Pet Peeves – People Who Don’t Knock

Maybe it is because I spend so much time in bathrooms. Maybe I am just neurotic. But my absolute biggest pet peeve is people who do not knock before they try to open a bathroom door! ARGH!  It makes me boiling mad every time. If you knock, I assure you I will tell you I am there. Don’t people realize how rude that is?????  And besides, locks fail!  ARGH! I know everyone goes to the bathroom and when you are sitting down there really isn’t much showing but still! Totally embarrassing. Especially if I am having one of my bad days.

Public restrooms with multiple stalls are the worst - Check for feet before you push the door open people! Easy, simple. Takes 2 seconds to be polite and maintain the allusion of privacy we pretend to have in public restrooms. I also hate that they all have little gaps between the door panels. Sometimes the gaps in the doors are not so little. I always feel like people can see me, which of course they can. When we are in there for a 2 second pee it’s not big deal. Where you are in there for a painful 20 minutes marathon session, it sucks. Especially when there is a long line and you know people are waiting for you to get the hell out of their way.

How many times have you been walked in on? I have lost count myself. But my most mortifying experience?  Well that would be the time that the person who didn’t knock was my father-in-law.  Yep. That was a blast. The Hubby and I where visiting and because of small children that where running around at the time, they keep the bathroom door close. I closed the door and locked it but it didn’t engage. So now I am obsessive compulsive about checking the lock. I lock it, rattle the door to make sure it is really closed. I check the door at least three times before I start. If someone walks by, I cough. I don’t even mean to do it, it just happens – my new defense mechanism I guess. I want there to be no mistake – the closed door means occupied.

I hate big bathrooms. The ones where the door is so far from the toilet you can’t reach out and stop it from opening if someone tries to come in.  I feel very, um, exposed. Vulnerable. There is not place to hide in such big rooms. I hate it. The TGI Friday’s in Florida where I used to live has wonderful stalls. Small, dark, and with doors that go all the way to the floor and way up over my head. The thick solid doors that block noise are a huge bonus. I worry about their flushing mechanism, but privacy is never an issue.

 Work seems to have the highest number of No-Knock Offenders. And it just so happens that I hate those bathrooms with a passion. One – they are too big for my taste. Too much space for sound to echo around in there.  Two – the door opens out into a hallway. I work in a high school. The faculty bathrooms are along the halls where kids walk past and bang into the door every 45 minutes. It’s hell getting stuck in there when classes change. Every time it sounds like someone is trying the door handle, my heart stops. And for some reason, people like to stand outside the door and talk. What are they doing out there so close?? Listening?? Come on! Have a little common sense. Do you want people standing two feet from the door while you are taking care of business?  Teachers do it to. Stand right outside the door so I literally run into them when I walk out. It’s a huge hallway people. You can stand a few feet away and still be in line for the bathroom. Sheesh.