Men Change Diapers?!
Ashton Kutcher is all over the internets today because he posted a complaint to his Facebook page about men’s restrooms generally lacking changing tables:
Judging by the response he got on social media (and, you know, common sense), he’s clearly on to something here. It isn’t out of the question that a father might take his young child out for a jaunt, and shouldn’t he be able to change a diaper in a restroom? Makes perfect sense to me.
This isn’t a new issue, although it has been gaining more attention now that It has a celebrity face behind it. A friend of mine emailed me years ago about this same thing; her husband took their then-baby to the mall and couldn’t find anywhere to change her diaper.
In this day and age, we not only want fathers to take on more of the burden of childcare, we also want them to be present in their children’s lives and have relationships with them. How is that going to happen if men can’t take their babies out for a little while knowing that they’ll have a place to change a dirty diaper?
Tim and I live in a newer area, so the stores around here are generally built with men’s, women’s, and unisex family restrooms. However, because it’s finally warm enough in Chicagoland that you won’t get frostbite just by walking outside and because he’s on paternity leave until mid-April, he’s starting to take the baby out more. I hope he doesn’t run into this issue. And, if he does, I hope he gets righteously angry at the establishment!
Have you or your partner ever struggled to find a place to change a baby’s diaper? If so, what did you do about it?
We were at a restaurant once and I wondered aloud if there was a hanging table in the women’s restroom. Ilya responded, “well there’s one in the men’s, so I imagine there’s one in the women’s.” I promptly placed Ollie in his arms and said great, your turn 🙂
You know, diaper changing on the go is more of a struggle for my husband than it is for me. (And, as the at-home parent, he is always the one running errands.) He says it’s because he has to take our kiddo all the way back to the car, which is a hassle. I always figured he was just making things needlessly difficult but, duh, it’s because there’s nowhere else for him to get the job done!