In Case You Didn’t Get The Memo, A Restaurant Table Is Not An Appropriate Place To Change A Diaper
I can’t even believe this has to be said. Don’t change your baby’s diaper on a public table that people eat off of, okay? Also, don’t change your baby’s diaper around the general public while they are attempting to consume food. Get it? Got it? Good.
The Dear Abby column yesterday included a letter from a small restaurant owner who was horrified to learn that a woman had changed a diaper on her table during his restaurant’s lunch service:
DEAR ABBY: My wife and I run a restaurant in a small town. Recently, my wife came home on my day off and told me that during the lunch hour, one of our servers had come into the kitchen and announced that they’d need extra sanitizer on table 29 because a mother was changing her baby on it!
What has happened in our society that people don’t understand that this is unsanitary and rude? Had I been there, I don’t know that I could have kept a civil tongue, and I feel like people today regard my disgust as unreasonable. Is there something I’m missing here? — CAFE CRAZY
DEAR “CRAZY”: I don’t know who you have been talking to, but your disgust is not “unreasonable.” What that mother was missing was common sense and courtesy for those around her. I agree that changing a baby on a restaurant table was out of the ballpark — particularly if a changing table was available in the women’s restroom of your cafe. (I’m assuming there is one, but if there isn’t, the situation should be immediately rectified.)
Everything about my child amazes me. Even his little morning baby breath and the disgusting habit he has of sucking on his entire hand. Yet even I understand that bodily waste is disgusting. I may not be disgusted by my own child’s – since I love him more than life itself and he emerged from my womb. But I clearly understand that the rest of the world won’t feel the same about it. What is up with parents who can’t comprehend this?
It sucks when restaurants don’t offer changing tables. Not even sure if that was the case here, but I am going to go ahead and give this woman the benefit of the doubt. Even if a proper changing table isn’t an option, if it’s an infant, you should be able to lay him over your lap in the bathroom and change him. And if he’s big enough to stand, you can change him standing up. It’s nearly impossible, but better than exposing people who are paying to eat food in a public place to fecal matter.
Come on people. Let’s get on the same page here.
(photo: hxdbzxy/ Shutterstock.com)
