I’m imagining the wall to wall carpet that used to be in my home growing up and my debilitated father and am getting the heebie jeebies. I’m going to have to mute this thread lest I start canceling my older male guest bookings.
3 Likes
For several years now it seems that the media has been very concerned about women’s health - the menopause, breast cancer etc. - and men’s health has almost become an invisible issue. Shame.
Ah, bless your heart KKC! It’s been only a year since my older brother I referred to died and I cleaned his place out for sale. He’d been more or less living in a recliner in the living room for six months . . . the bathroom was NOT the worst of it. I hold forth other memories of the man he was. Such is life! Hang in there 
Thanks again to all who shared.
2 Likes
I think the simultaneous use of cell phones is a big part of the increased sitters…
2 Likes
No, No, Yes.
That’s part of the job.
6 Likes
Exactly. And this is something that older people are dealing with all of the time and that’s why it is so important to me that this situation was handled with care. Even if the OP didn’t think it was because of age, the guest would likely think she thought it anyways as it is safe to assume that he’s getting messages about being old otherwise.
I had a guest, that was apparently older - I didn’t meet these guests and they stayed for only one night. The photo on the profile was of a boat or something, not the person. I mentioned in the private feedback that they left the thermostat up at 85 degreees. They did! He wrote me back, very upset and denying it and said, “just because we are old, doesn’t mean we turn the thermostat up that high!!”. Anyways, it’s just an example. I have no idea how “old” they were. People get sensitive about it at different ages. Some people don’t ever and that’s an ideal to shoot for. In the US, respect for our elders has gone the way of a lot of our social graces and it disturbs me all of the time. It’s basic compassion and empathy.
It doesn’t have to be this way! I champion the independence of my patients - that is my job, actually, “to maximize their independence”. I am very passionate about it. And a big part of independence is staying connected to community and involved with activities, travel included. Most of my patients can tell me the exact moment they decided to stop travelling. It is most often to do with something someone said about them being old. Sometimes it’s just continence issues and sometimes falls or fear of falls. The reason I got so involved in this thread is that I don’t want “chastised for messy piss and told to sit down to urinate by an airbnb host” to be a story I hear about why someone stopped traveliing.
4 Likes
Quite on the contrary! The reason there seems to be so much concern about women’s health is that they are actively trying to highlight it because it has always traditionally come second. It is still a huge problem if you look at the research money and how it is allocated. Sexism has been alive and well in the medical community for centuries and there is a current movement to try and alleviate it.
3 Likes
Since he’s elderly and probably has health issues, I would let it go and not even mention it. Why embarrass the old man? Like the song from Frozen says “Let it go.”
That’s good to know. It’s probably because I’m female that I notice girls’ stuff more.
From your other posts in this topic, it sounds as though you are very caring towards the people you care for, especially when dealing with sensitive subjects. That is so important. Do you find that it’s even more so with the older generation? They perhaps aren’t as accustomed as we are to discussing such things? It’s a useful thing for hosts to know. We all have to deal with older guests sometimes.
1 Like
If a guest of mine pee’d all over my toilet area, I’d do the favor to future hosts by letting them know the guy is less than a Five Star in the cleanliness department.
So people are plain careless, don’t care. Just because he’s 70 doesn’t make him incapable of sitting down as he presumably does for a #2.
I wouldn’t detail the issue in the public review.
Do you have to be so succinct. Please, have some some compassion for us “getting old” blokes.
And, before any of you wummin jump in, I was mega compassionate when OH was going through her mentalpause.
JF
3 Likes
Absolutely. There’s still a generation beyond the boomers and even the older boomers (75+) who seem to have a different expectation about discussing personal details, medical stuff, nudity, bodily functions, etc than is typical of us whipper-snappers. Of course there are people of all ages who vary in their expectations but an extra level of formality, for lack of a better word, is needed for a lot of our oldest folks who came up in a different time.
And generally, older folks expect a certain level of respect because they’re older and yet this has fallen-off in our culture. I fimly believe that the now old-fashioned “respect your elders” probably really came from the need for extra time, dealing with pain/lower vision/slower reflexes/decreased hearing, etc that is typical of older age (in western culture at least). It’s surely nothing to look forward to but it is typical and it’s better that it be recognized and shown compassion/patience/empathy and the polite way of doing that is “to respect your elders”. Truly, if we are lucky, we too will get there and surely karma can be a bitch, lol, so I stick to it.
This whole concept is crucial to my job but is also just interesting to me. Because I will say that people of all ages/generations seem require extra sensitivity about ‘personal stuff’ once they are personally having some issues. I see it as that changing health and changing abilities (declining to be more blunt) make us feel vulnerable and vulnerable-feeling people always need a little extra sensitivity. It may be disheartening, but for the majority of the US, being in their mid-70s as OP’s guest was, is indeed it’s own vulnerability. I’m not making assumptions but speaking from experience and just plain old statistics.
3 Likes
I was taking up for the old bloke 
And presenting evidence for seemingly making assumptions.
Start your Kegels now!!! It’s a downward ride. (succinct enough for you?) 
1 Like
It seems to me (from a non-medical professional’s point of view) that the younger people are, the more likely they are to be open when discussing personal issues. Or maybe the very young are getting less so?
A couple of years ago I quickly went from a very independent, strong person to being flat on my back in hospital for months relying on other people to do things for me that only my mother had ever done for me before - when I was a baby. (I was being a bit coy there, wasn’t it?)
It is horrible to lose your independence like that. Some people seem to handle it fine and I envy them because I couldn’t.
The experience has certainly made me a lot more empathetic to older people (and I do have older guests quite often) which is one positive thing because, as you say, karma can be a bitch.
1 Like
I see this too, as a regular person out in the world and on social media. But younger people who become vulnerable because of an illness or accident also get more sensitive (and yes we get them at nursing homes, it’s excruciating to have a young person admitted no matter how many times you see it). I think it is ultimately vulnerability that makes us more sensitive about personal issues and it may just be related to the fact that older people are more likely to be vulnerable in this way than younger people because of how our health typically declines as we age. Gosh. I’m such a bummer today 
3 Likes
I had to Google that.
Thanks.
[insert assorted abusive insults here]
But I am still only fourteen years old. Well, I get told often enough “stop behaving like a teenager”, so I’m going with it!
JF
3 Likes
No, I would not bring this up in a review.
Disgusting as it is, I would ask myself if it was deliberate.
I don’t have a blacklight. But I do have a mop and a bottle of bleach. Nails everything.
5 Likes
I’m sorry this happened to you. Ick. Can you educate me on the black light decision? How it works, what it shows you, and how it changes what you do in your rental?
They aren’t expensive but if you want to try a black light to see if it’s something that would work for you, you can easily make one using your phone, some tape and a couple of sharpies. See link below. 
2 Likes
Sitting on a toilet on a Navy ship in the 80"s came with its own set of risks. For some reason the water level (it was sea water) was high so getting splashed was a real thing.
Standing had its own set of risks too, getting knocked around in high seas is messy.
RR
1 Like