Monday, May 14, 2007

Equal opportunity diapering

We went to Sam's Chowder House, a new restaurant in Half Moon Bay, a few weeks ago, and found that the owners were doing a good job of catering to families with young children. Crayons, coloring sheets, a good kid's menu, friendly servers, etc. They had thought about almost everything. Almost being the key word here.

Jacob had already visited the bathroom when we got a whiff of a stinker coming from Esme. I looked at Jacob. He looked at me, and said, "There's no changing table in the men's room."

What is going on when even newly constructed or remodeled restaurants don't put changing tables in the men's rooms? Why is it a pervasive thought that only women should change diapers? My only thought is that men must have designed most of these restaurants.

I came across this Google map mashup some time ago that tracks all of the restaurants in Manhattan (and a few in Brooklyn) that have changing tables in the men's room. I can't believe there are this many. If I were more technically savvy, I would try to do the same for the Bay Area. Alas, I'm not.

1 comment:

emily evison said...

I agree entirely with the frustration. You'll find that most new builds/ museums/ supermarkets in Europe have a 'Family Bathroom' instead of a changing table. This allows for unisex use, as well as accomodating pushchair, toddler on toilet, baby on changing table and all the clutter that a family ends up carrying round! Now I'd just like to see the stats on who uses them the most . . .