Woman divides opinion after calling out house guest for trying to flush maxi pad down toilet

A woman has divided opinion after she called out a guest for trying to flush a maxi pad down the toilet.

The woman in question was hosting a bunch of her husband's colleagues, and things were going swimmingly until one of the wives, Julia, went to use the bathroom.

"I end up going after her, and notice the toilet is clogged and starting to overflow," the woman recalled in the Reddit Am I The A*****e (AITA) subreddit.

"Something large and white is stuck, I use the plunger to unclog it and lo and behold, a very large bloody maxi pad.

"Julia was the last person to use the bathroom, so I come out and asked her if she tried to flush a pad down the toilet. She got embarrassed and said yes, and I told her she needed to go clean up the mess she made.

"There was water all over the floor, with particles of her pad and blood everywhere."

And from here, things got messier still.

Radharc Images / Alamy Stock Photo

The woman continued: "I asked her if no one ever taught her not to flush a pad, we have a septic tank and they cost thousands to repair. You don't flush pads, especially not the extra large ones. It's not like she tried to flush a panty liner or something.

"Julia cried and her husband yelled at me, but who does that? Especially at someone else's house?

"Husband's two female coworkers came to my defence, and pretty much said it was stupid of her to do that. Julia half assed cleaning up her mess, and her and her husband quickly left."

But while the majority of the woman's colleagues had her back, they're now embroiled in a row with Julia and her husband.

The woman said that she was 'still pretty mad at the whole ordeal' adding: "My husband's coworker and his wife are both mad at us, and think I humiliated her but I think her lack of common sense is what did it."

So, who do you reckon is the a*****e here?

But before you reach your judgement, please consider this addendum.

Larisa Bozhikova / Alamy Stock Photo

"Julia said she did it because there was no trashcan in there, and she didn't want to walk her pad to a different trashcan," the woman wrote.

She said that the trashcan was 'outside being washed because a different coworker got vomit on it'.

"I don't think saving her some embarrassment would be worth paying thousands of dollars to repair. Also, she saw that the toilet was clogged and decided to walk off and leave it for someone else."

By and large though, most of the commenters ruled that Julia was the a*****e.

One person wrote: "NTA. She literally flooded you bathroom, potentially could’ve cost you $10,000 in damages, then left it for you to clean up after she obviously clogged the toilet. Who does that?"

Another said: "She's a grown woman, presumably this wasn't her first period, and this wasn't her first time needing to dispose of a pad. She should have known better."

And a third said: "NTA she knew better and this has nothing to do w septic tanks. You don’t flush pads. Period."

However, while some agreed that she shouldn't have done it, they added that the matter should have been handled privately, as one person said: "You didn’t need to publicly humiliate her. You should have pulled her aside, directed her to the cleaning products, and asked her to fix the problem without drawing the attention of everyone at the party. Learn a little discretion."

Another agreed: "you should have confronted her quietly and asked her to clean up. There was literally no reason to shame her in front of everyone if you could have achieved the same result in private."