I was given instruction to use toilet paper from my parents, but it was a long time ago, and at that age I’m sure I did not understand all the finer details. In college I had the misfortune of reading Mr. Sammler’s Planet, which talks about about someone who had an anal-odor problem (about all I remember from the book, now), while working with a physicist who also had an anal-odor problem (the only person I’ve ever noticed having this problem). This made me wonder if I too had a problem, and became a little anal about heinie hygene. Since then, I’ve always wondered, “Am I doing it right?”
Even to this day I feel like I’m a hack. About 3-4 times a year I end up plugging-up the toilet, even though I regularly flush twice (perhaps my parents used single-ply?) This is a problem my wife regularly reminds me (about 3-4 times a year) she never has. For the first couple decades of my life I wiped in the standing position, but thinking back, I remembered my mother always in the sitting position. (I’m guessing the standing position was a hold-over from being laid over the bathtub edge by my parents.) I used to simply wad the paper instead of folding it. There’s blotting vs. wiping, and other issues I wish there was an authority to reference. I pulled out the Charmin, figuring to get some terse, unsatisfactory answer, but was surprised not to find even that. I’ve checked Wikipedia and found a complete history of toilet paper, but no instructions.
I have a young child that I will soon need to instruct, and I don’t feel adequate to the task. In grade school we had numerous tutorials on proper oral hygene ( such as many strokes of the tooth brush starting at the gums). Sex education is prevelant, even though the prudes consider it obscene. Surely there’s some resource on proper anal hygene? Or is it just not that big of a deal?
The Scott study’s focus was only on the average quantity of toilet paper used, not the effectiveness of the various techniques. Surely some ways are better than others.
I’ve heard the question asked, “How does a blind man know when he’s done wiping?” Perhaps the blind are more focused on technique, since establishing a “done” criteria may be more difficult for the sightless? Just a theory… the other senses could actually be more reliable. In some ways, we’re all sightless, and the process could be made much more reliable by the simple addition of a rear view mirror. Then again, we might all purchase bidets if we saw how potentially inadequate our clean-up was. I would never consider cleaning my toddler’s rear using dry toilet paper, or consider the job done by only evaluating the cleanliness of tissue used in the last attempt.
I’ve also wondered why there has been very little progress in this area. A Simpson’s episode (Homer’s family are able to see him squat using an in-toilet camera on the hotel-room TV) suggests the Japanese are trying to improve the process. But in the end, I’m most interested in how to properly use the tool we have in the U.S.: toilet paper.
The little girl I used to babysit for loved her potty training videos. It was pretty funny, and pretty specific *( ♪ ♫ Front to back! ♪ ♫ Front to back! ♪ ♫ ) *I can’t find the exact one, but there are several
I’d say the blind man knows the same as I know. I don’t look at the paper (unless I’ve had to wipe like 8 times and it still feels dirty). I know it’s clean when it feels like I’m wiping TP across bare skin.
I just wanted to add that there is a good reason for the “front-to-back” instruction – urine is generally sterile when it comes out (idn’t it dopers? I’m pretty sure I learned that here), and poop is not, quite the opposite in fact – so it’s not good to smear any poop “forward” – particularly for the gals… nasty infections and such could result.
