I’m pretty well trained in toilet seat procedures having lived with my mom and two sisters until I moved out, and currently living with my MIL, wife and two daughters. I can and often do pee without turning on the lights. It’s called radar, I listen to the sound of the splash and adjust my aim based on the resulting changes in tone. But I also pee in my yard, off the deck, so whatever.
I doubt there is a cite for this, but it seems to me that the obvious position for the seat is down, since a toilet falls under the general category of “Things with lids.” Again, generally, things with lids have them for a reason. The reason for the lid on a toilet seat is to prevent something falling into the toilet that could create plumbing problems. Since the lid should be down when the toilet is not in use, the seat must be down as well.
I didn’t even know toilets grew in nature!
[Steve Irwin] Oh, look at that American Standard urinal there! What a beaut. Crikey, he’s spotted us! We’d best head for covah or else we’ll be flushed.
Joking aside, even if it’s best to keep the toilet closed (which I tend to agree with), why is it that nobody talks about men needing to put the toilet lid down? Always the seat. If the reason was that the toilet should be put in its “natural” state, people wouldn’t worry about the seat. They’d worry about the lid.
If this was true, my sink would have a lid also.
I suppose I have three responses.
A) OK, why is there a lid on a toilet?
B) A lid on a sink would be highly impractical. You could (and should) put a screen into the drain cavity to prevent unwanted objects from entering the plumbing, which serves the same purpose as a lid.
C) The trap under a sink is relatively easy to get to should something get past the screen; if something gets jammed in the toilet, odds are you’ll have to pull it.
Psst. BlackKnight. Look up.
I would think it’s because, while men only need the seat down for pinching off a loaf, women need it down for pinching off a loaf AND taking a whiz. Therefore, the toilet seat only needs to be up for when a man takes a whiz. More often, a women must whiz or poop or the man must poop.
Here’s a handy chart that you can print off and put in your purse/wallet.
Man Whizzing----------------------- Seat up
Man Shitting ------------------------ Seat down
Woman Whizzing------------------ Seat down
Woman Shitting-------------------- Seat down
The seat must be down for three out of four bodily functions. Ergo, ipso facto, cogito ergo sum, the seat must most often be down. So, put it down, fellas.
Backstop.
Ha ha. How about a serious answer?
At what, in particular?
I do think that the natural state is for the lid to be down too. I always keep my lids down becauase I don’t want to drop anything in there, and because I’m afraid my cats will fall in, and because the thought of “toilet plume” makes me gag. But there’s only so much one can hope for in the world. I fear that getting just the seat itself down is the most that most women can ever expect to get. Unless they live in my house, that is; any male visitor or resident who doesn’t put the seat AND lid down shall be given a couple of chances to assimilate and then will be summarily booted from the abode.
Exactly. I would even amend that to “things with lids that are icky to stick your hand into even with a rubber glove on.” That’s why sinks don’t fall in the category and don’t need lids. It’s not gross to pick something up out of the sink.
Ewww! You guys must be a much better housekeeper than me, because there is no way in hell I am putting my hand all over my grimy public-hair covered shit-splashed toilet.
The reason why the toilet seat is better off down is because if I toddle in to the bathroom in the middle of the night, plop down, and encounter cold nasty dirty porcelein (which them means I’m going to want to shower, even if it is three AM) I am going to be mightly grumpy and it just isn’t worth it for you.
That thought is really too dumb to consider.
What do you do if you can see that the seat is up? Do you just freeze because you’re too germaphobic to touch the seat? What’s the difference between touching the lid to put it down and touching it to feel where it is (or putting your bare ass on it for that matter)?
I think that’s how I was conceived.
Beg pardon? It’s sheer brilliance!
And more clearly stated than what I said:
Tell us just what’s so dumb about that line of reasoning, Who_me?, if you would.
I’ll tell you. First of all, urination takes place at least twice as often as defecation for most people, more like three or four times as often for myself. So the ratio of needing the seat up to needing the seat down isn’t 1:4, but actually almost 1:2.
Second, what does it matter which position it’s in most often? It’s pretty ridiculous to say that simply because it’s usually down, we should drive to make sure it’s down as much as possible. There’s no purpose to it.
Responses to others coming in a few minutes.
To the women who fall into the toilet when the seat is left up, how many times must you fall in before you learn to check it? I don’t have a problem remembering to check the seat when I take a dump. Granted I don’t remember waking up in the middle of the night to take a crap, but I have woke up on the verge of pissing myself. I did remember to make sure that the toilet seat was up, and I have less to lose than a woman. And yes, I can piss in the dark by feeling the toilet with my legs and listening to the splashing sound.
As for leaving the seat and lid down, that’s somewhat understandable, if a bit anal. I’m not talking about that at all though. I want to know why males are supposed to leave the seat (and only the seat) down for females.
This represents my thoughts well. Equality would be setting the seat to your needed position before doing your business and not bitching about it. I’ve always thought it was ureasonable for women to demand otherwise, and so far this thread hasn’t changed that. It apparently has nothing to do with politeness. It’s just one of those “just because” things, and if males want equality, they’re labelled as chauvanistic, sexist, or something along those lines.
So it can be used as a chair for other bathroom chores such as shaving legs, trimming toenails, etc.
Most guys think a lid on a toilet is highly impractical, and is the root of all sorts of household discord. It all depends on your point of view.
Oh come on! Nothing gets jammed in the toilet unless you refuse to reach in and pick it out of the water, and just hope it flushes down. You don’t do that, do you?!?!?!?