<p>Which colleges force students to use coed bathrooms? I was under the impression that almost all coed bathrooms operated on an opt in basis, that is students had to specifically request such a living situation.</p>
<p>From the time my kids were born, they had their own en suite bathrooms. They are used to having privacy. I can totally see how that could color their perceptions of community bathing environments. They really didn’t like sharing their bathrooms with suitemates; obviously they had to adjust to that. But now both are in their own apartments and have their private bathrooms again. They will likely never have to share a bathroom again unless and until they live with a SO someday.</p>
<p>That said, DH and I recently purchased a home which has two full master baths. We weren’t looking for that; the house we liked was simply designed that way. I confess: I absolutely love it.</p>
<p>We like old houses (pre- 1930) so that’s not in the cards for us.</p>
<p>RacinR–People are defiling showers!?! </p>
<p>(ummm, actually no surprise)</p>
<p>“The girls would have to deal with pee all over the seats and how would men feel seeing trash bins full of tampons and pads? Isnt there more opportunities for sexual harassment and/or stalking in unisex restrooms?”</p>
<p>If there was ever pee on the seats when I was in college with co-ed bathrooms, it was rare enough that I don’t remember it. And I find pee on the seats in single-sex bathrooms all the time because of women who insist on hovering. With guys you do find seats left up from time to time but I honestly have never understood why women think that’s a big deal–and it’s going to be an issue in a co-ed home bathroom too.</p>
<p>I also am going to assume that most guys aren’t that traumatized by knowing that women use and dispose of feminine hygiene products. In any case, my college’s bathrooms had covered/contained disposal bins in the stalls so nobody else had to see them once you tossed them out. And again, this is something that would occur in an at-home or single-use co-ed bathroom as well, so everyone should get used to it.</p>
<p>I really don’t think stalker and harassers are deterred by single-sex bathrooms. Certainly, if a female has had a bad experience (been attacked or stalked) she might prefer single-sex bathrooms and living environments. And some might prefer it just because–that’s fine. But if my daughter prefers otherwise, I will certainly not have a problem with it, and I don’t think I’m shirking any parental duty to keep her safe if I let her live in a dorm where guys might use the same bathroom.</p>
<p>Why would a woman prefer a bathroom/shower area that’s also used by men?</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone has said they prefer it. Some people have said they don’t really care if it’s also used by men.</p>
<p>My college had single-sex and co-ed floors. I preferred the co-ed floors because I just preferred hanging out with a mixed male/female group.</p>
<p>The analogy between co-ed college bathrooms and family bathrooms is pretty invalid. You’re not sharing your family bathrooms with total strangers.</p>
<p>I would have hated co-ed bathrooms myself. The compromise solution is to have single-sex and all-gender designated bathrooms that are convenient to all residents.</p>
<p>I think it’s a really bad idea as well.</p>
<p>Sure, as another poster said, our home baths are all coed. But we are RELATED.</p>
<p>Just random strangers of both genders in the bathroom…um, no. Not cool</p>
<p>My point above thread is that the idea that you need to walk around naked in front of the opposite sex is misguided. i’m willing to bet that no coed bathroom necessitates that. Feeling uncomfortable with the general closeness is not the same thing and not what I was responding to. If that’s an issue, I’d certainly take that into account in picking colleges, and that’s a valid feeling. I simply don’t think that any coed bathroom anywhere means a student is being paraded naked in front of other students of the opposite sex, without choice on his or her part. I just don’t.</p>
<p>My 13yo D and 20yo S share a bathroom. I used to make the kids clean the bathroom because it was such a mess. Because of schedules I now clean it and D is the problem. Not only wrt to cleaning the spittle on the sink and mirror but with the VS push up bras and undies she leaves lying all over the floor for S and his friends to see. Kids just aren’t as modest as we used to be. I asked 20 yo S what he did when he saw sisters undies and bra on the floor. “I push them aside so they are out of my way”. No embarrassment.</p>
<p>“The analogy between co-ed college bathrooms and family bathrooms is pretty invalid. You’re not sharing your family bathrooms with total strangers.”</p>
<p>And, there’s a difference between sharing with a handful of people in a suite and with a hall where there are lots of people.</p>
<p>Garland - again, some bathroom setups are different. We all are envisioning our own experiences.</p>
<p>Slithey Tove disagrees with you, Pizzagirl. Slithey says it was clearly defined even before post 32.</p>
<p>Why would someone buy a push up bra for a 13yr old?</p>
<p>Why would a woman want to share a shower area that is also used by men?</p>
<p>To prepare herself for sharing a shower area with her husband:) someday.</p>
<p>30 years ago it wasn’t an issue on my floor. We liked having coed bathrooms because it meant you could use the bathroom closest to your room. I wasn’t traipsing around naked in front of members of the opposite sex. Frankly, I never liked the idea of walking around naked in front of members of my own sex so there wasn’t a lot of practical difference.</p>
<p>I was totally freaked out at the idea of community bathrooms that were single gender and purposely filled out my dorm questionnaire to avoid such a situation. I was in a suite and 4 girls shared the bathroom but we locked the doors when in the shower or using the toilet. In gym class in high school, with separate locker rooms, all the girls wore bathing suits in the showers. When I chaperoned my D’s band camp, the girls all wore bathing suits in the showers and they were in a single gender cabin. I’m picturing the kind of showers that were in that band camp cabin. Yes, there was a tiny room where you could change and leave your clothes just outside the shower area, but you certainly couldn’t put pants or underwear on in there without getting them wet from your wet feet and the wet floor in that little changing room area. </p>
<p>I would never in a million years be comfortable in just a bath robe around men I don’t know. I don’t get community showers/baths. I realize it’s a space issue, but I think it’s weird. I also think it is a major hassle to have to carry all your shower stuff back and forth all the time. </p>
<p>Sure, I have one bathroom in my house so it is co-ed but there is never someone else in the bathroom when someone is using the shower or toilet. My D and I would share the vanity/mirror space to do makeup, but never the other facilities. There’s nothing wrong with liking privacy.</p>
<p>I think it would be fairly unusual to wear swim suit in the showers, although in jr high if we were running late, the teacher would occasionally let us get away with towel showers( just washing the sweaty bits with a washcloth- I was quite late re development so I didn’t like group showers)</p>
<p>I now take water aerobics 4 x a week at a community pool with women in their 20’s - 80’s and everyone removes their suit in the communal showers, so they can rinse it out.( & most of the time I remember to retrieve it later) </p>
<p>We often vacation in an inn with family style meals & just a couple family bathrooms. ( single toilets) they also have a communal outdoor hot tub where many of the guests use it au naturel. Big Scandinavian influence although other cultures have communal bathing as a social activity also.</p>
<p>Im not saying the way others bathe is wrong, only that there is a range of expectations & experiences.
( I also gave birth twice in a teaching hospital & after that its pretty hard to pretend that I have any modesty left)
As long as dorm residents are respectful of each other (& I expect behavior is better in the smaller dorms like my oldest’s, where the whole college was smaller than her sisters high school), then I wouldn’t anticipate problems. It pretty much cuts down on the romantic entanglements, the students even called it “dormcest” to date someone from the same dorm.</p>
<p>My kids would NOT be okay with it. I had one that flat refused anything with a community bath at all. Suite bath was okay. Weird, extreme, quirky…yes…but I’m with her on drawing the line on girls and guys in the same bathroom at the same time. Not something that is okay for most people here.</p>