Yes or No, Should You Hover When You Use A Public Restroom?

I was listening to a podcast this weekend while I was painting and at one point the podcast turned towards whether or not it is safe to sit in a public restroom versus hovering. The experts came to the conclusion that it's better for you to sit, and is actually pretty safe to do so.

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Well and Good online asked some experts about a TikTok video that offered the 'medical' advice to hover. Surprisingly you probably shouldn't seek medical advice on TikTok, and "In order to pee when you’re squatting “you’re having to push past and bypass that normal mechanism,” Dr. Jeffrey-Thomas explained in the TikTok. “If we’re constantly messing with that relationship between your pelvic floor and your bladder, that can lead to difficulties with controlling urinary urgency, as well as issues with stress incontinence,” she continued. Meaning, you may end up being more likely to pee yourself in the future if you keep on squatting."

WebMD has an article up that goes over the "germ-a-phobia" that some people have when encountering a bathroom other than their own, and while it's true that you can encounter in a bathroom things like "streptococcus, staphylococcus, E. coli, and shigella bacteria, hepatitis A virus, the common cold virus, and various sexually transmitted organisms."

While all of that sounds overwhelming and scary, their advice for those afraid of a public bathroom is a simple one. Wash your hands. If you are washing your hands for the correct about of time, anything that you may contract from a bathroom will either be washed away or rendered harmless through proper handwashing.

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Back to the hovering conversation, Kelly and I asked you this morning, and all of the responses we got on the 98.1 app were saying that you also don't hover, and chose to sit while you handle what you need to do.

My wife had the best reaction to this question, "do what ya gotta do in order to do what ya gotta do."