number of hasty retreats.
Accidentally? Last time I recall was when I was about 10. I was at a movie theater that I hadn’t been to before, I was watching “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, and I was in a hurry. The concessions clerk pointed vaguely toward a door on the far wall, and I hustled over and did my business. Only on the way out did it occur to me that there were no urinals and it smelled better than I was used to. I emerged to see a whole bunch of people who had gathered in line see me come out of the ladies room.
I’ve used the women’s restroom a few times on purpose though; mostly because my kids (or I) were desperate to pee on road trips, and some guy was monopolizing the men’s room and the women’s was open. I actually got chewed out by some woman for it, despite having seen plenty of women use the men’s room without issue when there are long lines, etc…
I can’t remember whether I’ve ever gone into the men’s room by accident. I’ve certainly done so on purpose, when the women’s was non-functional or the line difference was absurd.
The two buildings in my work facility are nearly identical, but for some reason the bathrooms are reversed. I both went into the wrong one once (did you know the women’s have couches and TVs?) but also met a woman in the men’s once. No biggie. If you faint at the sight of the “wrong” gender washing their hands, maybe the outside world is not for you.
I’m more upset at what I see in the men’s: I happen to think it is polite, if not a requirement, that you zip up before leaving the urinals! No wig wagging across the room. We’re not in the Army, guys! I don’t want to see you! Also, watching streaming videos in the stalls should be right out.
Once at a bowling alley while in high school. Realized the mistake when I saw the tampon machine. Did it on purpose this past summer, a tweeker had locked himself in the mens room, a couple of security guys were trying to get him out. My wife stood guard outside the women’s restroom so I could use it. Went by those restrooms again about an hour later, a hazmat crew was cleaning the men’s room.
Very roughly about once a year, between foreign countries where I did not read the language (Albanian and Greek), and much more often in German restaurants where they got too clever by half with the signage. The normal signage is pictograms, or HERREN/DAMEN, or cutesy pictures of small boy peeing in a pot/small girl sitting on a pot, but some restaurants want to make allusions to their theme, and that’s sometimes too involved if you are in a hurry.
