I would guess making sure your kids know about public restroom etiquette is pretty important.
One time my husband and I were driving home from a trip to Colorado and we stopped at a truck stop to get some dinner. Sometime after we ate dinner Hubby had to use the men's room so I was across the hall waiting for him and there was a mom standing next to me waiting for her boys to come out and she was wondering what was taking them so long. Anyway, my husband comes out and he told someone who was going to go in there to not to go in there because there were a couple of kids completely trashing the restroom so yeah, the mom was pretty upset when she heard him say that.
She asked him if he'd go in to tell her kids to come back out but Hubby wasn't going to do that so he told her he'd give her cover so she could go in there herself to take care of them. Probably just about everybody in the store heard her shrieking and yelling from inside the restroom and when a store employee walked by my husband told them they'd need to close the restroom so they could clean it up. He just looked in there and said "Oh, son of a b****!" and then the manager came so I felt really terrible for the mother but now that I have my own kids I keep remembering that day and hope something like that never happens with my own kids.
Anyway, I asked my husband what they did that was so bad. He said they completely unrolled a few rolls of toilet paper on the floor and on the counter and one of the kids was running around naked because the older brother tried flushing all of his clothes down the toilet so there was also a huge flood in there so yeah, had to feel terrible for mom, lol.
The picture made me laugh. I guess it is the same principle that forces someone to park right next to me when I went out of my way to park far from any other cars. I have said it 1,000 times as I leave a store.....some idiot is going to be parked 10 inches from my car. Sure enough!
I hate public bathrooms and rarely go into one. A perk of small-town living is that you are always close enough to stop by the house for a minute. The truth is that public bathrooms are dirty....there is really no way to avoid it. I remember a time when a maid was stationed in the bathroom to inspect and spray and clean constantly. There are still remnants today, particularly when the bath is located for patrons of the arts events like ballet or opera. You still see a bathroom attendant sometimes at small theaters as well.
Just don't make a mess and if you do clean it up. But, sadly, people don't. I wonder if going back to charging to enter a public bathroom would help. Nah.
