A Woman Screamed At This Dad Who Had To Change His Baby In The Women's Restroom Because The Men's Didn't Have A Table. Now He's Wondering If He Was Wrong
According to the most recent data I could find, a 2019 study of 400 restaurants in the Washington, DC area showed that only about 20% of them had baby changing tables in the men's bathroom — a number seemingly mirrored by stores and other public areas.
It can be incredibly difficult for fathers to find an appropriate place to change their baby while in public, which can, unfortunately, lead to the burden always falling on the mothers of their children in heterosexual relationships.
And if the dad is out and about alone? Well. That's when it gets even more confusing.
And that's exactly what happened to dad and Reddit user rocksandhardplaces1 who shared: "I am a 31-year-old man and was at a large store yesterday with my 5-month-old 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. The sink didn't have a counter either."
"I walked out and hunted down an employee to ask where the changing table was. She said it was in the bathroom, and I asked where, assuming there was a family/companion restroom on the other side of the store. She took me back to where I just was."
"I asked if there was another bathroom, and she said no. I told her I was just in the bathroom, and there was no changing table. She asked if I was sure and suggested I 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. So I 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.'"
"I gestured to my son and said, 'No changing table in the men's room.' She laughed and said, 'Bro, that sucks.' Then she walked out. 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."
"I finished putting the diaper on and rushed out of the bathroom. I saw the woman talking to an employee and decided to leave without my stuff. The employee tried to wave me down and stop me, but I rushed out to my car, buckled my son into his car seat, and left.
My wife said I absolutely did the right thing, but my mom said I'm an idiot and was 100% in the wrong. My sister won't stop laughing at me and is no help at all. Am I the asshole?"
WELP. As you can imagine, the overall vote on this post was not the asshole.
Most in the comments felt the store was largely to blame.
"Not the asshole. That store is 100% to blame for this," user SigSauerPower320 said. "I wouldn't be shocked if they've received complaints about this in the past and haven't done anything about it. Your mom was way out of line. You needed to change your kid. What'd she expect you to do, change him on the floor? Drive home with him in a dirty diaper? Your wife is right. You did the right thing, and that lady was rude. Who does that?!? Screams at a father for changing his kid's dirty diaper."
"Not the asshole. You have every right to find a clean and secure space to change your son, even if it's in a women's bathroom," user VelkerSky added.
"The store could easily get with the 21st century by installing a changing space in the men's and chose not to, so that's on them."
Others felt the woman who screamed at the dad was completely out of line...
"Not the asshole, but that woman sure was," user Vixen7-9 said. "Not your fault the men's room had no changing table."
...especially because it was obvious what the dad was doing.
"Yeah, [you] did the right thing. As a woman, I wouldn't even have given him a second look. He was at the changing table with a baby, what do you think he was doing?" user Evil_Mel concluded.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments.
