Chris Mau is getting pretty tired of changing his daughter’s diaper on the floor.
The 33-year-old of New Hampshire posted a rant on Facbeook last week, after he was forced to change his daughter’s diaper on the floor of a bathroom.
“It’s crazy to imagine I know but there are guys who take care of their kids too you a**hats. If it’s a public place with public restrooms in the generation of equality among genders and races then how about making sure us fathers can change our children’s diapers on a goddamn changing table like the mother’s can. Am I asking too much,” he wrote on the social media site.
READ MORE: Diaper changing tables are now mandatory in New York bathrooms — for men too
‘I was immediately frustrated’
His post, which has now gone viral, also pointed out that during this particular day, he had taken his daughter for a walk (so he couldn’t change her in the car) and the only counter space in the men’s bathroom was a three-inch gap between the two sinks.
“The circumstances of the situation left very little options for privacy,” he continued.
Writing a piece for Love What Matters, the father-of-four further explained his daughter Kali rarely fusses, but because she needed a diaper change right away, the dad walked into a restaurant hoping for the best.
“I took my daughter out of her seat and grabbed the diaper bag and entered the stall, only to find nowhere to change my daughter,” he wrote. “I was immediately frustrated with the ignorance of the facility and with Kali crying I had to make the hard choice between either making her wait until we found a facility that had a changing station, or ease her discomfort and change her in the bathroom anyway.”
Mau said he grabbed a towel, laid it on the floor and changed her in the stall.
“I felt like they honestly don’t think a father is responsible for diaper changing or whatnot, and I recalled times in the past where we had traveled and run into similar situations where the public restrooms did not have changing stations resulting in the hassle of trying to change a diaper in the car, on a floor or looking for another place to try, hoping they had one.”
READ MORE: Calgary dad upset by lack of change tables in public washrooms
Social media users react
On Facebook, more than 140,000 users shared his post.
“Ugh! I agree. I had to stop at a gas station to change my daughter and even I had to change her on the floor! Cause no changing table… They need to be everywhere!,” user Shania Levesque wrote.
“Sometimes women’s restrooms don’t have them either. When possible seek a ‘Family Restroom’. There’s more and more available,” user Christine Marie Ward wrote.
Some users were upset Mau had resorted to a dirty bathroom floor.
“I’ll do ole school change them over my knees on the changing pad practice it works or just go back to the car .but I would never never change them in a public bathroom floor and take picture to prove a point. Or just make your errand short head home and those changing table can be DIRTY TOO,” user Joanne Mills Mcghee wrote.
“I totally agree that there should be changing tables in men’s bathrooms for circumstances like this. There should be more family bathrooms as well. In full agreement.
But, my dude… you put your baby on a pissy-ass bathroom floor to change her diaper? For real? You didn’t once consider changing her on your lap?,” user Rennifer Lopez added.
An ongoing issue
Mau’s story isn’t unique either, there have been countless parents who have questioned why some public or venue bathroom’s don’t have changing tables for children.
In 2015, actor Ashton Kutcher posted a message on Facebook, how he could never find changing stations at men’s public bathrooms, CNN reports.
READ MORE: No change table in men’s washroom
In 2016, group Dad Club London lobbied local businesses to add changing stations in men’s bathrooms, so men wouldn’t be forced to use the floor or sneak into a woman’s bathroom to change their babies, National Post notes.
In the U.S., the state of New York passed a legislation in 2017, making it mandatory for all men’s and women’s bathrooms to have changing tables.
“Being a parent is the most challenging and rewarding job you’ll ever have, and with the good will come the bad, but to have to form a last second plan for a diaper change in a public bathroom that decided not to install a changing station is unnecessarily unacceptable,” Mau wrote. “I honestly hope this post will reach all the right people and good things come of it for all parents and children alike.”
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