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Baby Changing Stations

I am out at a restaurant or a store. Baby has a full diaper. I need to go change him. I start walking toward the restroom area. I notice a Koala Care sticker on the door of the women's restroom as I walk by on my way to the men's room. I breathe a slight sigh of relief thinking that I will not have to huddle over the baby on the floor, but only for a moment. I saw no similar sticker as I passed through the door to the men's restroom. No changing station.

This is a very common instance when I am out with a diaper aged kid. In most cases, I end up using the floor. In some cases, when I am feeling feisty, I enter the women's restroom to do the job. Older parents will likely say, "Well, back in my day when we had to walk up hill both ways through 500 miles of blowing snow to get anywhere, the floor was all we had!"

20111101-095354.jpgI understand that. I agree. The floor does the job. I do not take issue with the floor versus modern baby changing technology. In many cases, the restroom is small and it is simply not practical to install a changing station. Some places I take my kids are not exactly focused on a diapered clientele. For any other reason, the owner of the establishment may choose not to install the baby changing station in either restroom. Generally I do not mind, although it discourages me patronizing the business when I have my kids in tow (which I imagine is the intent in some cases).

The thing that is frustrating is the message that child care is a woman's job. I am not only speaking for fathers who want to be recognized as the parents they are, but also for the mothers who would like to get a break now and then.

I am sure that there are those fathers out there who are all too glad with this situation. It makes for an excuse to hand over the diaper changing responsibilities to the mother. It is not a good excuse since the floor works, but I have no doubt it is used. Being an attentive father is not limited to doing the fun stuff though. It takes all measures if the good, the bad, and in this case the ugly.

The situation is improving though. If you think that a particular place can benefit from a changing station in the men's room, let the manager know your concern. I have seen some go in at places that I frequent. Especially so after taking it upon myself to (after making sure it is clear) enter the women's room to make the change.
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Comments

  1. CS11/1/11, 5:52 AM

    I love this post. I find this all the time. As an involved dad with my kids I change(d) them A LOT and my biggest major pet peeve or kudos were reserved for management of respective places where we stopped where there were changing stations in the mens restrooms....or not. I made it a point of finding someone, anyone, that worked for the story/restaurant in question to tell them how thrilled or not I was with them. They always seemed surprised when I seek them out to compliment them or suggest it. I guess it's because I do not have breasts.

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  2. Kace11/1/11, 8:47 AM

    I asked my local grocery store to to install one in the mens room as was told it would cost too much. After a couple of trips to the store where I changed my daughter’s diaper on a table in the deli at lunch time the manager got the message and installed one in the mens room.

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  3. Scott Crawford12/3/11, 12:28 AM

    This happened to me at Timothy's in Newark...it was a big messy baby poop. I told my wife that there wasn't one in the men's room and she said "I'll do it". Instead, I did it in the counter right between the two sinks. A few guys came in and were surprised and said "damn". :)

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