Recently there has been a lot of flap swirling around public toilets and just who should go where.  I remember once when we were first married I SCANDALIZED some people at a bar because I couldn’t wait and I did not want to go by myself.  So I dragged my very embarrassed new husband in there with me.  The next thing I heard was, “Wait!  I have to go, too!”  And so for me nine years ago is when I realized a “one-holer” (as they say in Texas) with a lock and a sink is the way to go.  What on earth is the crime with married couples going in together?  And of course once you have a child sometimes fathers must take little girls past men using urinals.  I find that far more traumatic.  Then as a woman you have the perverted almost-teenage boys in the ladies’ room that try to peek at you through the stall.  That’s just disgusting and a total invasion of privacy.  Family restrooms starting coming around several years ago and it seemed to make it more OK to all go in together.  Then it didn’t matter who changed the baby where (since a changing table is provided) and everyone got to tinkle and wash their hands in safety and privacy.  This is an especially big deal for us in airports; in fact it has been a lifesaver.  We all stay together and our luggage is safe.  I have noticed the newest trend is to have two unisex “one-holers” in restaurants and I am all for them.  If it’s occupied, the door is closed.  If it’s not, the door is open.  How simple is that??  No more endless waiting in line, particularly if you’re a woman.  And parents can take their children to the restroom if they need to go without the horrifying choice of what they might be exposed to or see.  I just don’t get what the problem is.  In fact, I don’t know why no one did this 50 years ago.  Meanwhile, the term “first world problem” comes to mind.  Former United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Mathews Burwell said:

“No innovation in the past 200 years has done more to save lives and improve health than the sanitation revolution triggered by invention of the toilet.  But it did not go far enough.  It only reached one-third of the world.”

So while we in the U.S. and other parts of the world are flipping over proverbial sausages and eggs, let us remember those who do not have the luxury of choosing even basic sanitation … much less which toilet to use.