Henry is scared of being caught out with a poonami in some of our local venues. Photo: Keeli Royle.
My son is only six months old, yet I have already changed his nappy on a public bathroom floor on multiple occasions.
Henry and I have been pretty inseparable since his birth in April and, in an attempt to grasp the limited sense of normality I have left, I’ve dragged him along to local sporting matches, shopping centres, pools, pubs, restaurants, cafes, parks, an aquarium and even an NRL footy final.
In the early days, I was delighted by fairly recent upgrades to local shopping centres to include flashy parents’ rooms where both my partner and I could change Henry and feed him (before I felt comfortable in more public settings) without any hassle.
But my bubble quickly burst.
Large, established and popular venues (some even appearing family friendly with play equipment or high chairs) have shocked me with misleading or unclear signage about where I can change my baby, the absence of a change table altogether, or facilities only being available in female bathrooms.
So I have found myself kneeling or squatting on the floor of accessible bathrooms or even in stalls trying to stop my infant from rolling on (and inevitably licking) the sticky tiles either side of his mat.
Luckily, I can physically adapt to these situations. But for any number of reasons, not all parents, grandparents or other carers are able to manoeuvre themselves and baby, and nor should they have to.
The Australian Breastfeeding Association’s interactive map shows only two of its accredited Baby Care Rooms are in the Illawarra area – one at Dapto Mall and the other at Early Start at the University of Wollongong.
I’m sure they can’t be the only acceptable facilities in the region, but because there is a lack of legislation for baby change tables outside of child-centred businesses like early education centres, there is no clear guidance or guarantee what you will be faced with.
It’s frustrating that I have found myself solely in charge of nappy changes while out with my partner at two local venues because the tables were only in female bathrooms.
But what’s worse is the assumption that only women will ever be on nappy duties and the only alternative for my partner is to take our son into an unsanitary or unsafe environment to do the chore.
Or have the decision makers determined that men should not be allowed to leave the house alone with their child? There are an awful lot of single dads or same-sex couples out there who also struggle with this issue.
I’m not saying things aren’t getting better, but I think we are being fooled by the idea that because things have improved, they are where they need to be – they’re not.
I shouldn’t be surprised when places have a parents’ room, it should be the norm, and having an accessible changing table for any gender of parent or grandparent should be the bare minimum.
If there is no legal requirement for venues which are obviously child-friendly to provide a safe, hygienic change area for parents, there should at least be a publicly visible standardised system that indicates what you should prepare for, or if it’s worth going at all.
But for now, I’ll just have to rely on Google, a whole lot of baby wipes and the limited flexibility I’ve got to make do with any situation.
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