Public Bathroom Etiquette: We All Need Something to Hold Onto
Ordinary Tuesdays
Observations from everyday life. The small moments, familiar places, chance conversations, and ordinary experiences that quietly reveal something larger.
I have a story to share.
But want to preface it up front and let you know that it’s bathroom humour.
I used the restroom at Stacked in Barrie after breakfast. Bathrooms have a certain unspoken etiquette like ski lifts and grocery store crosswalks.
In short, if you’re not disabled or elderly, don’t use the handicapped bathroom stall.
The exception to this rule is a parent with small children.
Since I’m barely 63, I assume that counts me out.
Shortly after taking my proper seat, a mom with three little children came in and took that large stall.
My guess, by the giggles and volume, was that they were all under the age of five. God bless her!
Anyway, the little girl says to her mom, ” Hold my hand, I can’t reach the wall handle. I’m afraid I’ll fall in.”
The other little girl pipes up and says, “I hold onto the sides of the toilet so I don’t fall in.” Clearly the sage on the stage.
Then the little boy, no more than four, says, “Oh, I just hold onto my penis.”
I don’t miss those days. Three children under five in a public bathroom is not something I’d willingly sign up to relive.
But apparently I do miss listening to how four-year-olds solve problems.
Bathrooms, like life, are full of assumptions. We all need a small space of our own. Privacy is sometimes more imagined than real. And you never know who’s hanging on to what…for dear life.
Related Reading
If you enjoy following ordinary observations that turn into bigger questions, you might also like:
Research Note
The observations in this article are informed by ongoing reading and research in psychology, sociology, adult development, aging, friendship, purpose, identity, and life transitions. While these essays are observational rather than academic, many of the underlying ideas are grounded in established research.
- Perhaps not research, more like an unsponsored recommendation: Stacked Barrie, Essa Road
Cynthia Ross Tustin is the founder of I'm Thinking of Retiring, an online publication exploring the psychology, purpose, and everyday realities of life after work. A retired Fire Chief, former ICU and Emergency Room nurse, instructor, and policy writer, she combines lived experience, research, and a lifelong curiosity about human behaviour to write thoughtful essays on retirement, identity, purpose, friendship, and the ordinary moments that quietly reveal something larger. Through her Retirement Field Notes and Ordinary Tuesday series, she encourages readers to approach this next chapter with curiosity rather than certainty.
