A viral Instagram post might inspire a change in men’s public restrooms across the country.
So, anyone who goes into a men’s public restrooms will recognize the following things. A row of urinals without dividers, guys whistling or singing for no reason, and drunk guys at baseball games who just drop their pants straight to the ground.
But something guys probably don’t see as often are changing tables.
They’re in the vast majority of women’s restrooms – not nearly as common in men’s restrooms. And it’s 2018. There are single dads, multiple dad-families, or believe it or not, male-female relationships where the dad changes the baby as often as the mom.
The expectation of equality in relationships has gone way up, and the public restrooms have had some trouble keeping pace. The struggle is real for 31-year-old dad Donte Palmer, whose son took these photos of him changing his baby while squatting in the stall of a men’s room.
He wrote on Instagram: “This is a serious post!!! What’s the deal with not having changing tables in men’s bathrooms as if we don’t exist!! #fatherslivesmatter Clearly we do this often because look how comfortable my son is. It’s routine to him!!!! Let’s fix this problem! I Kaepernick drop a knee to this issue! @theshaderoom let’s show the innovation of fathers! #squatforchange”
He encouraged other fathers to share that hashtag, Squat For Change, with their own photos of struggling to change diapers in the men’s room, and he’s received plenty of submissions.
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Palmer’s photos have now gone viral on multiple platforms, and he’s far from the first dad to encounter this problem.
Honestly, I was kind of blown away by how many local news reports are out there of dads demanding changing tables in restrooms. Fortunately, people seem to be listening. A recent bill in New York City requires all new public restrooms to be equipped with changing tables, and any older buildings which renovate their restrooms must include them as well.
Currently, New York isn’t requiring older buildings to add changing tables to existing restrooms, though, they’re only about $150-200 bucks if they wanted to do dads a solid. Some women out there are even surprised that most men’s restrooms don’t have changing tables.
Tracee Ellis Sauce tweeted: “Wait wait wait there’s not changing tables in men’s bathrooms?! Lmao so they really just assumed only women carry kids around?! Humans are such a bad idea omg when is our upgrade.”
Okay, dads, let us know: how have you changed a diaper when there’s no table in the restroom? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter at @WhatsTrending.
