Public Bathrooms

For the longest time I've never liked public restrooms. I was paranoid of them, disgusted of them, and down right avoided using them unless I absolutely had no other option. For a while I was a "stall man" especially at those really creepy public bathrooms (such as a wayside or a crowded mall). I never really knew why I was so afraid of public restrooms, or why it was that I seemed to care more about avoiding them than most people. Was it hard to use a public restroom? Not really - just go in, do your business and leave. So why did I dislike them so much?

Some people wonder why people like me are paranoid. I wrote it off as as just a phobia I had to get over for a long time. Then I realized something - why should I have to get over it? Why should I give into my bathroom comfort levels just because it is normal? I'll tell you something - using a public bathroom isn't normal. It isn't comfortable - it isn't even right. An you want to know why? It's because you're literally sharing a bathroom. That should never be considered normal.

Think about it - at home do you just let your people walk in and out of the bathroom while doing your business? Do you leave an open door policy for parties to let friends come and go while your dropping some nuggets? No, you don't. Because it's gross, it's personal, and it is private. If you don't feel comfortable having your uncle wandering around the bathroom while you're trying to use it, why would you feel any more comfortable allowing some creeper from the street share this room with you? Or your co-workers, or your boss? It's just not right.

Now what amazes me is that we live in a society that prides itself with plumbing, electricity, vending machines, clean floors, working roadways, flat screen TV's and very nice iPods. We live in a sleek, streamlined future age in a first-world country. We should have the highest of creature comforts. Yet time and time again we have to disregard these comforts to act like animals and all share the same bathroom? I mean, we don't even have stalls without gaps between the doors for at least a little privacy. We don't have locking doors, we don't even have any music playing. Public bathrooms are dead quiet and provide quite an echo - on top of everything else.

In my perfect world, every bathroom would have stalls which acted as their own private rooms - with enough room for a toilet, toilet paper, magazine rack, a lightbulb, and a switch for a very loud and efficient fan for privacy and ventilation. Also a little sign that says "occupied" when in there, so people won't be knocking. Urinals would all have a divider between them, sinks would be behind a separate wall, and there would be soft music playing at all times. There would also be more than enough stations to do your "business" and overcrowding would be at a minimum.

I work in a building that fits the mold of everything wrong about public restrooms. Everytime I go in there, I can't help but think I shouldn't have to live this way. I also can't help but think why they keep designing crappy restrooms in otherwise non-crappy workplaces.