User: what to do

The first time I saw these plastic freestanding urinals was in Amsterdam a couple years ago. Since it's a party town on the weekends and public restrooms are few, they had a big problem with public urination. It wasn't so much the guys peeing of the bridges into the many canals that was a problem (since much of the drains flow into them anyway) it was the guys and gals peeing against the side of landmark buildings and in alleyways that was a problem. Urine eats away at the sides of stone buildings and streets and leaves a stench for days. These urinals where put out to offer shy guys a somewhat private place to go and they do block the view of your privates. Yes, they should come up with a female version as well. I used one once to try out something new, but on past visits I became comfortable with just peeing off the bridges and even with the placement of these new urinals, there where more guys peeing off bridges than using these. I understand now they're trying to stop the years long habit of guys peeing into the canals, but frankly having done both I prefer to just pee off the bridges.

on that occation nearly all of them were standing near a bench along one side and peeing toward one of the drains in the center of the room. A couple guys turned along side the benches away from others. Since that day, I've simply been $%!@ing out into the center of the room, reguardless of whom's around and no one has said a thing to me and at least half the time they'll do the same. Give it a try sometime, you'll be surprised that no one cares.

Mister poll now lets you see how men voted vs. women and how age groups vote.

No surprise the younger folks are less shy than the over 50 crowd, but it's interesting that the few people who never pee in showers are all MEN! What's more, girls are bolder than boys when it comes to peeing on a bench or even in a corner.

I've often caught boys peeing in the dressing area at our pool and a couple times joined them. One day my 10 year old and I walked in to see his friend peeing openly and his grandfather turned away from us just begining. We startled him and he stopped. I similed and said, "don't stop on our account, I think most of the boys do it and I have myself". Hesitantly he resumed and my son having never done so in front of me said, "do you care if I do it?" I laughed and said, "go ahead." Needing to go myself I soon joined him. Naturally after I began a half dozen of the other boys and 2 of their fathers walked in. To my great surprise without even a word said all of them eventually urinated on the floor, including a life guard whom walked in as we were leaving! My son was more surprised than I. As we got to the car he continued talking about it in front of his mom and 14 year old sister, "mom you'll never believe, all the guys where peeing on the floor, so dad said ....' I tried to stop him, thinking my wife would find it cude and yell at me for setting a bad example. Again to my surprise she replied, "I'm sure it's not the first time you've done it and I've heard that all the guys do, so it's really no big deal then." As we got out of the car my 14 year old girl comented, "a lot of the girls pee in the dressing room too, its no big deal." That really surprised me that not only was my wife aware of and ok with us peeing on the floor, my daughter was also doing so. We were never so open about it with women in my day.

This weekend we went to a city pool for a swim. Walking in I noticed a restroom as we entered, then a shower area and finally an outdoor dressing area, that was just a few screen walls with benches around the perimiter. We walked through rather quickly, but I did happen to notice some wet concrete in the center of the room, but no showers. Latter when I came through to use the urinal I noticed clear patterns that several guys had urinated there. As I walked back through again I came upon a man in his fortys and 2 teenage boys peeing openly in the dressing area. As we left for the day, upon entering a boy was peeing on the floor and as I began to remove my suit another man of about 60 came in, lowered his suit and began peeing while making conversation with me. Now I'm not one to do so normally, but I have to admit that after seeing that I also began urinating on the floor. My 8 year old son quickly followed me in doing so himself. When we got to the car, to my shock he began telling my wife that we had just relieved ourselves on the floor of the dressing room. I thought that she would come unglued with me, since this was the little hometown pool she went to as a kid and everyone knows her. My wife said, "really, your dad peed on the floor" in a stern voice, then laughed and said, "and I thought you wouldn't fit in." I began to explain that numerous boys and men had done so, or I never would have done so myself. Again she laughed and said, "it's no problem, guys have always told they pee in the dressing area, my brothers did and even my dad confessed to doing so." She went on to say, "but I never thought you would do such a thing," she laughed again and said, "there's hope for you yet." I never saw a place were so open about peeing in the dressing area.

There have been many studies done on the subject, even a couple of paper backed books, "Do you do it with the lights on?" and "Are you normal?" A couple of University newspapers have written on the subject and published quote from students. Surprisingly, all of them report that more women urinate in showers than men. While results varied some, about 75% of women and about 60% of men often do so.

One College paper printed reactions to their results. Men where universally surprised to hear so many women do so. When asked why they do so, the most common response women gave was to the effect, "men pee everywhere, the shower is about the only place where a gal can be naughty and let it loose!" A parenting magazine printed an artical on pottie train boys, suggesting they begin in the shower. This sparked many positive comments and later a survey of mothers asking if they thought it acceptable for boys to pee in showers. Again, 86% of moms said they wouldn't object and 62% actually said they'd rather boys go in the shower than aim for the toilet.

The long and short of it. Women do so more often than men, but men believing that women rarely do so are hesitant to let women know they do, fearing criticsm. However, overwhelming men said if they knew in fact their significant other did pee in the shower, they would do so themselves.