toilet seats

Disclaimer: I do put the seat back down, and usually the lid as well.

After much consideration, I have come to a conclusion based upon logic and moral etiquette:

It is incumbent upon both parties to ensure that the toilet seat is in the appropriate position before they commence elimination.

Nobody wants to sit on a seat that has been splashed with urine. That is why men lift the seat (a few have made it to adulthood without acquiring the habit of lifting the seat, and they are scoundrels); because eventually a man needs to sit there too. Therefore, even in the middle of the night - in the dark - men already need to check where the seat is before urinating. Ideally, they put the seat down after they are done, whether it was up or down when they arrived.

Women complain about men who do not put the toilet seat back down after doing their business. Those men often complain about getting bitched at over toilet seats.

Why do women expect the seat to be down and ready when they go to the bathroom? They argue that they should not have to check where the seat is. Why not? Men don't expect the seat to be up and ready for them. Why should the onus be placed entirely upon the male user to not only move the seat up and down, but also to ensure that the seat is in fact down when they leave the room?

It is unpleasant, to be sure, to sit on a toilet only to find that the seat is up. Less unpleasant but still annoying is sitting on a closed lid. How difficult is it to reach toward the top of the toilet tank and feel for an "up" lid and/or seat? If you are checking to make sure that the lid is up (and you should), it is no effort at all to detect whether the seat is up as well.

I believe that proper etiquette should require that all parties make sure that the toilet is flushed and both seat and lid are down before they leave the bathroom.