Why is it a "Man's Job" to put down the Toilet Seat?

In My Humble Opinion
61

The length of the urethra has nothing to do with frequency of urination. Not like it’s a urine reservoir or anything. It has to do with how much liquid you consume (brilliant observation there), perhaps metabolism, and obviously the size of the bladder. I know many men who have bladders the size of grapes, so it seems, running to the can every 20 minutes. Unless they’re pregnant or something…

I grew up with four males in the house. The seat was usually up, but it only took a fraction of a second to put it down. I’ve never had a fit over it, no one ever complained.

To the women who do complain - find something more important to bitch about! Like hairs left in the sink or skidmarks on their underwear.

62

I know a certain young boy that would probably disagree based on his early toilet training experience. :slight_smile:

(No. It missed, but it scared the hell out of him.)

63

It’s like I always told my sister:
“Do you want it down or dry?”

64

This whole thread reminds me of routine I saw a comedian do once. Can’t remember his name, but basically is was about the toilet seat battle in his house. His wife finally put one of those stupid covers on the seat, so it pushed it out enough so that it always fell down. The result was that they guy walked into the bathroom in the dark one night, and let er rip. But because of the padding of the carpet cover he didn’t notice for about 30 seconds, by which time the padding had become a nice piss sponge. He went back to bed, then his wife woke up and went to the bathroom and without checking* sat in the piss soaked cover. The moral of the story is guys have very little concern about where and how we piss, you chicks seem to have much more to lose in this battle.

  • I still will never understand why somebody would sit without checking. Maybe I’m a little wierd, but any situation involving me leading with my nekid ass usually calls for a little reconnaissance of the situation.
65

The convenience of the reply button at the bottom of the thread is too tempting not to push.
You have opened quite a can of worms here and one gets flushed just reading these posts.
The queen, seated upon her throne, should definitely be asked this perplexing question.
As I was telling John the other day, this is not something to just put a lid on.
Though I am privy to alot of secrets, the answer to this one I have not been told.
We should not just lift our legs to this problem, but unite against this potty mouth.
Should we lift so that dogs have a drinking bowl, or close to keep from hearing that loud lapping?
Ah the answer must be at the head of the class.
Maybe it would be better just to make a pot of soup and play a hand of loo.
But, as we learned in school, the alphabet is …,L, M, N, O, Q, R, S, T,…

66

Okay, let us just agree that it is courteous for a man to put the toilet lid down after he has done his business. Even if it is not his responsiblility.

Let us just examine how much work that is, as opposed to how much grief it causes the women in their life when they choose not to do it.

Let us just realize that it is an easy way to look like a prince. So, why would you not want to look like a prince?

Scotti

67

http://www.restrooms.org/standing.html

68

Alright, I will demonstrate via Monte Carlo methods that it makes more sense for men to leave the seat up.

Here is the first case–everybody leaves the seat the way it is when they finish using the toilet. Men and women use the bathroom with the same frequency, and men piss 66% of the time. The simulation is run 1,000,000 times for a good average. here is the C code:


#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>

#define UP 0
#define DOWN 1

int main(void) {
        int seat, n = 0, i;
        srand(getpid());
        seat = rand() % 2;
        for(i = 0; i < 1000000; i++) {
                if(rand() % 2) {                /*Male*/
                        if(rand() % 3) {        /*Number 2*/
                                if(seat == UP) {
                                        seat = DOWN;
                                        n++;
                                }
                        } else {                /*Number 1*/
                                if(seat == DOWN) {
                                        seat = UP;
                                        n++;
                                }
                        }
                } else {                        /*Female*/
                        if(seat == UP) {
                                seat = DOWN;
                                n++;
                        }
                }
        }
        printf("%d
", n);
        exit(0);
}

In this case, the seat is flipped about 277,500 times.

In the second simulation, the seat is always left down after the person has used the bathroom. Everything else is the same.


#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>

#define UP 0
#define DOWN 1

int main(void) {
        int seat, n = 0, i;
        srand(getpid());
        seat = DOWN;
        for(i = 0; i < 1000000; i++) {
                if(rand() % 2) {                /*Male*/
                        if(rand() % 3) {        /*Number 2*/
                                /*seat is already down*/
                        } else {                /*Number 1*/
                                if(seat == DOWN) {
                                        seat = UP;
                                        n++;
                                        seat = DOWN;
                                        n++;
                                }
                        }
                } else {                        /*Female*/
                        /*seat is already down*/
                }
        }
        printf("%d
", n);
        exit(0);
}

In this case, the lid is flipped about 333,200 times. That’s a ~20% increase from case 1. Also, in this case all the seat-flipping work is done by men instead of the burden being shared.

I rest my case.

69

Did your wife ask you nicely a million times? Do you not have any consideration for her feelings at all?

I dunno, I wouldn’t have a flaming fight with my husband over leaving the seat up. If I fell in once or twice and asked him to remember to leave the lid as he found it and then I fell in again, I’d be pissed (pun intended).

And I wouldn’t be mad about the lid being up per se, I’d be mad because I told my husband I fell in and he could give a rat’s ass that I’d done so.

There is no “stupid rule”. There is a thing called “insensitivity”. A little empathy guys, please.

70

At the ricepad pad, the seat AND lid stay down, simply because I’m anal enough to believe that, generally speaking, anything that has a lid should be lidded when not in use.

That being said, I do recall an instance, years ago, when I was at a female acquaintance’s apartment. I excused myself to ‘freshen up’, and she proceeded to bitch me out BEFORE I went in about, “MAKE SURE THE SEAT IS DOWN WHEN YOU LEAVE. YOU MEN NEVER PUT THE SEAT BACK DOWN…BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH…” Her preemptive rant ticked me off so bad, I didn’t bother raising the seat, and proceeded to tinkle all over it.

71

Here’s my psychological take on the situation:

Women are more greatly affected by small gestures. They feel loved if you help them with their coat, hold a door open, and put the seat down. Men, on the other hand, tend to not care about these things.

If a women is really angry about the state of the toilet seat, I’d suggest that she has ‘issues’ with the relationship in general that she needs to deal with. Perhaps she doesn’t feel loved, and every time the seat is left up it reminds her of that.

On the other hand, she may just be a self-centered cow.

I try to remember to put the seat back down for my wife. But sometimes I forget (I do my best thinking in the bathroom, which means I may not be paying that much attention to all the details). In ten years of marriage, it has NEVER been an issue. Perhaps that’s because I express my love for my wife in many other ways on a routine basis, so the state of the toilet seat stays in the realm of the trivial where it belongs.

You hear stories about marriages that break up over stupid things like leaving the cap off the toothpaste. I would suggest that if someone REALLY wants a divorce over toothpaste control issues, there are bigger, more important issues that need to be dealt with.

But some women have taken this way too far. The ‘falling in’ argument is ridiculous. How would you women react if your husband came flying out of the bathroom in a rage because he just pissed all over the toilet seat because you left it down? Let me guess: You’d think he was an idiot for not looking, and you’d be offended that he would get so mad over your mistake, when his was much larger.

One more comment: The best way to get a man to do nice little things for you is to not demand them, and to do things for him that make him love you. If my wife started an argument every time the toilet seat was left up, I’d probably stop putting it down at all until she was more reasonable about it. I’m not a slave, and neither is she.

72

Maybe I’m a little too picky (which would explain why I’m 19 and have never had a gf … but I digress) but I don’t think I could stand being in a relationship with any woman who was either unable or unwilling to perform such a simple task as putting the toilet seat down when she wants it to be down.

73

Ah yes, the classic toilet seat argument has reached the SDMB.

This may be a non-sequitir, but regardless of whether you leave the seat up or down, at least remember to wash your hands afterwards, please.

74

Isn’t it a whole lot less work to put the seat down then to put it back up? … gravity helps you on the way down.

If I leave it up, my wife can just push it back down with a simple push. If she leaves it down, I have to reach down and lift the lid all the way up (creating the potential energy that makes it so easy for her to put it back down).

I am being courteous by leaving it up … I signify by that action, that I am willing to take on the more strenuous task of lifting the lid while giving her the less onerous task of merely pushing it back down again.

Seems like I am being a nice guy there !!

75

Its not a courtesty if women expect it?

76

My habits in this matter are deeply ingrained for two reasons: First, I lived for a time with a female roommate (not my GF or SO or any other set of initials). Her previous roommate had also been female and their habit was to leave the seat down, which I honored. The second thing was an article I read somewhere (I can’t remember where, sorry), which indicated that flushing with the lid up was tantamount to releasing a germ bomb in the bathroom. So now I always put the lid down before flushing, which necessitates lowering the seat as well. My current (male) roommate is absolutely anal about flushing after each use, so as a result our lid is usually down.

77

Question for the gals:

Suppose that you go to sit down, and you “fall in” because the seat is not down. Why, pray tell, is that our fault for leaving the seat up, rather than simply your fault for not looking? Don’t try that “courtesy” excuse on me; women can open doors and pull out chairs in the absence of a man, so they can sure as hell put down their own toilet seat.

I’ll never understand how women can fall in in the first place…do you turn around at the bathroom door and take a flying leap ass-first toward the bowl, or something? How can you possibly fail to notice that the seat is up?

78

Cause you’re the one who put the damn thing up! You put it up, then you put it down…we don’t have THAT great balance, and it ain’t pleasent to slip ass-first into the toilet…

79

Okay, falling in, not noticing. Easily done.

ex. I’m rushing home from class, mumbling declensions for the Latin homework I have to do and need to pee. need I hit the security doors, swipe my card and wait for an elevator, bouncing a little, twitching. I get in the elevator, ride to nine, bitch silently about the idiot that lives on 2 taking the elevator to 3 and making me have to wait, slip off the elevator woosh through the next set of security doors and fly to the stairs. Oh! yea, I have that lab that needs to be done tonight. If my printer isn’t working I’ll have to hunt up Joel to borrow his again. I get to 8, turn teh corner and head for the bathroom. I find a toilet, unzip my pants with my back turned and sit.

Admittedly, I do galce at said toilet and live on a girls’ floor. Seats are not up on my floor unless the toilets are in the process of being cleaned. If I was ever in an enviroment where the seat was up, I’d fall in in a second. Of course, I am usually rushing and stupid.

Why should guys do this? Its nice. It makes things easy. Its respectful. hugs for handy It allows our poor, feminine minds to think about other things. I agree that it shouldn’t be a huge deal either way.

As a side note, I need to go give nice back rubs or something to my guys down the street. House full of guys, and every time I go the seat is down. Its the little things that make you love your friends.

80

It’s nice, also, to put the seat down in a household of little girls who need to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. My daughters fell in more than once. And I think someone mentioned previously that a toddler drowned in a toilet because of the top heaviness of heads for children that age.

I appreciate people like handy, who do this out of courtesy. I usually find that men who make an issue of not putting down the seat are discourteous of women in other areas also.