Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Turkey or Ham? Mulan or Pocahontas? Bathroom Stall Doors that Swing in or out?

Many years ago at Girls Camp my friends and I brainstormed endless list of these two-option, quick-fire questions. Through all these years, I have firmly maintained that I prefer bathroom stall doors that swing out. But now, I'm not so sure.
There is a certain logic behind bathroom stall doors that swing in. 1) Many public restrooms can become quite crowded. Should the stall doors swing out, there would be a much greater liability of someone inside a stall injuring someone outside one. 2) With a stall door that swings in, the occupant of the stall has greater control over their privacy. Sometimes, as we all lamentably know, locks can come loose or not work in the first place. And sometimes people push the stall doors open when there is someone inside, unaware of this fact. If the stall door swings out, there is absolutely nothing the person inside the stall can do: the door is far out of their reach. If the door swings in, however, they could kick it with their foot or block it with their hand while shouting "hey!" and thus regain their privacy much more quickly.
On the other hand, we all know how difficult it can be to get in and out of a stall with a door that swings in while wearing an overly-filled backpack. No one really wants to have to stand on the toilet to accomplish this often very difficult task, especially to the balance-impaired.
What a quandary.

5 comments:

  1. Yes, indeed... I can see the difficulty of that precarious balancing act.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hmm... lots of thoughts I have never explored were presented in this post.

    ReplyDelete
  3. How do these types of things always happen to you??? Hello TMCB light????

    ReplyDelete
  4. yeah, get this: the other day, I went to my locker in the library and saw a light fixture on the ground. I looked up and saw that it was the one from directly above MY locker. out of the probably five light fixtures along that string of lockers, why mine? Luckily I wasn't present for the blessed event this time, just the aftermath.

    ReplyDelete
  5. swiper no swiping- i have a that list of questions somewhere im sure.

    ReplyDelete