After I read this article on inews it hit a nerve with me because we have had our fair share of incidences over the last few weeks with the lack of open toilets, but no-one seems to be talking about it.
I wish the prime minister or health secretary had experience of bladder issues or chronic illnesses. Honestly, during lockdown this wasn't a problem- the only issue was if someone else in the family was using the wetroom instead of going upstairs to the bathroom. As soon as we have been able to go out for more than one short period of exercise a day, this part of life has been almost impossible.
In our car we carry all sorts of things between us all, but one more recent addition is a portable toilet. Being a powerchair, in the back of a converted VW there isn't much privacy. I am surrounded by windows on all four sides. The only way we have worked out is to try and park somewhere quiet, get a blanket to cover me up, wriggle to the front of my powerchair as much as possible and hope for the best. It is far from a quick fix or a fail proof method. It would be far easier and simpler if I could use my RADAR key to access the padlocked disabled toilets when we are out and about.
I understand that everyone needs to be extra vigilant with the pandemic, but how is making people either wet themselves or urinate in people's gardens/on beaches/in bushes any better for people's health than having handwashing facilities and ensuring face coverings are always worn at public conveniences? The number of people who don't wash their hands after using the lav anyway is disgusting, so I don't see that changing. It means I carry around my own hand sanitiser, tissues, wipes and soap sheets as a matter of course. I have a face covering, as do all my family, plus spare individual wrapped ones in the car and in my wheelchair bag. I am not aware of being able to catch the coronavirus through a toilet seat, so don't see the issue.
As it is, with two of us in the family having bladder issues and bowel issues, any trips outside are always planned to include regular and failsafe toilet breaks. At the moment this is impossible. When we have needed the toilets they have been locked with padlocks. We have seen some people climbing over barriers in shops to use the toilets, people moving barriers out of the way to take their small children to the toilet- unfortunately I can't be that sneaky in a large powerchair, it tends to stand out a bit.
At home, I have to make sure there is someone available to help me when I need a wee, so that is sometimes tricky, but having the public toilets open again across the country will open up our lives again and mean we can travel out of home's reach.
When a toilet is flushed without a lid, droplets are flung out of the toilet bowl all around the stall. This happens all the time- which is why lids are invented. People so often don't use the lids, and disabled toilets often don't have them anyway. The toilet water being flung around wouldn't matter any more than it usually does as long as people wear face coverings and wash their hands surely? After all, we can now go to the pub, to the cinema, for a meal out, shopping, get married and more- all differently to prior to covid19. In Ireland they have even published guidance on how to use a toilet now!
This article goes on to talk about the litter being left by the public visiting beaches and parks. Just this afternoon we visited our local park and saw the usual amounts of litter left around the place there too. There are always the tell tale signs of the darker side of the park where groups of older teens and men (not being sexist here, it is men around here) gather in groups for a smoke and drink, presumably unable to find the many bins on their way home. There is always broken glass somewhere there too to accompany the beer bottles, cans, bread bags and other general waste floating in the lake. It seems that people with this same mindset are also visiting the beaches photographed for this article (and many others like it). I have never understood how anyone can litter. If I drop anything at all I always go to pick it up, or ask someone to help me pick it up. I would never be able to just get up and walk away from a collection of bottles, wrappers and packets we had used.
I remember seeing my mother in law drop some litter on the floor when my husband and I hadn't been together very long. I pointed it out to her and she just left it. I mentioned it to my husband who told her to pick it up. I felt awful, like the litter police or something. 🙈
Our children are awful at home for leaving half finished bottles of drink around but when we are out and about they know to use the bins or their pockets and (being gloriously literal and autistically honest) are keen to loudly point out anyone who they see drop litter.🌈
It says there was faeces in food takeaway containers - how would you even do that on a busy beach?! (I do not want answers). We have all been there with children, desperate for a wee you hold them up at the side of the road for a wee so they don't wet themselves, but this is so different. Yuck.
(All images from pixababy free clipart)
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