About Toilet Seats Left in the Up position
 

Not sure if this is the right place to ask this... but it is related to a difference between sexes...

In the argument about leaving the seat up, I've heard it said that some women will sit down without bothering to see if the seat is up or down... thus ending up "in" the bowl. Is there any truth to it?

yeah, there are some...I have known a couple girls who have.

But I don't understand why women can't remember to look at the toilet before sitting down on it. After all, men don't seem to have any trouble remembering to put it down.

Now if I am in a womans house, I will put the seat back the way I found it, since it is her house and it's only polite. Shouldn't a women put the seat back up if she is in my house so I wouldn't piss on it in the middle of the night? It seems only fair. (of course, I remember to check first)

Probably better posted under "TFP Coming Together, Bridging the gender gap".

Personally, I'm in the "lid down" group. With the lid down, nothing gets dropped in accidently. To me, an open bowl looks rude. You took the time to close the door to the bathroom, right?

I'm with "redlemon" seat stays down. Usually when the woman ends up in the bowl its at night when us guys leave the seat up before bed and the woman gets up at 3:00am to piss & dosen't check the status of the seat.

Our lid stays down. Hasn't been much of an issue with hubby or I. Just the way we were raised - put the lid down. With little kids around it's safer - fewer things end up in the toilet. With a cat - ours and any other housecat I've known seems to like toilet water - Don't even want to think about getting kitty kisses after... ICK!

We have had a couple incidents in which as was mentioned hubby made a trip at night and left it up and me in my bleary eyes state took the trip to the bathroom. I don't even turn on the light at night since my eyes don't adjust once again very easily and I'll inevitably trip over something on the way back to bed. So even with the night light in the bathroom I still don't aways get a good look.

From what I heard from a friend - that Feng Shui - an open toilet will drain energy from your home. Its just a habit for us to close the lid - if it works in other ways too - great.

Yea, at our place the lid stays down, and I just don't bother to lift it and pee all over the seat. That's how I've been doing it my whole life.

Personally, I think women have no right to bitch about toilet seat position. It's just stupid. If they fall in the bowl, it's their fault for being stupid.

At our house the lid stays down for two reasons:

(1) If it's up, the cats will drink out of the toilet, and
(2) It just looks better that way

I agree, it does look better down. I don't live with any women, yet I still feel an impulse to lower it.

i remember staying round friends houses (read squats that got tidied up quite well when the landlord came round) and the rule being 'if you've been out, piss in the bath, because everyone knows your just gona piss on the seat' and every morning someone would go in with the hose and sort out all the people that managed to miss the bath:p

but seriously tho, i say put the frickin seat up, i mean c'mon ladies, you're big girls know, you can put the seat down when you need to go, waddya say?:)
saying that, most of the time i just forget anyway and leave it down.

Exactly. Just like taking a glass out of the cupboard and not closing the door or not capping the milk when you return it to the frige. It has a lid for a reason. I'm not just for the seat being down, but the lid being closed as well. It just looks cleaner and neater, especially true if you haven't cleaned the loo in a while. :p

I've done it numerous times. If you're in a rush, you don't think to yourself, "Gee, let's see if the seat is down so I can properly take a piss." You just pull down, sit, and pee! Or in the case of toilet seat up, you pull down, sit, and fall.

As for the seat up/down thing. First, I'd like to make a distinction between a toilet lid and a toilet seat. A toilet lid is the solid flat top layer, the seat is the circular round one that you, well, sit on. If I am a guest, I will leave the seat and lid as I found it. If I were to live with a man, I would expect the seat to be left down after every use. Here's why:

Men standing while urinating (though not all do this in their own homes) = Seat up 25% (or less)
Men sitting while defecating = Seat down 25%
Women urinating = Seat down 25%
Women defecating = Seat down 25%

3/4 of the time, the seat needs to be down. Logically speaking, the seat should then be left down because that's how it is used the majority of the time. I prefer the toilet lid to be up at all times because you can have similar mishaps with urgently sitting (or for men, standing) and not looking when the lid is down in the dark for instance. Also note that when a guy stands while urinating with the seat up, the rim gets really raunchy looking really quickly (even if you clean the toilet regularly, which doesn't seem to happen with most bachelors I know). It just looks better with the seat down.

It's less than that, becase males will deficate on average once per day, but I guarentee you they pee about 6 times more than they pee. In my house there are more males than females, and the seat gets left up by the boys. The only time anyone complains is if someone misses the bowl completely (hey it can happen, stupid unpredictable stream direction).

I live alone, and keep the lid down unless I'm using the pot. It's mainly to keep things from falling in.

Ok here is the situation. I live in a college house with 2 other guys. Me and one of the other guys always leave the lids up because it's a royal pain in the ass having to lift up the lid everytime you want to pee (which like slimshadee said can be around 6 times a day). However ONE of the guys always puts the lid down no matter what. This is very annoying and there is no reason to do it.

About the risk of things falling in-
When I was growing up, I lived in a house with me, my brother and my mother. Aside from my parents' master bathroom, the lids everywhere else were left up. In the 18 years I lived there NOTHING ever got dropped into a toilet bowl.

I put it in the position I need, then leave it that way. I guess i'm just a jerk.

Sure, for your house. More men sit down than stand while urinating when in their own home, though, so it's pretty safe to say that at least 75% of the time the lid is down.

Really? I don't know any guys that pee sitting down O_o

My take on it is:
a) Takes more energy to lift it up than it does to put it down
b) I have to pee with the seat up (becase I'm not going to sit down to do it) just like girls have to have it down.
c) As for the "women falling in" thing... well, we have to visually check that it's up before *we* pee, so I don't see why women can't do the same
d) I'm not really too sure why there's so much controversy over it, it's a fucking toilet seat. Basically, it's just about how lazy you are. Whether you're male or female, quit whining and just put it down or lift it up if you gotta.

For the record, I put the lid down so the dog doesn't drink out of the toilet.

Poor choice in words. I mean to say that more men than you would think sit down.

Also, please note that women can urinate while standing. It involves more effort to urinate than I'm willing to expend.

I know one guy who pees sitting down; his mom trained him that way and he has no desire to change.

Anyway, LID DOWN.

1) More hygenic
2) More sightly
3) Safer (animals and kids)
4) Everyone has to lift the lid and replace it: no one can say that's "Unfair!"

the seat should be down anyways, because it the times men do stand to piss, we can easily drop it, i pee sitting down sometimes, like with morning wood, you need to get the angles just right, ya know, or to pass gas, you don't want anything slipping out while standing
women should not get pissed about it, if they're dumb enough to not look at the seat, they deserve the cold, possibly wet ass
i've never sat on a seatless bowl, even in a completely womanless house at school in drunken hazes

and mogadishu's 3/4 explanation/ logic is totally incorrect

I used to complain about the toilet seat being up ...until he started leaving it down ALL THE TIME. Including while he was peeing. Yuck :p

I saw a report on 20/20 that showed that when a toilet is flushed the vortex created sprays some of the content around the room. They used some sort of light/chemical to show how much urine was around the bathroom. It was everywhere! Including the tooth brushes. Ugh. After that report I ALWAYS close the toilet before flushing, therfore it always stays down when not in actual use. Better safe than sorry.

For the record, I always put both the seat and lid down. In my house, the lid stays closed because I don't want to look into the bowl (regardless how clean or dirty it may be). Maybe I'm just not into performance art. Even if I'm not "using" the toilet but in passing I notice that it is open, I close it.

Anywhere outside of my house, I will perform a basic cleanliness inspection before sitting, even giving the bowl a fresh flush and wiping the seat with some fresh-from-the-roll TP.

It is the idea that a woman would sit on the bowl without looking that I find weird. If your day is so busy that you can't take the time to prevent a potential hygenic disaster... you need might need to reassess your priorities. Imagine if you will this very possible nightmare scenario: a toilet user does their business, and since the seat was up when they arrived, they return it to the up position, flush and quickly exit. (Ewww... they didn't even wash their hands!.) Unfortunately, either the thunderhead that was left there in the bowl clogs it up or some other malfunction causes the water to rise right up to (but not over) the rim. A few hours go by and some unlucky lady who is in way too much of a rush to give either the seat or the bowl even a cursory inspection... ends up swimming in her own private septic pool. Nasty.

Mythbusters investigated the "toothbrush in the bathroom" issue and they showed that not only wasn't distance from the bowl an issue... a toothbrush in a different room would still have fecal matter on it because it would be carried through the air. There was just no escaping it. Even so, I think a closed lid would make you feel safer.

As a variation on the original question... ladies, have you ever sat down on a closed lid when you were expecting the seat?

The Mythbusters episode was pretty flawed. They used the same toothpaste tube on the "control" brush as on the bathroom brushes, so there was possible cross-contamination. They brought the "control" brush back into the bathroom before sending it to the lab. (But, I love the show!)

That just says something about how your bathroom was arranged. In my current apartment, there's a vanity going across both the sink and the toilet, which are next to each other. Things can fall off the vanity into the sink and the toilet, so the toilet stays closed. Capiche?

Darlin'...I love ya to pieces, but you're putting way too much thought and effort into this. :D

Simple rule, at the O'Rights household; seat and lid down, at all times. Period. No room for discussion. No room for error.

i live with two guys and if anything i've learned, i need to pick my battles. This just isn't that important i guess. (i'm female) and as much of a pain as it can be falling in, because yes i've done that once or twice as well (when half asleep in the middle of the night) i just put the seat down when i go *shrugs* It's just as gross for both of us to have to touch it, so i figure it balances out between all of us. :)

I didn't think about it. I read it somewhere and agreed with it.

Lid and seat down, or else the cat drinks from it. I don't care if it was flushed, I don't want the cat drinking toilet water then coming over and rubbing against my face (if I'm lying down) after drinking toilet water.

I live alone in my pad and so the seat is almost always up. I was at my friends parents house and he's got all sisters and I forgot to put the seat down when I was done and one of them fell in. I got the 9th degree from his mom on that one

Yes. Yes I have.

I'm a leave-it-how-you-found-it girl if it's someone else's house. In my own... well..... LID DOWN. It's just icky to have it up, it makes the bathroom look bad, and maybe I just have a clumsy family, but things DO fall into the toilet... including animals...

I don't think my wife has, but I have always been extra careful to put it down. She is up and down a couple of times a night to use the restroom, so it is an issue. I just learned early on to do it or risk pissing her off.

I don't care one way or the other if the lid is left up or down. I look then squat. If I'm at someones house I do what anglekitten said she does and leave it how I found it.