Most of us have lived with at least one roommate in our lifetime, and some of us have some horror stories we could tell.
But the gross stories never cease to be any less shocking, cringed the “Am I the A**hole?” (AITA) subReddit.
Redditor lizardsonline was fed up with one of her male roommate’s bathroom habits, to the point that she was considering buying potty-training tools for him.
But when her other roommates insisted that would be degrading, the Original Poster (OP) wondered if she was taking it too far.
She asked the sub:
“WIBTA (Would I Be the A**hole) if I bought potty-training aim stickers for my male roommate who keeps p**sing on the floor?”
The OP was on good terms with three of her four roommates.
“I (23 Female) have four male roommates (22, 22, 24, and 24) they’re all really fun and nice guys and we get along well personality-wise.”
“I share a bathroom with two of them, who we’ll call Ethan (24 Male) and Brandon (22 Male).”
“Brandon for the most part is pretty chill, super respectful of the shared bathroom space, puts the seat down, and cleans when it’s his turn (not exactly to my standard but I know I grew up in a house where my mom was super anal about cleaning and he tries, and that’s really all I care about).”
“He never leaves an egregious mess, and always cleans the drain.”
The fourth roommate, however, was a doozy.
“Ethan, however, never cleans the bathroom, always leave various types of hair everywhere, often forgets to flush, leaves trash on the floor, and has the worst aim imaginable. It’s like he tries to p**s facing away from the toilet with a blindfold on.”
“Every time Brandon and I scrub the bathroom, the next day (sometimes even sooner) there’s p**s on the rim, seat, on the outside of the bowl, floor, and WALL. All over basically. It’s like someone exploded a p**s monster inside the bathroom.”
“And he NEVER wipes it up. I’ll ask him, and he’ll be like, ‘For sure, I’ll do that, my bad,’ and then doesn’t. One time I found literal s**t on the floor.”
“Both Ethan and I have brought it up in our roommate meetings and talked to him independently about this, and it’ll change for a day or two, only to return to the same p**sy status.”
The OP was considering trying a new tactic.
“In the beginning, I just dealt with it, but it’s been six months now and I’m fed up.”
“So I found one of those ‘Aim Here‘ stickers for potty training kids that I planned on buying and putting in the toilet with no further comment.”
“When I mentioned this to Brandon, he said it might be a bit rude and would cause more problems than solving them.”
“Male friends that I mentioned this to told me that it was rude and that I can’t expect a man to sit down to p**s (which I never said but they extrapolated).”
“I’m just over having a p**s-covered bathroom.”
“Would I be the a**hole for putting potty-training devices and stickers in the bathroom?”
Fellow Redditors weighed in:
- NTA: Not the A**hole
- YTA: You’re the A**hole
- ESH: Everybody Sucks Here
- NAH: No A**holes Here
Some pointed out that the OP was not the rude person in this scenario.
“Here’s the thing. The men you’ve consulted are balking at your AWESOME idea because it ‘might be a bit rude.'”
“Hey. You know what’s rude? P**sing all over like an untrained animal and expecting OTHER people to clean up after you, or to just tolerate wallowing in urine and occasional scat. But No One (in your house) wants to talk about that.”
“Sure, the expectations are being rehashed in meetings. But who has said to Ethan, ‘Dude, you are a rude and filthy motherf**ker, and I’m not having it!'”
“Who has challenged him on his ultimate lack of decency and respect?”
“The time for niceties is way past. This calls for more severe measures and Ethan deserves every bit of it.”
“YES, buy those p**s targets and use them. Keep using them until the problem is corrected for a good week and then revert to it if/when Ethan forgets to aim. If he’s embarrassed… well, dude, you SHOULD be embarrassed. That’s the f**king point. You are embarrassing yourself for behaving like a toddler that never had home training, and so now it’s on OP, the House Mommy, to show you the way.”
“F**k Ethan’s feelings. He’s unspeakably rude and if he can’t learn to live like a human, he doesn’t deserve to live with them. Hit the bowl or get the f**k out. And that’s without even going into his failure to clean up after himself.”
“OP, NTA. Get the targets. Plus a roll of paper towels and Clorox bathroom spray to park on top of the tank. If he misses the target, march him in and point at all the spots and supervise the cleaning of his mistake.”
“He’ll learn. That’s how all of us moms taught our boys. I’m sorry Ethan was raised by alley cats and now it’s on you to show him how to be a big boy. Good luck, OP.” – not_inacult
“Ugh, you’re more patient than I am, OP. I’d have rubbed his face in his own mess by now.”
“What the f**k are you doing, cleaning up after this grown-a** man?”
“NTA for this, but Y T A to yourself for putting up with it for one second.” – MichaSound
“I always find these stories about guys not peeing in the toilet amazing. I believe them as I have lived with roommates who I didn’t know well and have seen it firsthand… but all the men I do know well would never do this.”
“Not my father, not my brothers, cousins, not my husband, or teenage sons. It’s literally just men who truly just don’t give a s**t… probably because they’ve never had to clean up after themselves.” – weevil_season
“The thing is that every man who pees standing up misses the toilet fairly often and ends up dribbling a bit on the rim or floor. The power of the stream fluctuates and sometimes it doesn’t go exactly where you’re aiming. You just don’t know it because most of us were taught to clean it up whenever that happens.”
“Many guys including myself even wipe the rim down with TP most every time we pee just to make absolutely sure, as this guy also should.” – CreditUpstairs7621
Others absolutely agreed with the OP’s sticker plan and suggested additional features.
“So my nephew is like 6’7 and pees all over the floor. The kid is like 30 now.”
“He used to come over every weekend to hang out with my daughter. Every time he came over, there was pee. He actually destroyed the hardwood floors in my brother’s house because the urine ate away the wood.”
“In my old place, the urine sunk into the tile so the bathroom always smelled like urine no matter what you used or how often you cleaned. He had roommates who also complained he missed. It’s nasty.”
“So then I moved. When he came over, I put newspapers down on the floor around the toilet. He was highly offended. I told him that if he couldn’t pee in the toilet, then I was going to treat him like a dog who isn’t housebroken.”
“Every time he came over, the newspaper went down. He did stop coming over eventually, but it’s better than him destroying my floors. My new house has wood floors in the bathrooms.”
“I guess he probably doesn’t like me much because I did that, but we just saw each other on Thanksgiving, and it was all good.” – RavenLunatyk
“I’d be so mad, I would be tossing the used toilet paper to him after cleaning up his messes and saying, ‘Here, you forgot this in the bathroom,’ each time.”
“I’d also be suggesting fines in the house meetings, every time. Shame/punishment is the only way to get people to change sometimes.” – okilz
“I’d be standing outside the bathroom with a black light and some bleach wipes each time I heard him hit the bathroom. Until he figures out how to do it himself, I am absolutely ready to stop him for ‘p**s inspections’ where he wipes up IMMEDIATELY before he’s allowed out the door.” – ISTFMM
“My son has somehow managed to sit down to poop and simultaneously p**sed all over the floor twice. He’s 7 and forgot to aim his penis into the toilet. Once it was all over the floor next to the toilet (?!?) even though he said he was facing forward.”
“Needless to say that night, after I stepped in his p**s that was on the floor not even 2 hours after I scrubbed the whole bathroom, I made him get out of bed and clean it up himself. Then I proceeded to give him a ‘super embarrassing’ lecture about how he needs to aim his penis into the toilet when he sits down to poop and make sure he’s peeing IN the toilet.”
“That was a couple of weeks ago and so far, he hasn’t done it since. My husband is a very considerate guy and always flushes, puts the seat down, has never once peed on the toilet lid, etc. despite being raised by a single dad so he’s on our son about good bathroom manners too.” – Littlelady0410
“I briefly had a male roommate who somehow managed to pee across the toilet and the little covered trashcan Every. D**n. Time! Although, ironically he aimed fine when he was drunk. Maybe to avoid peeing on himself by accident, I don’t know.”
“I talked to him. I pleaded, begged, bribed, and cajoled. Nada. So. I changed tactics. Every time he brought a girl home, I’d come out of my room and tell her to use the bathroom before him, because he peed on everything.”
“It took two women leaving in disgust for him to magically start peeing only in the toilet. Or maybe just cleaning up after with the cleaning products I supplied. Shame is a powerful motivator, and sometimes it is fully warranted.”
“I wonder what ever happened to Peed on Pete? Just so you know, I wasn’t the person who started that nickname. I believe it was Woman #2, and she’s forever my hero!” – thegreatmei
The subReddit was left cringing from reading the OP’s story, and they were actively hoping that she would take a stand either by buying the aim stickers or by getting better roommates. Living with someone who behaved like this, along with other people who inadvertently supported it, could not be the only option.