I know the stereotype is that girls hate it when guys leave the toilet seat up. In the past, I’ve been pretty neutral about it.
Yes, it sucks to sit down in the dark and end up with a butt covered in cold water. But, you only have to do that a couple of times before you start checking to make sure the seat is where you want it.
(And, believe me, that’s better than the middle of the night “don’t check, sit down, and start before you realize the lid is down” nightmare, which I may or may not have discovered first hand when staying at one of your houses back in my drinking days.)
So, it’s always seemed to me that the toilet seat is just something you have to check, why stress about it?
And maybe it’s more annoying when you’re living with a lover, but for me, living with my brother, I love the raised toilet seat.
And I’m going to tell you why: Because, on any given morning, my most pressing wonder is “where’s my car?”
And, if I get up and the toilet seat is up, regardless of where the Butcher is at that moment, I know he came home at least long enough to drop off my car and go to the bathroom.
So, hurray for that.
Tiny Cat Pants 
I wonder if women who have an issue with this just get in the car, slam it in reverse and peel out. Or, you know, do they look behind them first.
In our house, because we have a dog, the toilet seat and lid are ALWAYS closed. (I did once, in the middle of the night, sit down on the closed lid. It was a close call to remedy that without an accident and I wasn’t even drunk.) The closed lid just became a habit, and since we have a toddler now, it works out well.
Weirdly, it’s gotten to the point where I’m so used to the closed lid I’m slightly put off by anything else — not only is it bad feng shui, but I’ve begun to believe, unfairly, that it’s somehow unsanitary. I know it isn’t, but again, I’m just used to the closed lid! Are other people like this?
The main reason that I prefer seat down to seat hoisted is because I don’t really want to be reminded that it’s been a couple of days since I cleaned the toilet. The lid overhang sort of disguises the general icky-wah.
But yeah. Of all the stupid things to cry about after my father’s funeral, I came back to my mom’s house and cried because the infuriating man was no longer there to leave the toilet seat up. Missed it like a toothache.
Milkshake joins you in praising the raised toilet seat. When we got home from being out of town for 3 days, his water bowls were almost full…I realized why when he followed me to the bathroom, climbed up on the seat and started drinking out of the bowl!
Note to self: always be sure Amanda flushes!!!!
Ginger – funny! One of mine drank from the toilet twice, vomited both times. Now he sits on the sink and demands that the faucet be turned on.
Well, really, who can blame him? Our cats aren’t big on running water, but they do love to hop in the shower when you’re on the toilet, like they get that it’s some kind of ritual folks in our house do, and so they want to participate, but they don’t want all that annoying falling water everywhere.
Everyone down. Everyone equally inconvenienced. Everyone learns to check whether the seat is in the up/down/medial position.
Why am i not a fan of up? Working with a man who is militant on the up mode, but who pisses all over the rim, so that when I come in I have to lower the seat while looking at his piss. It’s like having my nose rubbed in his sense of male resentment.
Seems to me, having had this conversation off and on with folks or one gender or another for about 20 years, that the thing is really about not wanting to look at the dirty toilet. Toilets are dirty and gross. They just are. And not having to look at them (especially if they are not in one’s own jurisdiction) more than casually seems reasonable. You can check the seat without really focussing. Auto seat down would be a big improvement to the bathroom, like auto flush, auto water on, and auto dispense soap and hand-towels.
One cool thing is these urban street toilets that you pay a quarter and go inside, and when you’re all done they close themselves up and blast water and soap all over the place. They are wet but always clean. The true unisex bathroom, agnostic except about cleanliness.
I am going to try so hard today to work “agnostic bathroom” into the conversation somehow. What a beautiful concept.
I just figure if the point is that the seat needs to be down so that the woman can go to the bathroom in the dark, then that means I get to go to the bathroom in the dark as well.
Enjoy sitting on that seat afterwards…
Jon, remind me to never have you over to spend the night until I get a glow-in-the-dark toilet seat.
This reminds me of a time visiting with my wife’s cousins over Thanksgiving 2 years ago. There were about 15 of us in one house and the toilet on the main floor got clogged up. There was a plunger sticking up out of the toilet and a sign posted on the door not to use that bathroom. Well one drunken cousin did not pay attention later that night. I am not sure how she sat on a toilet with a plunger handle sticking up out of it, but she did manage to flood the basement when she flushed it… man that was a mess. So – not only do you need to check the seat status, but be sure to check the flow status of the toilet before using :).