Her husband sent an email to the restaurant, explaining the restaurant needs to empathize with diners who are parents of small children and that his family would not return until a changing station was put in.
I think that the family should definitely not return to Chipotle if there isn’t a private, clean place to change their daughter—because I wouldn’t want the aroma of pee or poop overwhelming the space where I’m trying to enjoy Mexican food. And think about the people who might sit at the table after this couple?! Would you want to dine on a table where a baby just had her diaper changed—no. 1 or no.2, it doesn’t matter.
Changing a diaper in this kind of environment isn’t healthy for other people and it’s not exactly sanitary for the baby. Who knows what is on the table and do you really want strangers in close proximity involved in your baby’s private diaper change? I think the mom used bad judgment, but likely snap decision judgment.
As moms, we’ve all been there. We sit down to a steaming cup of morning coffee, or decadent meal, or heck, a freakin’ sandwich and boom—the baby needs a diaper change or the toddler needs a butt wipe. It sucks, but it is part of parenting. I’m sure this mom wasn’t trying to piss people off and didn’t even realize what she was doing. She was probably starving and excited to be out enjoying a yummy Mexican meal that someone else prepared (ha!), ya know?
To avoid smelly situations like this when my son was a baby — because there have been plenty of times that I was faced with the same dilemma — I would spread my Patemm Pad on the bathroom floor and change my son quickly (it can be washed with an antibacterial wipe and Lysol later on). Or, I’d bring him out to my Jeep and change him in the hatchback area (I kept diapers, wipes, and a spare pad in my Jeep at ALL times). And if I was in the city and my car wasn’t around, I would recline his stroller in a private setting and quickly change him.
Share your tips for changing a diaper when there’s no changing station in the bathroom!
