How many times have you walked into the wrong restroom?

Not that I recall. However, I remember a Mexican restaurant once where they had the inside of the men’s restroom door painted to say Ladies so you do a double-take on the way out. Very mean. I don’t know if the women’s restroom had the same joke.

A couple times.

But there was also one time I walked into a men’s restroom while a woman was speaking to me over the phone (I was holding my smartphone.) The man inside the restroom looked up in shock, thinking the voice was a woman’s coming in.

IKEA in the Schaumburg, IL. It’s a circular multi-level design and I’d been there on several occasions. I’ve got to use the restroom urgently. I excuse myself from my wife. So I zip over to the restrooms and having visited them on previous occasions I know blindly where they are and dart right on in.
I go in and no ones present but all the stall doors are closed except for the one on the far end so I make a bee line for it. I made it!
Then while I’m sitting there I notice the guy in the stall next to me is wearing some pretty effeminate looking shoes. I shake my head thinking “dang, someone should really tell that guy he’s wearing ladies shoes.” Then I hear a couple people entering the bathroom. That’s strange? Why does it sound like ladies voice…
(I’m in the ladies restroom)(you know I do remember thinking there sure were a lot of stalls in here for a men’s room)
Every time I’ve visited the restroom at this IKEA the men’s room is on the right, ladies on the left. HOWEVER… on the next floor down for whatever reason they are reversed with the men’s on the left, ladies on the right. I zipped in without even looking at the signage.
Then I had to make my escape. I counted 1…2…3… flung the stall door open, kept my head and eyes down, walked as fast as I could out the door and just kept on speed walking across the store and found my wife.
She looked at me and asked “Why are you sweating and breathing so hard?”

Just once at the United terminal at O’Hare airport back around 1995. It was around 3am and I don’t know how I went the wrong way (maybe because 3am) but I remember not seeing any urinals, thinking it was odd, using the stall and then leaving. As I was walking out, a woman was walking in and didn’t a double-take. Which made me look at the sign and realize oops.

Fortunately, no one was in there while I was using it and no harm done. If I’ve done it since, I never noticed the error.

One very dog-friendly restaurant I went to (IIRC in Santa Barbara) labeled the bathrooms “Setters” and “Pointers”

Only once, I think, decades ago.

But in my teens I had long hair and delicate features, and I can’t begin to count how many guys saw me washing hands at the sink, stared, stepped out of the restroom, looked at the sign on the door, and walked back in staring and wondering. It, uh, didn’t make adolescence easier.

Once, many years ago. It was at the Montreal airport. I had just arrived after a long flight, badly jet lagged, and I desperately needed to go. So as soon as I got off the plane I ran to the nearest bathroom. When I got inside, I noticed that, surprisingly, there were no urinals. Only stalls. But I needed to go badly, so I did my business. When I left the bathroom a few minutes later, now relaxed, I discovered that I had gone to the ladies room by mistake.

Fortunately nobody else came in while I was there.

Not quite the same thing but …

A couple days ago I got on an elevator that had two people in it. This is on a cruise ship where there are lots of strangers expecting to actively socialize with one another. And also quite a lot of gay couples, both male and female.

One was a conventional-looking 40-something plump woman casually dressed in a t-shirt and shorts. The other was also 40-something and plump with similar clothes but in contrast to the other, this person looked totally like a lesbian top. Somewhat male-ish facial features, no makeup, short male-like haircut, sneakers, etc. But definitely a female-form body, albeit overweight. From the way they were standing and the similarity of their clothing I thought it was likely they were together, but not a sure thing.

Hedging my bets on whether they were connected I said “Good morning ladies!” To which the “top” pointedly replied, “That’s ladies and gentlemen.”

It was a very long ride up the next 4 decks until they got off the elevator together.

Once was a seafood restaurant with “Buoys” and “Gulls”.

I’m with Lewis Grizzard, the food’s not likely to be any good, they spend all their time thinking up cutesy names for the facilities :laughing:

I can’t recall ever doing so.

Twice. And both happened within a month. Both at movie theaters. The second time, I was the only person in the restroom.

And so was the first time, for a while. I noticed it odd that there weren’t any urinals, but I went about my business, went over to wash my hands, and I noticed another patron coming thru the door in the mirror. I realized then that I had actually screwed up.

And by sheer coincidence, this patron (and her boyfriend, presumably) ended up sitting two rows behind me in the theater. I have to imagine her saying that “that creepy guy up there was in our restroom,” but who knows. . .

Oh, by the way, I was wearing a garment that had recently been given to me by a former roommate who had outgrown it. A trenchcoat. :open_mouth:

Not very often.

Couple of times I remember.

In NYC at the MOMA, I went into the washroom. At first I thought it odd that all the stall doors went to the floor. (Don’t recall if there were urinals.) On the way out, I noticed tampon dispenser on the wall. Thought, “Oh shit!” But outside, it was marked "Men:, but it was the first time I saw the sign saying, “Use whichever washroom you are comfortable with.”

Another time, I used to swim at a health club. One time I was feeling especially wiped out after my swim. Not sure if I had my glasses on or if they were foggy, but I was sorta stumbling towards the showers. Fortunately I quickly caught a glimpse of a dressed woman and quickly ducked out before I caused an incident.

Here in Germany, I’m always almost going into the wrong one. The boys’ room say “HER…” and the girls’ room says “…MEN”.

As a non-dog person I‘d be helpless there. How is that decoded?

I’m simply amazed at how many people have walked into the wrong restroom and gotten all the way to using the plumbing.

I’ve certainly inadvertently walked into the wrong place umpteen times. Probably about annually while out in public. My life and job entailed / entails using a lot more unfamiliar public restrooms than most people encounter in their daily lives.

But I’ve always reversed back out within a couple of steps; a casual glance around the room makes it clear this is not the men’s room. And for individual use rooms with locking doors, it doesn’t much matter which one you use, signs outside nothwithstanding.

I am gobsmacked at stories of sitting on the shitter and only then noticing the wrong kinds of shoes on the other patrons. Or whatever.

IANA dog person either but it’s not too hard …

Setters are dogs which set (or sit).

Pointers are dogs that point at things.

As between men and women, who does (most of) the sitting and who is equipped with a pointer?

And yes, that kind of cutesy crap pisses me off too. “Buoys” and “Gulls”? Spare me.

Not once, but there’s always hope.

At a local micro brewerey.restaurant called the Norseman there are “Shield Maidens” and “Warriors”

Not quite, but.

Started my career in the mailroom of a large organization with a large office building. Every floor had men’s/womens restrooms and each end of the floor.

One floor had the Steno pool, staffed exclusively by females. They switched the men’s room to a women’s room at some point. So the ladies had 2 on that end of the building on that floor.

By the time I started working, the Steno pool had shrunk significantly and other male staffed units took up the available space. The additional ladies room was rebadged as a men’s room. But, they didn’t put the urinals back or remove some sort of feminine hygiene bin. It took me months to not have a panic attack whenever I walked in.