I promise not to change any diapers where food is served.

I think with disposables you treat it like a maxi pad, roll it up, maybe wrap it in TP, and toss it in the bathroom can... I guess she tossed it in the regular can, ew. With cloth you put them in a "wet bag", which is a plasticized bag you put in your diaper bag.

How'd she wash her hands?

I hope I'm not -that- overwhelmed come November.

Yuck!!! That is beyond disgusting. Not to mention nobody wants to smell that while they are eating!!! If it was a disposable diaper it's amazing they didn't just shove it into the crack in the seat back (assuming there was one). If she's that stupid I doubt she could handle the little bit of work and extra care involved in cloth diapering.

What's really scary is she is a new mom with apparently no common sense, and that's what a lot of parenting is, COMMON SENSE. I wonder if she changes the baby on her OWN kitchen table?

It seems nearly impossible that anyone, even someone with only a modicum of reasonging ability, would not know human waste should NOT be one fiber lined plastic sheet away from seat and chairs meant for public eating. The real reason for why this happened must be some sort of sense of entitelement. How does a parent let little Jimmy stomp his feet and screech at the top of his lungs on a plane (just happened Friday) or run around wild at a restaurant or pull out all the candy at the grocery store cash regsiter etc etc? It's either ignorance at an astounding level of the most basic courtesy or it is 'I have a child -- I/they want or need X -- I/they get X -- other considerations are secondary'.

Poor Paris Hilton couldn't get into Japan because of her drug offence, but that doesn't keep her and other celebrities from being shoved in our faces by the media.

Shaming, corporal punishment and executions have gone out of style. You get what you tolerate.

Almost as disgusting, is what I see at many "casual" restaurants. I'm glad the Starbucks guy used the bleached soaked rag to wipe down "everything", but why, when cleaning up after people have left,are the chairs AND table tops both wiped down with the same cloth? They're not normally cleaning up poop, but asses have been on those chairs!

I don't know y'all. When I see this kind of crap (pun intended) happening all the time, I'm always on the fence about how much of it is stupidity and how much of it is selfishness (or both). I still can't make up my mind.

would not know human waste should NOT be one fiber lined plastic sheet away from seat and chairs meant for public eating.

It wasn't even plastic. It was what looked like a tiny dishtowel. Didn't cover most of the seat.

They're lucky the usual guy who's there during the week wasn't there on the weekend. He would have come over and chewed them out. This guy there on Saturday was brand new -- has maybe worked there a week.

Sometimes, when the baby is really new, you're so sleep deprived that you don't know what's up. But I'll bet she was a slob pre-kid.

This is why we need an approval process for people to be allowed to reproduce.

And to make things easy, I will appoint Amy as my Reproduction Fitness Czar.

As soon as I get done with this taking over the world thing.

Delta Airlines, Nov. 2006. During the meal service the woman across the aisle decided it was a good time to use the tray table to change her infant's diaper. My immediate complaint to the flight attendant brought the response "I can't do anything about it or we'll get sued." My husband, a lawyer, weighed in on this, but the surly flight attendant did nothing, as apparently WE were the assholes.
My letter to Delta got no response, so I simply fired them as my airline of choice. American got my business on the fourteen trips to Europe I took after this incident.

I've encountered this kind of mentality with many new mothers. Basically they feel the entire world should revolve around them and can't comprehend that it doesn't. Most would happily see a dozen people die rather than precious doesn't get a rash or her miss some appointment.

As much as I love these stories, I've never heard a one where you start with a polite tap on the shoulder and quiet suggestion. Do you ever do so? Is the nuclear option always where you go first, or are you just sparing us the dull tales where the person shamefacedly acquiesces to your tactful guidance?

When I go up against these boors, I'll usually give them an out with a witty retort or, if they don't look capable of grasping humor, a quiet suggestion that their activity is not something their mother would approve of. If they continue, or God help them, snap at ME for getting in THEIR face, THEN I bring out the verbal howitzers.

Remember the Power Rangers code as given by Zordon in the first episode - 'do not escalate the battle unless forced'. Good rule to live by.

I've observed before that women with infants kind of lose their minds with regard to baby poop. It's like they don't smell it or regard it as what it is, more like mud that just magically appears in the diaper. Maybe it's some kind of evolutionary adaptation.

Changing diapers near food consumption places is nasty, yes. I wonder how many people that agree also think a nursing mom should retreat to a bathroom when in public to nurse junior.

Laura, I hope no one thinks that.

1) Just had my (ultra-Orthodox) family over. My niece nursed her baby in a completely modest way without leaving the room. There is nothing wrong with this at all.

2) I think a lot of moms don't realize how repulsive their kid's poop is - it may start in early infancy, when a breast-fed baby's poop is relatively inoffensive. But in a restaurant? Give me a break.

Yep, I saw something similar for the first time a month or so ago. Disgusting. I should have turned around and said something, but didn't.

I will if it happens again. Gross.

When I took the bus a few months back, I smelled poop. As I was walking to the back of the bus, a lady in the buggy section of the bus was changing her kid. Then she pressed the button to get off the bus, leaving the dirty nappy in the bin. Where do you wash your hands after that?

Gross. That's why most family-friendly establishments have changing tables in the restroom. There are little plastic baggies that have cute little dispensers, especially for soiled diapers, that you can carry in a diaper bag... just like the kind you can buy for dog poop. Actually, if you're being thrifty, I'm pretty sure you could just use the ones intended for dogs, since they're cheaper and appear to be the same thing.

Yuck! Unfortunately I have seen this many times in many eating establishments and at coffee shops. For some reason, mothers, not just NEW mothers, seem to think that its cute or something...and that everyone will go "ahhh, look at the little cutie...".

In fact, poo in the diaper is one of the most disgusting smells, and I am telling you this from experience as a single custodial father. I used to always take my kid to the bathroom, or out to the car. Fortunately, now they have changing stations everywhere (if they stock them with necessities).

All of this is part of the "I don't care what anyone thinks I can do whatever I want/kiss my ass I'm a single-by-choice mother" mentality that adds so much to the rudeness of this culture.

One mother told me its "a natural thing" and told me to shut up. But it got me thinking about the hypocrisy of everyone being against changing at the table but always defending breast feeding at the table. What is up with that?

"All of this is part of the "I don't care what anyone thinks I can do whatever I want/kiss my ass I'm a single-by-choice mother" mentality that adds so much to the rudeness of this culture."

Being a single mother has nothing to do with changing poo where food is served. It's pooey of you to generalize onto all single mothers that sort of mentality. thumbs down hater

how many people that agree also think a nursing mom should retreat to a bathroom when in public to nurse junior.

NO!
Totally different - They're not spreading germs, and you can't see anything, unless you're really trying.

Breast milk doesn't smell, it's sterile, and the fluid is going into the baby's mouth not on a public seat. Plus, most nursing mothers are so discreet you can't even tell. There's simply no equating the two.

I really can't believe this happening with such frequency. The only defense I can imagine for these moms is that most diaper bags come with a changing pad, and perhaps they think that putting this down underneath the baby mitigates the transfer of germs, which it probably does when used properly, but still...around where people are eating is just gross.

Speaking of babies, I just found out my fiancee is pregnant :) I'll get my 'I'm sorry, I'm a new daddy' excuse ready.

"Yesterday, I probably went over and talked to four people who were on cell phones in the no cell phones cafe (other customers count on me to do that -- they love it)"

Reminds me of when I had a neighbor that had loud parties all the time, all my neighbors hated it but never complained to the noisy one, only to me, because I was the only one who would do anything about it ... in the end they would start coming to me by default, grown-ups but almost like helpless puppies, saying 'they made a noise again, help' with pleading eyes. This compounded the problem, because in trying to get them kicked out the complex it looked like I was the only one complaining, if they had also bothered to complain it would've been much easier to get action taken against the owner.

"but always defending breast feeding at the table. What is up with that?"

Food at the table? Yeah, unthinkable -- completely the same as raw sewage at the table!

Did you ever stop to think about why you are able to smell something, I mean what is the physics that is at work in the process? In order for your nose to sense something, it literally has to come into contact with it. So the fact that you can smell something (say, baby poop at your table) *means* that there are literally so many millions of tiny particles of that substance being kicked up into the air around you that millions of little bits of it are busy landing on the inside of your nostrils (and thus also being breathed in, and landing on your clothes, and landing in the food in front of you, etc.). Intuitively our minds incorrectly regard smell as a 'remote sensor' (which is physically impossible). If you can smell it, you're touching it. If you can smell it by your food, it's in your food and you're eating it.

I meant more along the lines of sending the infant to a bathroom to eat. I wouldn't eat in a bathroom nor did I make my baby do so.

Unfortunately (or fortunately) infants grow and the cutest, most discreet nurser in the world becomes a blanket-flapping, peekaboo-playing, still-nursing little flirty stinker that won't stay hidden under a cover for nuthin'.

Even funnier (or maybe not) is after they are somewhat verbal and ask for booby while out in public. A retreat is called for, just not to a toilet area.

yeah...like I said...thanks for verifying...

That's why you need a code word! I never thought of it and we had clarion calls for "Oppai!!Oppai!" ringing throughout the land...

Mothers don't perceive baby waste as 'dirty', and as many have brought up, may not feel compelled to wash their hands. When I was a La Leche League leader I always gave a 'your baby's poop is poop and IS dirty' talk for new mothers. You see a light go off in their heads. Mothers change a dozen or more diapers a day, a lot of them just become immune to it.

I'm fine with nursing in public, in any situation where it's not inappropriate to have an infant there in the first place. I have twice witnessed situations where a mother was indiscreet and exposed herself while nursing. I personally don't care, but it did create consternation in the immediate vicinity.

> Changing diapers near food consumption
> places is nasty, yes. I wonder how many
> people that agree also think a nursing mom
> should retreat to a bathroom when in public
> to nurse junior.

If adults should haven't to deal with shit-stink while they eat, why should kids?

Nonetheless, women who theatrically nurse in public mildly offend me, about as much as grown men who piss in public near corners of buildings, etc. The women often seem to be trying to pretend that they can decide what their sexuality means to other people. They're just going to INSIST there's nothing sexual about this full tits-out moment. Now, in the animal human heart of North America, that's just not how these things work... But if you don't call their bluff, they'll assume you're on their team and will back them up if a foolish man (of similar undercooked character) makes a sex joke. Such women deserve the occasional disappointment, as did the woman who expected Amy to be nice about having her coffee ruined.

Consignment to the modern, lounge-less restroom seems a bit harsh, though. Dave's standard points in the right direction: In a party of close-to-kindaclose friends, just find the darkest corner and do what you need to do. Otherwise, sedate the infant with drugs or alcohol so that the rest of us aren't bothered.

I say the public realm is an adult domain, requiring adult standards of comportment and courtesy. If your kids can't keep their screaming or their feces within their person for the duration, they shouldn't be there.

> As much as I love these stories, I've never
> heard a one where you start with a polite
> tap on the shoulder and quiet suggestion.

Too late. Farts from co-workers get jokes with just enough edge to punish... But a wave of shit-odor and shit-view when adults are trying to socialize (and perhaps eat) is aggressive conduct. I mean, OBVIOUSLY aggressive.

> It's pooey of you to generalize onto all
> single mothers that sort of mentality.

Contemporary single motherhood has so much hideous mentality within it that this generalization, even if false, is the lightest imaginable assault. The woman in Amy's cafe was trying to prove things to people. Her line about being a "new mother" was a psychological dance step, a deeply pathetic rhetorical ploy. In the best case, Amy was being (senselessly) asked to set aside her annoyance and imagine what OTHER weird behaviors New Mama might be capable of. I hate that shit.

> thumbs down hater

Hate, hate, hate. I loves me some hate.

When a baby is nursing, s/he is eating. Eating generally happens at the table. We don't eat in the bathroom. Eating in the bathroom is gross. They also don't usually have chairs, are you suggesting moms should sit on the john to feed their kids? Would you want to eat in the bathroom with the waitress sitting on the john as she hands you the food? Or even in a chair? If so, you are very kinky.

Poop and food don't belong together. The place to deal with poop is the bathroom. The place to deal with food is at the table, or maybe the living room. That goes for everyone.

That's disgusting. I don't understand why parent's with babies think it's okay to change their child anywhere other than a bathroom? It's just as bad on a bus, or anywhere that you shouldn't have to smell shit, really.

When I was a kid, like 8 or 9, my aunt had just had one of my cousins, and they were over for Christmas or something, and I remember her taking the kid into MY bedroom to "nurse." Bullshit, she changed that diaper in my room, and probably right on my bed, now that I think about it. I remember it smelled FOUL and I was so mad.. The thing is.. my parents have a big house, and looking back, I'm pissed because I'm sure she chose my room so she could use the bed to change that shit on. Their house has four rooms upstairs, the master bedroom, my (old) room, and two other rooms. She could have used one of the other rooms, or even the bathroom, which has ample space on the floor for diaper changing.. but no, I'm pretty sure she chose the room with a bed she could set the kid on. Ugh. RUDE.

It's just baby shit, get over it.

It's just baby shit, get over it.

Nope. Don't wanna.

Oh, sorry, I didn't know baby shit was comprised of rainbows and unicorns, didn't stink and wouldn't cause others to get sick if they came in contact with it. *eyeroll*

I've commented here a few months ago about kids at the restaurant I work at, but this is a subject I forgot about! It has happened to me maybe three times. I don't know about the other servers so it might be more common than I think. We had a large group in our party room, maybe 30 or more. I witnessed at the back of the room someone changing their baby at one of the empty tables. Never mind that we have a changing station in our bathrooms. When their party was done and we were cleaning up we found that dirty diaper left ON THE TABLE. Not wrapped up in a disposal bag or anything. Just rolled and taped to itself. Seriously what is wrong with people? Our poor little busser girl nearly vomited.

"When a baby is nursing, s/he is eating. Eating generally happens at the table. We don't eat in the bathroom."

There are very good reasons we don't eat in bathrooms, particularly public ones. It's not just 'gross', it's unsanitary and dangerous; nursing a baby in a bathroom is literally, in effect, feeding it the shit and urine of random strangers, and all the bacteria etc. that grows within those mixes. Has anyone ever contemplated the physics that actually goes on in a public bathroom? Whenever you flush a toilet, the force of the spray literally causes thousands of little bits of shit and urine to splash up all over the walls, over anyone nearby, and into the air, where they drift around as tiny suspended particles. Multiply this by HUNDREDS of people who may use a public bathroom on a daily basis --- seriously, you have to be pretty dense to think it's somehow OK to feed a baby in amongst all that. There are good reasons we don't expect to have to eat in public toilets, and these apply to babies too. And the fact that public toilets may be cleaned regularly doesn't help --- the REASON they're cleaned regularly is precisely that they're such frikkin incredibly filthy places.

"It's just baby shit, get over it."

So you don't mind if I drop my pants and shit on the table next to you the next time you're in a restaurant then? It's just shit, get over it.

Do people just not realize that shit is more then passing dood products?

The small intestine doesnt just soak up digested food, it also drops waste, like dead blood cells, toxins your body is purging.

Where exacly do you think all the dead cells wind up when your body replaces them?

Skin cells float off and wind up as most of the dust in your home but evry other dead cell exits out your ass.

The reason your shit does stink is becuase it is primarily composed of trillions of bits of ROTTING HUMAN FLESH.

So it is indeed a very big deal, if you can smell it that mean peices of it are floating thru the air and lodged into your nose.

I don't like being around baby poop either, but you guys are getting pretty gross...and paranoid.

Got a little OCD going on there Lobster and lujlp???

So let me get this right mike.

You dont find the poop istelf gross, but you do find the WORDS DESCRIBING what poop is composed of to be gross.

Is that what you are saying?

Do you also find the word vomit to be more stomach turning then an acctual pile of puke?

Your post does not make any sense, if you read it. No, I just find someone who is terrified all day of getting hit by poop droplets hanging in the air to be a bit strange. There are more pressing things to think about all day...

"All day" and "being disgusted by it when someone's changing a shit-filled diaper on a table next to me" are not the same thing.

Mike, ever hear of E. Coli? It is found in fecal matter, has many varieties, and SOME of those varieties can KILL you. Yes, being "OCD" about this is entirely appropriate.

I think Mike might be one of those people guilty of changing a diaper on a restaurant table. Or his wife did.

And Roger was wearing –and filling– that diaper.

ewwwww....good one WayneB! No, I had no idea what e. coli is..I'm sooooo glad that you could fill me in on that truly wondrous observation...your grasp of the incredible astounds even me.

Really, you should be doctor because you are so gosh-darned smart...

Actually Monica and Ann, if you had read through the thread you would have seen that I am against changing diapers in eating establishments. What I don't seem to grasp is why people have to get so hysterical about it. I mean, I don't look for germs to get sick...but they are everywhere, and worrying about it only raises your stress level and weakens your immune system, thereby making you more susceptible to catching disease.

Everyone is going to get sick...it is just a question of when.

Crid, I guess that Depends?

"What I don't seem to grasp is why people have to get so hysterical about it. I mean, I don't look for germs to get sick...but they are everywhere, and worrying about it only raises your stress level and weakens your immune system, thereby making you more susceptible to catching disease. Everyone is going to get sick...it is just a question of when. "

Yeah, that's why I never use a condom, worrying about HIV only raises your stress level and weakens your immune system. That's why I also eat meat and other food even after it's rotten, because it's no use getting all hysterical about germs, they are everywhere. Oh wait, so you mean you DO actually worry about germs, you are just selective about which reality of physics to ignore? There is a vast difference between being hysterical, and just acknowledging the realities of physics.

PS the WHO estimates that poor sanitation and hygeine kill 1.7 million people annually. That WHO are so hysterical.