public restrooms with automatic faucets you have to push to turn on but that turn off almost immediatly, way before you could have thoroughly washed and rinsed your hands? how obnoxious!

Those really suck! They are just trying to save water. I understand because I've walked into bathrooms and found faucets running. Stupid idiot patrons don't have the sense to turn off the bleepin' water!!!

Water wasters have irked me for YEARS! Way before it was the in thing to "go green".
18 years ago (shortly after we moved into our neighborhood), I'd see someone using a pressure hose to wash their patio (of dirt that you couldn't even see!) and I wanted to yell "JUST GO GET A BROOM!"  Geeze!

I like those auto-faucets that you don't have to touch. They usually stay on for me and the water comes out at the right temp if they're set up right. Every now and then I'll find one that doesn't work that well, but when they do...they are great! 

And how about those hand blow-dryers that never seem to shut off!  I'd rather have one paper towel please, but then people waste those too I suppose.

And automatic toilets you can't get to flush, so your jumping up and down waving your arms while pulling up your pants - great visual image I know    It's like you have to leave the cubical before the thing flushes, how un-nerving!

I just stumbled across an old post of Leah's where she admitted to a phobia regarding germy library books. If she can confess that, then I must confess that I really dislike touching handles of any sort in public bathrooms. So I am all about the "hands free" facilities! 

I do like hands free facilities to some extent since I am a bit people germophobic. but I must admit, having a small child ...they can be annoying. little layne has to have a toilet paper curtain on the auto flushers because otherwise they flush and flush and flush while the poor girl is up there trying to do her business. and because she has to reach up to get her hands under the faucet and the sensor is aimed in such a way that it registers someones hands reaching down I have to stand there and hold my hand in front of the faucet for her to keep it on. the auto dryers or any dryer is annoying to her because it blows at face level! she looks like she is in a wind tunnel while drying her hands! do people not make their kids wash their hands when they leave the restroom or do the designers just not think of them?

my husband always teases me when we go places together because I open doors with my pinky or ring finger, always reaching for the spot I deem least likely to have been used to open the door by someone else. I like it when public restrooms have the sense to put a trash can by the door and have paper towels available so I can open the door with the paper towel and then toss it as I am walking out. I am a strict foot flusher too

at the place that recently annoyed me I had to hold both push handles down with my fore arm on one arm so the water wasn't scorching hot or freezing cold, while washing the other hand beneath the spigot seperately. it was a major WTF moment.  I sure hope they have seperate handwashing facilities for the employees...it was an eating establishment. I can't imagine all the employees were willing to contort themselves or make such effort to wash their hands while practically laying on the counter much less any customers.

OMG!
I've never thought about the challenges little ones face with all those devices! So there's your answer. The designers don't think of kids (either) and apparently, neither do the builders of the bathrooms. I wonder what so called "kid friendly" restaurants do (Chucky Cheese, for instance)? Poor Layne. Ya know, it's been so long that I've babysat & taken a small child anywhere, it just never occurred to me. Heck those devices weren't invented the last time I took a kid someplace. Didn't have a car seat for that child either. The times have changed in good and bad ways, I guess. 

Haha! We are soooo much alike (except for that library book thing! ), I am also a foot flusher and I pull my hand into my shirt sleeve to open bathroom doors. If I have to, I'll use my shirt hem. I'm not in the habit of using a towel on the door, half the time there aren't any!

You have a valid point about where the employees wash their hands in that restaurant. Sometimes, public restrooms in restaurants just make me shudder when I think about where the staff washes their hands. Please excuse me now. I need to go bathe in hand sanitizer!!! 

although many people have an issue with walmart..i appreciate their considerations in the bathroom dept. they have little pottys she can reach in the "family bathroom" ( no teetering on a big one with her little legs dangling...she looks like she will fall in on a big one) small sinks she can reach and reachable soap and they always have paper towels.

I almost asked to speak to the manager about it at that restaurant.  if it wouldn't have horrified and shamed my husband who was with me I would have chewed him out.

Take it from me...I fell into a toilet when I was 5 ( some male person in my family left the seat up and I wasn't paying attention ) and it was not fun! Fortunately, I was at home, but of course everybody had to tease me about it. Gee whiz...I was only 5!!!

I'm glad to hear that about WalMart. For all their money, that's how it should be.

Yes, you probably need to keep the horrifying, shameful embarrassment down to a minimum for poor dh. He's a keeper! 

I use my foot for flushing too and I have no problem with germs, however I have a problem with dirt and filth - yuk yuk.

I remember taking my kids into bathrooms with me.  I always took my son with me, I don't even want to think about what the male restroom looks like! 

Best to not use restrooms whenever possible *grin* but I know this is hard with little kids.  I really like our library they have a single-use, house style, boys and girls restrooms in the children's section.  The toilets are low and so are the sinks.  And they are soooo clean and private.

Ellen Degeneras has some great skits on public bathrooms..you'll laugh your lungs out