Father Panics After Woman Screams At Him For Changing Baby's Diaper In Ladies' Restroom

Jul 11, 2022 by apost team

The cliché of the clueless father has been well-established in the parenting world, especially regarding diaper changes for newborns and toddlers. While women and mothers have long come to the implicit agreement that the learning curve for men may be longer for new daddies, it appears that, sometimes, society isn't quite up to scratch in helping them navigate the course either.

A prime example of this is the issue of public spaces designated for moms and babies when it comes to things such as access for baby strollers and areas for feeding and diaper changes. Moms on the move are acutely aware of what baby needs and whether the areas they are visiting can accommodate them, while dads may not be as attuned. To compound the matter, many public spaces such as shopping malls and public attractions may overlook the fact that fathers are out on their own with their children and neglect to ensure there are private spaces for them, too.

Sure, one could blame the patriarchy for clinging to such outdated stereotypes or on establishments cutting on costs. Still, either way, the fact remains that finding family restrooms for dads and their daughters or changing tables in the men's room is a rare sight. 

One new dad found this out the hard way and took to Reddit to recount a "dirty" dilemma he endured in June 2022 while out with his infant son. After discovering his child had done "what babies do," his quest to find a changing table to swap out diapers took a near-disastrous turn.

In the post, the father relayed what had unfolded when he was with his young son at a store:

"I am a 31 yo man and was at a large store yesterday with my 5mo son when he did what babies do. I went over to the restrooms and saw that there wasn't a family/companion restroom, just a men's and women's. I went into the men's room and saw there was a cubicle and a few urinals, but no changing table."

He said he then left the restroom to flag down an employee, asking where the changing tables were. The staff member points him back to the men's bathroom, but when he tells the employee that there isn't a changing table in there, he is only told to look again:

"I was annoyed, but I went back in the men's room. No changing table. When I came out the employee was gone. Keep in mind, my son has been in his poopy diaper this whole time."

With little choice left, the father decided to "give up and head into the lady's room which sure enough had a changing table. There was a woman in there washing her hands, and she said 'wrong bathroom, buddy.'"

Luckily for this dad, after explaining there was no changing table in the men's room, the woman only comments, "bro, that sucks," before walking out. But it was the next woman he encountered walking into the restroom that rattled his nerves:

"So I rush to change him, hoping to be done before anyone else walked in. I'm almost done when a woman walks in and starts screaming at me. I tried to explain what I was doing, but she kept screaming 'Get out! You can't be here!' Then she ran out."

apost.com

The father said he finished changing the diaper and rushed out of the restroom, but after seeing the screaming woman talking to an employee, he panicked and exited the store, even as the employee tried to stop him. Once at his car, he buckled his son into his car seat and left.

In reaching out to other Reddit users to ask whether he was the jerk, he said his mother said he was an idiot and "100% in the wrong," while his wife thinks he "absolutely did the right thing." 

Readers were quick to side with the father, praising him for prioritizing his son.

"He's a hero. My husband was a stay at home dad. Men's bathrooms near us always have changing tables. We were unprepared when we visited my parents in the south. I was really confused when I came back for buying lunch to see my husband changing our son on the floor in the Atlanta airport," unusedusername3 wrote.

Meanwhile, others gave the screaming woman the thumbs down, criticizing her inconsiderate behavior.

"That woman, who clearly saw him changing his son, didn't even calm down to use context clues and assess what was happening, nor gave the man a chance to explain," WawaNative wrote.

However, the brunt of the blame fell on the store, with many saying that while the best-case scenario would have been to have had changing tables in the men's room, even without, an employee could have stood guard at the door while the father finished changing the diaper.

While the law does require that women's and men's restrooms in federal buildings be equipped with changing stations, this only covers a fraction of public restrooms across the United States. But with more fathers coming out to share their stories, progress may just be around the corner.

Do you think this father did the right thing? What would you have done in a similar situation? Let us know and pass this on to all the quick-thinking dads you know!