A Little “Splash” Story from Cleaning the Toilet

Some time ago—though I don’t remember exactly when—I was reading Yahoo News and came across a life-advice column. A woman wrote that she was so frustrated with her husband for leaving urine splashes around the toilet that she was seriously considering divorce.

My honest reaction at the time was, “Isn’t that a bit extreme? Maybe she’s just overly sensitive.”

I also remember, decades ago, a senior executive at work (777 couple) telling me that he always sits down when urinating. I thought, “What? Why would anyone do that?” I couldn’t understand it then either.

Later in life, I started cleaning the restroom at work. That habit gradually carried over to home—I’d wipe down the toilet whenever I noticed it needed it.

Then one day, my daughter came out of the bathroom and shouted,
“Dad made a mess!”

There was urine on the floor.

At first, I didn’t even consider that I might be the culprit. Sure, I had occasionally noticed the floor being wet and wondered, “Who did this?” or even thought, “Maybe condensation from the vent?”

But when it finally hit me that I was the one responsible… I was honestly shocked—embarrassed, apologetic, and a bit ashamed all at once.

From that moment on, I started checking not just the toilet bowl, but the floor every single time. And that’s when something clicked.

For the first time, I truly understood how that woman from the article must have felt. I also began to understand why some men choose to sit—not out of habit, but out of consideration for cleanliness (and, in a broader sense, for the sake of others).

Even someone like me—who was already trying to keep things clean after starting to do toilet cleaning—ended up in that situation without realizing it.

So if you imagine two people living together—one who has never paid attention to this at all and doesn’t clean, and another who is very particular about cleanliness—it’s no surprise there would be tension between them.

In the end, it reminded me of something simple but important:

You don’t really understand how someone feels until you stand in their shoes.

And when I reflect on myself, I realize that I often interact with my wife and kids with a bit of a “know-it-all” or top-down attitude.

No wonder I sometimes fail to understand their perspective.

Staying humble—consistently—is much harder than it sounds.