Have you ever heard of a Bidet? Call me an ignoramus if you want but I had never heard of a bidet. I hope however that I’m not a sole ignoramus. If you’ve heard of bidets, please share in the comments.

My daughter excitedly told me that she made a recommendation to her Human Resources (HR) department. I responded “that’s great. Proud of you. Was it accepted?”
She responded: “They’ll let me know in a week … Won’t you ask what the recommendation is?”

I smiled. “Oh yes, sorry my dear. What did you recommend. I hope it’s a huge money-saving idea.”

What my daughter said afterwards almost made me choke. I caught myself biting hard and holding my tongue from blurting out insensitive words from my mouth. As a great Mom would, I responded “nice I’d love to hear your HR’s response.”

The Recommendation

Would you like to know what the recommendation was, people?

Yes, you guessed right. My daughter recommended that her employer install bidets in the bathrooms.

What in the world is a Bidet?!
What are those? At first I thought bidets were some architectural or engineering gadgets. Funny, right? I was ignorant in that I had never heard of bidets. Pardon me for displaying my ignorance. Again, I hope that I’m not a sole ignoramus. If you’ve heard of bidets, please share in the comments.

My daughter took her time to explain to me what these were, including the fact that America seems to be the only developed nation still not using bidets. That they were popular in Europe, Japan, and other developed nations.

My first thoughts were “what in the world was my daughter thinking when she made the recommendation. What would her management say?

After the conversation ended, I did my research. Interestingly, I had seen and used bidets at the Dubai airport on a stopover. I had then thought that its use was peculiar to Dubai as a moslem nation. My ignorance number two! I also remembered one being in an Airbnb I stayed prior to the pandemic. It was foreign to me. But the good thing was I had the option to turn its settings off. I did.

Bidets are new (well, probably just to me and a few others) and innovative ways of cleaning yourself up, using water sprayed through the plumbing fixtures, after using the bathroom doing a “number two.”

They also are known as washlets. The first washlet however came out in 1980. People, that’s thirty years ago! It can no longer be said that they are new.

Bidets are environmentally friendlier, organically and hygienically better, than wiping down with toilet papers. You save money in the long run. The upfront cost pays for itself from the money saved foregoing buying the toilet papers. They are reasonably pruced, too.

A few disadvantages of bidets, which I was surprised to note was that they generally use either cold or hot water which I think might be a plumbing feature. You know the anguish of using cold water during winter as well as using hot water during summer.

The general bidets come as a standalone or attached to your our existing toilet seat covet. Some fancy bidets have warm air dryer functions to dry up after the cleanse, heats up the toilet seats, plays music, and even deodorizes the toilet bowl. The one I encountered at an Airbnb plays music which I found disturbing. It could had been because I didn’t like the type of music being played.

Will it pass?

Now that we all know what a bidet is, let’s hope that my daughter’s employer deems it enough money-saving to say “yes” to her recommendation.

I once worked where the employer paid employees a percentage of the total money saved from recommendations made to the organization. Those rewards often ramp up into thousands of dollars.

Have you heard of a Bidet or Washlet?