When you make a mad dash for a public bathroom, are you a door knocker or door handler?
This is a legitimate question that I asked my mom, and I now ask you readers, because she failed the test of basic common sense. We were at Starbucks, and my mom comes back from the bathroom, pissed. She was so bothered by someone knocking on her bathroom door that "disturbed her" when she was "concentrating". She couldn't understand why they didn't just jiggle the door handle to find out. When I heard this absurdity, I explained to her that the door-knocker did nothing wrong! Rather, it's the assuming imbeciles who go by the turn of a door handle whom she should criticize. So this PSA is for any non-believers on why you should eternally knock first.
At it's bare minimum, knocking serves two crucial purposes.
Knocking is proactive to avoid any embarrassing intrusions while you're in the middle of you're business. People forget to lock doors-shocker. Even if a person locks a door, faulty locks can poop out on you. Whether it was forgetfulness on your part or a deficient lock, that doesn't give the go ahead for some f***tard to barge in on you! Even with an occupancy indicator handle, it would be precautionary to still knock if it says "vacant". One courteous action can save strangers from an awkward glimpse of you in your birthday suit, or whatever else God knows you're doing in there.
Knocking can also be reactive and a good motivator for people to kindly gtfo of the restroom. The first knock not only should give you an indication if a person is in there or not, but also puts the potential occupant on notice. Knowing that people are waiting for you to evacuate will certainly pressure you to wrap things up.
To clarify, knocking is most appropriate for individual style restrooms. Think of Starbuck's private restroom where the customer locks the door. In a multiple restroom design, knocking isn't necessary since one can usually tell the stall is occupied. Walking by, it's easy to spot legs and even hunched lifeforms through the extra wide gap between partitions without even trying. I also feel that knocking isn't mandatory for home bathrooms depending on the family. At least in my family, when the door is shut (or mostly shut) and the lights are on, we know the facilities are in use.
Do yourself a favor and knock on restroom doors, even if it annoys your mother.
