<p>Of the dozen or so colleges I have visited with my son, at least two said that, not only are the floors coed by room, but the bathrooms are also coed, or "neutral gender" as they now call it. I'm wondering if it is because colleges don't want to spend the money to install a second hall bathroom on the floor (one of the colleges that had this was formerly an all women's college). I asked my son what he thought of this, and he said, "Well, I guess you'd get used to it after a while." The tour guide at one of these colleges said it freaked him out when he first got to the college....he said he was washing his hands in the bathroom when some girl walked in and he said to himself, "Oh no, what should I do," but then said the girl was "cool" with it and just said hello. </p>
<p>Isn't there enough to get used to the first year in college without throwing coed bathrooms into the mix? Or is this just my own hangup? I think it's very odd, but maybe it's just me.</p>
<p>Students tend to prefer proximity to single gender - it’s better to be able to use the restroom right outside your door than to have to run all the way to the other end of the hall so you can avoid those of the opposite sex. All the schools we visited in the last couple of years have coed baths. Shower and toilet stalls have full or nearly full doors for added privacy. </p>
<p>Generally, the students on each floor vote at the beginning of the year whether the baths will or won’t be co-ed and if anyone at all wants a single gender bath, that wish is accommodated. As a result, occasionally there will be one all female or all male bathroom on a floor. Although in theory some have problems with the concept, once they settle in and try it for a few days there are few objections. Privacy is generally respected. Our S has been in a co-ed bath environment for 2+ years now with no concerns.</p>
<p>Seriously, I have three teens in the house who are quite accustomed to sharing a bathroom. Those freshmen who haven’t had that experience will quickly get used to it because that will be their ONLY college experience and it will seem quite ordinary to them.</p>
<p>I don’t see an issue. The stalls and shower stalls have doors. Use them and dress modestly. I’m guessing dorm bathroom users are going in the dorm bathrooms to USE the facilities…not hope for a peep show experience.</p>
<p>I don’t think I would have liked it but my kids don’t seem to care- I guess it’s an age thing! </p>
<p>^^“The stalls and shower stalls have doors. Use them and dress modestly.” I guess the only issue here is that everyone has a different interpretation of what is “modest”. My son’s friend who has a co-ed bathroom at school told us that they had one girl who had no problem walking around with nothing on from the waist up. Apparently a couple of boys told her to put some clothes on and it has not been a further problem. That was a new and refreshing one to hear…</p>
<p>It was my impression that this was being done more for LGBT reasons. That is students who may have gender identity issues would feel more comfortable in that situation.</p>
<p>This is something that comes up every year on CC. Not a new thing–there were co-ed bathrooms in the dorms when I went off to Berkeley 30-some years ago. As others said, we’ve had co-ed bathrooms at home for longer than that. </p>
<p>People get used to it very quickly. It’s odd at first when feet are pointing in ways you don’t expect in the stalls next to you but that wears off fast.</p>
<p>Ha! I was thinking “we have coed bathrooms in our house” before I even scrolled down to see the replies. </p>
<p>It sure would have made our lives easier when <em>I</em> was in college rather than having to run to another floor if I was visiting someone of the opposite sex! But I understand not everyone would be ok with this-there’s a kid over in the College Life forum who doesn’t even want girls in his room at all-ever. I can’t imagine someone like that would be ok with with coed bathrooms.</p>
<p>If they’re the only option, I think MOST kids could adapt. I don’t know any homes where the baths are segregated.</p>
<p>I was on a co-ed bathroom floor in college 20 years ago. It gets “normal” very quickly. I would say the boys were more squeamish about it in the beginning but those bathrooms tend to be well-built for privacy in stalls. The showers all had a shower with curtain and a changing room connected with a solid lock door. A week in and you don’t even think about it anymore.</p>
<p>I can’t speak for today, but I know back then there were always single sex dorm floors with single sex bathrooms. That is probably still an option if it’s something your son is uncomfortable with.</p>
<p>I understood coed college bathrooms to mean individuals of both sexes using the bathroom at the same time. Is that what you do in the “coed” bathrooms in your homes? If so, please don’t exend me an in invitation to visit you. :)</p>
<p>My DD dorm her freshman year had bathrooms/showers in her room so this was not an issue for her. She had guys on her floor but since they too had their own bathroom there wasn’t any sharing. When I went to college I was in an all girls dorm and so you had to always accompany any males up to the floor. They were not allowed to wander around on their own. So different from now.</p>
<p>It depends a lot on how the bathrooms are built . If the toilet stalls are ones where you can see the legs of the person sitting next to you or a row of shower stalls without shower curtains or with those you can pull back easily then no. </p>
<p>I would bet those of you with co-ed bathrooms in your house do not have those kinds of bathrooms.</p>
<p>We have a family of 9 (5 female, 4 male) and all our bathrooms are coed at home, too.
However, in “public” places I do not like mixed bathrooms unless they are one-at-a-time rooms like the ones at home. Three of my kids have gone to college so far, and none of their 3 colleges has mixed bathrooms. One has only suites, so everyone has their own bathrooms in their suites.
Men tend to trash bathrooms more, (S made this observation working summer maintenance at his college) and it seems that it is the males who wouldn’t mind sharing with females, (I suppose some of these 18-22yo guys might be hoping that the girls keep the bathroom clean, and that they–the guys–might, by chance, get to see girls not quite fully clothed?) but I think females would prefer more privacy (dealing with periods, etc.) and are less likely to want to share with males.
Personally, I would not feel comfortable if I were in the shower, and a man or men came into the bathroom. I would feel vulnerable. I prefer single sex bathrooms. I’ve never heard of mixed group bathrooms anywhere but at colleges.</p>
<p>If it had shower stalls with attached dressing areas that had full-length doors on them so that you could enter, disrobe, shower, dry off/get dressed and emerge, then I’d be fine with it.</p>
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<p>That’s the kind of bathroom we had in my dorm 30+ years ago. People were fine with it then.</p>
but that wears off fast.</p>