OK, parents, we’ve all been there. We’re out in public enjoying family time, when suddenly we realize… the baby had a diaper (or training pants) blowout.
You can smell it, you can feel it, baby is uncomfortable, and panic seizes your body. Baby needs to be changed STAT, but where is the closest changing table in the middle of this ballgame? (Or movie theater, or zoo?) Truthfully, there is rarely one close by. Argh.
Case in point: Prior to boarding a flight, my baby had an accident and pooed straight through her clothes
I will forever wish public venues had more changing tables and bathrooms, not just for babies — but to help out us adults as well
Stores are getting better — thank you, Starbucks, Marshalls, and Target for always having a changing table — but airports, zoos, concert venues, and even amusement parks could benefit from extra bathrooms with tables for parents.
It would sure save parents — and baby — from humiliation
Fine, maybe I am being sensitive and shouldn’t care what other people think if I change my baby in public, on a floor. If the bathrooms were closer to my boarding section — and not three minutes away — I obviously would have changed my daughter there.
Ultimately, I understand my baby takes priority over fuddy-duddy parent shamers. But they just get under your skin, and I never want to come off as unsanitary. It was either that, or walk a smelly, poo-smeared, crying baby down the airplane aisle and change her in the thimble-sized bathroom. (Talk about extra stress.)
Until more public places realize, "OK, maybe we need to construct more bathrooms with baby tables," then parents will continue to do what they need to do to make baby comfortable. Even if it means changing their babies on the floor.
No shame, right?
