Five Places It’s Not Okay to Change a Diaper

Changing a diaper: One thing other people simply do not want to see. As a mother (with infant twins in diapers and a 3 and 6-year-old thankfully long removed from those!), I understand the desperation and urgency that sometimes accompany the need to change a dirty diaper ASAP. As a normal human being, I also understand that some places just aren’t appropriate for diaper duty. Not sure what I mean? Then you need to read on to find out five places it is never appropriate to change a dirty diaper.

Restaurant Tables/Chairs

So it’s really not awesome when you walk into a bathroom (I won’t name any names but there are a lot of upscale Southern California restaurants in desperate need of changing tables in their restrooms) and realize there’s no changing table to help you with the stinky situation you’re currently in. However, that doesn’t make it okay to change your baby on the table or the seat of your table. There are people eating, and it’s gross. Go to the car – my husband and I have had to excuse ourselves several times.

Other People’s Furniture

Unless your hosts say, “Go ahead and change him on the couch,” do NOT go ahead and change him on the couch! It’s disgusting. Excuse yourself and head to the bathroom. If you have to put the baby on the floor on a towel or your changing pad, do it. And please, don’t put that towel back on the rack…

Airplane Tray Tables

Do I really even need to elaborate here? How gross is it to change your baby on a tray table on which someone else is going to place their food? If you absolutely have no choice on a plane, place your changing pad on your own seat and do it that way. But again, try not to. Try to make it work in the bathroom. Think how you’d feel knowing that little spot of what appears to be mustard someone dropped from their sandwich on the previous flight was actually a little baby poo.

In A Moving Vehicle

It’s tempting, I know. Baby has to have a new diaper five minutes after he didn’t need a new diaper while you were stopped picking up lunch and getting everyone else out of the car to use the bathroom. It’s dangerous to take a baby out of a car seat in a moving vehicle. It’s tempting to do it “really quickly,” but do yourself and your baby a big favor; don’t take him or her out of a car seat in a moving vehicle.

In Front of Other People

Okay, this one is controversial, but hear me out. You might not think that other people are offended by the adorable naked baby bottom you’re changing, but you just don’t know that. More importantly, you don’t know what kind of people you’re near and what kind of people are looking at your child’s private body parts. There are, and this is so, so sad, people out there who don’t look at children the same way you and I do, and that’s not something you want your children to experience, no matter their age.

(Photo by Chris Jackson – WPA Pool/Getty Images)