Baby Changing Stations

[ULuvCeCe]

So as I said in an earlier post, I receive mommy newsletters and recently read this quote "I find it unbelievable that restaurants and stores that have public restrooms don't feel the need to have a baby changing station. My son goes everywhere with me. He is a human being and should be respected as such. Changing baby stations are right up there like handicap accessibility. It should be a law."

What are your thoughts on this? Have you experienced going to a business and not having anywhere but the floor to change your child?

I have to say that this does irritate me, especially when it is a well known chain store or restaurant b/c you can go to one location and they have one then go to another and they don't. I wouldn't go as far to say that it should be up there with handicap accessibility though.

[pirewolf]

I have experienced it as well and I think it actually should be up there at the same level, since there actually are handycapped kids that need to wear diapers. Also babies are a part of life that should not be ignored just because most people now adays don't want any. I ended up having to sit on a bathroom floor once to change my daughter, because I know there was know way the floor was clean enough to change a baby on. Babies are actually more fragile, by alot, then a adult. They can catch something alot easies, so in a situation like that you have almost no options if you dont want to end up taking your kid to the doctor or worse. Expecially in the case of my kids, because I couldnt breast feed they did not get my natural ammune system. So until they were old enough to handle fighting off the kind of things you can get off a dirty bathroom floor, I had to be careful. Plus since you can hardly afford child care now adays, you have to take the kids with you everywhere. So if there is not a place to change them you end up just not being able to go there anymore. That is a minimum of two years that you are force out of one place, for them just wanting to be cheap. I barely costs anything for them to put one in. Also, you end up not having any choices in matters like those. People are not okay with you changing babies infront of them, its always wet by those sinks (and I live where it is cold so I cant take a wet baby outside), and they don't clean enough for you to be okay with laying them on a bare floor. I mean almost all places do consider it just as important, that is why they even put it in the handy stall or have more than one. Who wants to risk losing extra business because a child pooped and now everyone is force to see it, because the parents have no choice but to just do it where they are.

[Abrupt]

I don't think it should be a law, and I feel people who think it should fail to realize how such forced actions weaken personal power and freedoms (both the person wanting and those forced to comply).  I feel this is best left to people patronizing those that provide the extra's they want.  If a place is inconvenient to you let them know why and that you will take your business elsewhere.  Even the banks are getting the message as they are backing off the 5 dollar a month debit fee (coincidentally which was prompted by federal regulations in the first place in an essence of 'helping' people as would such suggestions as given by the OP).

I cannot stress this enough, I feel that laws/regulations to force compliance are how we slowly loos our freedoms every day.  What sounds good in theory (the "wouldn't it be nice if they had to" type thinking) should be immediately recognized as a a precursor to a bad idea and a loss of personal freedom.  Remember there are just as many people that feel that loud babies shouldn't be in public places but I bet you wouldn't want that enforced as law.

In closing I would like to add that I sympathize with your position and think it would be great for such as you want to be there for you.  I do not want to pay for it though and I do not want to give away even more of my freedoms to allow it for you either.

[gemini0314]

I agree with you. I would rather take my kid to the car to change them then put them on a nasty floor.

[dreamyxo]

Not too long ago there was no such thing as a changing stations in bathrooms.  What did people 20 years ago or less when there weren't any?

[mlhnceh]

People didn't run around as much 20 years ago.  I was at a fast food restaurant that didn't have a changing station, so I changed my daughter on the seat at a table.  There wasn't anyone else in there, and there was no way I would put her on the floor of a bathroom.  As for being a requirement, I don't think they should be forced to have one.  Just take your business elsewhere. 

[dreamyxo]

People didn't run around as much 20 years ago.  I was at a fast food restaurant that didn't have a changing station, so I changed my daughter on the seat at a table.  There wasn't anyone else in there, and there was no way I would put her on the floor of a bathroom.  As for being a requirement, I don't think they should be forced to have one.  Just take your business elsewhere. 

I don't believe that.  People were just as busy a decade ago than they are now. 

[ULuvCeCe]

People didn't run around as much 20 years ago.  I was at a fast food restaurant that didn't have a changing station, so I changed my daughter on the seat at a table.  There wasn't anyone else in there, and there was no way I would put her on the floor of a bathroom.  As for being a requirement, I don't think they should be forced to have one.  Just take your business elsewhere. 

I don't believe that.  People were just as busy a decade ago than they are now. 

Honestly growing up in the 80's, 90's and now 2000+ I can say that my family did not go out to eat and do things as much then as we do now. I also recall being left with my grandparents or a sitter back then too, I think it used to be more of a priveledge to go out to eat and was more so for the adults, now it's just instant satisfaction when you don't want to make a meal.

[pirewolf]

If a place it not a place of buisness such as the ones that do not have a public bathroom, they should be required. Children are still people, and people that think a child crying in a public area is the same as making someone change a baby in their car while it is snowing. I'm sorry but that is horrible and wrong of you. If it is a place such as a movie theater and what not then the child should leave is it is not a pg movie, because a child crying during the movie of a toddler of younger age is not there to watch it. However being that a baby is a person is is rude to assume that you can just get rid of them when it is inconvient for you. People who think otherwise don't have kids. Also consider the fact that these babies that you so rudely disreagard as non important people are the future. And if you are not making it to were they have the basic right to go to the bathroom because they are not as productive in the world yet, then the same should go with handicap people. My blind uncle does nothing, so would you like to say he doesn't have the same rights to have a clean bathroom. People act like only their rights are what is important, we shouldn't force people. Well then take away the other things people are forced to do for the good of the future before you talk. Also bank fee's lowering has nothing to do with helping mold the kids of the future, so it is not the same thing or as important. You have the option to look over the bank before you go to it and once you are their. But what it would be closer to is the fine print not the fee. People looking over the fact that these children will be taking care of them in the nursing home or be your doctors later, is like signing something at a bank with only the info the bank tells you. You are overlooking what is important, the fine print! The reason their are not more changing tables is not because it is not a very important part of what a child that age needs available, but because so many people now adays don't want to have kids. So people forget that if their were not kids yelling, needing to be changed, inturrupting you, then we might as well give up because their is no future without them. No matter how long you think you can live or how much you don't like kids, the world should understand by now no one lives forever.

[Abrupt]

If a place it not a place of buisness such as the ones that do not have a public bathroom, they should be required. Children are still people, and people that think a child crying in a public area is the same as making someone change a baby in their car while it is snowing. I'm sorry but that is horrible and wrong of you. If it is a place such as a movie theater and what not then the child should leave is it is not a pg movie, because a child crying during the movie of a toddler of younger age is not there to watch it. However being that a baby is a person is is rude to assume that you can just get rid of them when it is inconvient for you. People who think otherwise don't have kids. Also consider the fact that these babies that you so rudely disreagard as non important people are the future. And if you are not making it to were they have the basic right to go to the bathroom because they are not as productive in the world yet, then the same should go with handicap people. My blind uncle does nothing, so would you like to say he doesn't have the same rights to have a clean bathroom. People act like only their rights are what is important, we shouldn't force people. Well then take away the other things people are forced to do for the good of the future before you talk. Also bank fee's lowering has nothing to do with helping mold the kids of the future, so it is not the same thing or as important. You have the option to look over the bank before you go to it and once you are their. But what it would be closer to is the fine print not the fee. People looking over the fact that these children will be taking care of them in the nursing home or be your doctors later, is like signing something at a bank with only the info the bank tells you. You are overlooking what is important, the fine print! The reason their are not more changing tables is not because it is not a very important part of what a child that age needs available, but because so many people now adays don't want to have kids. So people forget that if their were not kids yelling, needing to be changed, inturrupting you, then we might as well give up because their is no future without them. No matter how long you think you can live or how much you don't like kids, the world should understand by now no one lives forever.

You are committing a Strawman Fallacy.  Just because I think that forcing businesses to have baby changing stations is an intrusive, unconstitutional, and extremely insane and ridiculous thing to do do, does not mean that I dislike children or don't consider them human or the most valuable asset we have.  In fact it is because I care for their freedoms as well as others that I am against the idea.  I would say that anyone who would trade the freedom of their children and others for convenience is the one who doesn't care about anyone other than themselves.

[rdass]

So as I said in an earlier post, I receive mommy newsletters and recently read this quote "I find it unbelievable that restaurants and stores that have public restrooms don't feel the need to have a baby changing station. My son goes everywhere with me. He is a human being and should be respected as such. Changing baby stations are right up there like handicap accessibility. It should be a law."

What are your thoughts on this? Have you experienced going to a business and not having anywhere but the floor to change your child?

I have to say that this does irritate me, especially when it is a well known chain store or restaurant b/c you can go to one location and they have one then go to another and they don't. I wouldn't go as far to say that it should be up there with handicap accessibility though.

I have new born i totally agree not just the changing station but the nearest parking too, if u have more than one child.

[noirlupe]

Im am concerned about the germs on the stations so I wont use them anyway.

[acarswell]

I think it should be a law. I have had to change my son many times on the floor of the bathroom. He deserves to be able to get changed on a table and not on the dirty floor.  I hate it when I have to do that and always worry about germs.  It can't cost all that much to have one installed.

[tammypete]

With so many germs and diseases nowadays, I would rather take my child to the car to change him/her.  I have went into some restrooms and the changing stations were completely nasty!