Uh, sir, you can't go into the women's room.

[Spider Jerusalem]

Okay...once again, it's been a while. Mostly, I either haven't had time or just haven't felt up to rehashing things that have been driving me to the absolute snapping point. Maybe later I'll be able to talk about a couple of the worst ones without frothing at the mouth...

But for now, here's one that didn't happen to me, but was relayed to me after I came back from lunch a couple weeks ago. This one is so over-the-top that I just had to pop in and share it.

So, I came back from lunch and a coworker told me what I'd missed. This guy had come in with his elderly mother in a wheelchair and his wife in a scooter. Now, the photo lab is at the very back of the store, right across from the restrooms (which has made working there an entirely new kind of adventure, at least until someone fixed the vents in the restrooms), so these people passed right by the lab on the way to the toilets.

First, they headed for the family restroom, which was occupied. So then the guy decided to wheel his mother into the women's room. And go on in there with her.

Let me repeat that. He went into the women's restroom.

On his way in, one of my coworkers (S) told him, "Sir, you can't go in there."

He immediately blew up at her. Yeah, how dare she tell him that he can't go into the women's bathroom. Just because his wife couldn't lift her ass out of the scooter to help his mother herself is no excuse. He could've just waited until the person in the family restroom was finished. There was simply no excuse for him exploding like that.

What exactly did he say to her? Brace yourselves, this is a hum-dinger.

He walked right up to the counter, got right in her face, and yelled, "Fuck you!"

Of course, everyone in the lab just stared in shock. Yeah, say fuck you to a woman in her early sixties, when all she did was tell you--in a quite reasonable tone--not to go into a bathroom that's off-limits to your entire half of the human race. Classy guy.

Then his wife popped off with, "You can't talk to him that way!"

Okay, let's milk this, shall we? He's the one who said fuck you to S, yet S "can't talk to him that way"?

Oh, but it gets even better. The wife followed up with, "We're gonna beat the shit outta you!"

At this point, S was seeing red. When the woman in the cart threatened her, she just said, "Bring it on! If you can get out of that cart, all I have to do is give you a push and you'll roll all the way to the other end of town!"

Fortunately, it didn't escalate farther than that, because S would've done it. The guy already had only one good eye, probably because someone punched the other one out (at least, that's what I choose to believe). If he had actually taken a swing at her, she probably would've gotten rid of his good one.

The whole thing was witnessed by many people, including one of this family's relatives, who came up afterward and apologies for their behavior...and gave us one interesting tidbit of information.

These people are among the biggest shoplifters in town. They hide the stuff they steal in their baby's diapers, among other places. That's probably why they went nuclear the instant S told them that he couldn't go in there--they had a bunch of stolen stuff to hide.

Anyway. Wow.

The way things are going, my posting here will probably continue to be sporadic, but I just had to jump in and share this one.

[blas]

I openly admit to using the men's bathroom at bars (smaller bars with single bathrooms for both genders) because some girls I swear just lock themselves in the bathroom and WILL. NOT. come out!

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Before somebody comes along to say the mother may have legitimately needed her son's help in the women's room, I think the fact that this brood of kahilkers is widely known as a bunch of boosters shoots that completely out of the water.

And them going nuclear on S is pretty solid proof they were planning to try something.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

I openly admit to using the men's bathroom at bars (smaller bars with single bathrooms for both genders) because some girls I swear just lock themselves in the bathroom and WILL. NOT. come out!

The only time I've had to use the men's restroom was back at my old store during the remodeling we had on the area stores 4 years ago . . . both restrooms were being completely repainted and new fixtures installed.

So while the ladies' room was blocked off until the remodel was complete in there, everybody had to use the mens' restroom (and vice versa.)

Ended up taking a week and a half because while the men's room was being redone, a pair of teenage morons decided it would be fun to jump up and down on the sink in the men's room and cause it to fall from the wall the day after the men's room was reopened with the new fixtures (their parents had to pay for damages, though).

[Andara Bledin]

I've only been in a men's restroom once... and it wasn't to use the facilities...

^-.-^

[Summerfly413]

Our bathroom is through the electronics area, where I was working the other night. I had a guy roll back riding one of our store scooters, and he asked where our bathrooms were. I pointed him back to where they were and continued doing whatever I was doing. I thought about saying "the women's bathroom is on the right and the men's is on the left" ..but I didn't.

Then a while later someone came out of the back room area, slightly back from the bathrooms, and I saw the man coming out of the women's bathroom. I just kind of looked away and acted like it didn't happen cause he was leaving and no women had gone in while he was in there so it was no big deal.

I felt kinda bad for those people in the first story until they freaked out for seemingly no reason.
Once that woman threatened your coworker, I would've told her I'd call the police. After all, there were plently of witnesses

[BookstoreEscapee]

Before somebody comes along to say the mother may have legitimately needed her son's help in the women's room,

Even if she did, there was a family bathroom available for just that sort of situation. They just didn't want to wait until it was unoccupied. And if the only option really was for him to go into the women's room to help her, a reasonable person would have explained and asked an employee to make sure there was no one else in there before entering.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I've used the men's loo after hours in the top floor of the student union on campus.

I used to post a friend at the door. Nasty. But the worst part was the freaking glory holes at face level while you're trying to sit on the can.

Not cool.

Anyways, what was scooter bitch gonna do? Chase you down and run over you with it?

"Fuck you." Wow. She must have laid awake at night every night for a week racking her brains to come up with a burn like that. Snappy. And she even remembered to say it, too. I'm impressed. Let me get some paper and write that down and try to memorize it. "Fuck you." I hope i can remember it.

[Rine]

Yeaaah, I don't think he was going in there to help, either.

I had a woman come up with her husband once and he needed extra help in the bathroom. So, I stood guard at the women's bathroom while she went in with her husband. Not a big deal. All people have to do is ask and reasonable accommodations would be made.

[Ben_Who]

I swear, I promise, I only ducked into the ladies room when I had made damn sure that a) I was the only other person in the entire pizza parlor, b) no one was in the ladies room and hadn't been for some time, and c) whoever was in the men's room would not get. The fuck. Out.

That plus an entire PITCHER of root beer requiring my undivided attention and best possible racehorse impersonation and I did my best to be in and out in thirty seconds, including the time it took to wash my hands.

Now let us never speak of this again.

Love, Who?

[sirwired]

Let me preface this by saying that the customers in the original post were indeed sucky.

Men assisting women (or little kids) in the restroom is something of an interesting question. Let's say you have a dad with a little girl that really needs to use the bathroom. And for the sake of argument, assume there is no family restroom.

The dad escorting his daughter into the women's restoom is not necessarily an illogical choice, even if it is occupied. (I'm picturing a multi-station restroom here.) The men's room has a bunch of guys not in stalls, whipping their thing out; in many restrooms without dividers, there could be little left to the imagination of the tender youth, depending on the layout of the place. You go to the women's restoom, and what do you see?: closed stalls, and women washing their hands.

Yes, I suppose that a pervy guy could use his girl as a "front" in order to peep (ick), but OTOH, pervy guys already present in the men's room could be rather bad too...

Food for thought,

SirWired

[elsporko]

I was cleaning the ladies room when a woman came in and started going before I had a chance to leave. That was awkward.

[bainsidhe]

I've had the occasional customer drive our scooter carts into the restroom. Erm, the bathrooms aren't that big and the scooters aren't that small. Recently saw a woman who managed to get the entire scooter into the handicapped stall. Neat, until you realized she couldn't get it back out again. I'm doing my business as I hear bang. bang. bang. bang. Just like a bumper car as she's trying to position the thing. Someone else told me how a gentleman got the cart stuck and two employees had to carry the cart out of the bathroom. Attention customers: Scooters and shopping carts DO NOT belong in the bathroom. Thank you.

And SirWired, there's no perfect solution. I once had a customer freaking out because a woman took her son into the ladies room right after another woman took her little girl inside. Heaven forbid the horror and terribleness that could happen. I assumed (silly me) the boy was preteen or older. Nope, the kid was maybe four. Good grief, can you imagine if it were daddy taking the little girl into the ladies room?

[Captain Trips]

Okay, I have to say something here (NOT in defense of their attitude, though. That totally sucked.) I have taken my wife into the ladies room more often than I can remember. ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) allows it, as when she is needing to use her wheelchair it's because she has problems standing up on her own, and (hold your dinner here) sometimes she actually does need help wiping herself.

Now, even if there is a family restroom available, if it's in use it's in use - and no telling how long they'll be in there. And if my wife has to go, she has to go NOW. And if I have to help her, well, we go into the women's room. It is actually illegal for someone to tell me I can't go in with her. So, I do have to point out that the employee that said he can't go in there was in violation by saying that. Of course, this in no way excuses their response. If someone said that to me, I'd be polite and say, "I'm sorry, but the Americans with Disabilities Act says I CAN go in there, as long as it's to be my wife's 'disabled attendant.' Unless you are volunteering to wipe her ass for her, so I don't have to." (I have had to say this before. Once I get to the last sentence, the response is "Okay, go ahead.") I wouldn't be sucky about it, but I WOULD go in with her. Of course, we usually announce ahead of time "Male attendant coming in!"

Besides, what's the big deal? I have never seen anything "private" in there anyway, they all are in private stalls. (Except the time I had to take her into the campground shower, but we made absolutely certain that no one in there objected first.)

Sorry for the rant, but until you have had to help take care of your disabled spouse, you don't really understand the situation from the "customer's" point of view.

Like I have said, though, this in no way is meant to excuse the customer's suckiness here. Nothing can do that. There is a right way to respond, which I believe is what I do.

[ralerin]

I've used the men's room as a little girl. Men's room was the closest and the women's room was on the other side of the store near the shoe department. I went in while dad waited near the sink, washed my hands, went out and that was that.

I did get a funny look from a guy when I came out of the restroom at a gas station several years ago. Hey, some lady had locked herself in the restroom and stayed there for fifteen minutes. Full bladder overwhelmed desire to wait.