The Status Of Changing Tables In Men’s Restrooms In 2016 Remains … Murky
Here's a change you can believe in.
Any father with a baby or toddler still in diapers has experienced the sinking feeling you get holding a crap-covered kid at arm’s length while realizing the men’s restroom you’re standing in doesn’t have a changing table. Now, thanks to one guy who was so pissed off about it he wrote the company’s CEO, you won’t have to worry about it at Macy’s anymore — provided you’re at their Prince George’s County location in Maryland.
Unfortunately, not everyone lives in Maryland and this issue isn’t new, but it has been a lot more visible over the past year. Earlier in 2015, a gay parent petitioned Macy’s to put changing tables in men’s restrooms in all their stores, with zero response from the brand. Then, celebrity investor and bad Steve Jobs impersonator Ashton Kutcher got a bunch of press by ranting to his megawatt-sized social media fan base about his own changing table-less experience at a local Target. To his credit, Kutcher took to Change.org to demand Target and Costco both make changing tables universally available in all their stores … which they both responded to by claiming they already do.
Similar cognitive dissonance can be found at the policy level. New York senator Brad Hoyland tried to introduce a bill last year that would make unisex changing tables a federal law, and that went nowhere. In 2014, California tried to pass 2 different “potty parity” bills, both of which were shot down as examples of government overreach.
So, it remains to be seen whether the fathers of Prince George’s County are a bellwether for everyone else or just another blip in the on-going saga of restrooms that don’t reflect the reality of diaper-changing dads. For now, you’ll just have to snag one of those snazzy dad diaper bags and call the plays as you go.
[H/T]: Babble
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