Urinal Rule Exceptions and Defensive Posturing

One of the wonderful things about having children is throwing all of your rules of bathroom etiquette out the window. Take talking in the bathroom for instance. When you enter a public bathroom with a 4 year old, it’s all “don’t touch the toilet” and “wash your hands” and “please pull your pants up“, words that simply should never be uttered in strictly adult company.

Well the other day ICBE Jr and I were dining at a restaurant when I accompanied him to the bathroom. It was the standard set of 3 urinals, and he took the kiddie-sized one on the left.

I went ahead and took the middle urinal.

*gasp*

I’m going to go ahead and repeat myself here – I took the middle urinal. Now on the one hand that was a grievous breach of bathroom etiquette. On the other hand, what I didn’t want to happen was to take the urinal on the right, and then have a third party enter and occupy a urinal between me and ICBE Jr. Much like in politics, etiquette is often about the lesser of evils.