Father of a five-month-old baby girl, Ashton Kutcher doesn’t hesitate to change his daughter’s diapers. There is a problem he is encountering, however, when he takes his daughter out in public. It appears that men’s bathrooms do not contain baby changing stations. How is a proud father expected to change his baby’s diaper without the station?
The star posted to his Facebook to express his frustration at being unable to find restrooms with stations. He added an incentive: the first restroom he visits which contains a changing station will get a shout-out from him. The post has received over 200,000 likes and 10,000 comments since it was posted on March 8.
The post raises a bigger issue of gender imbalance. Why are the baby-changing stations only located in the women’s restrooms? Why does our society assume only mothers can change the diaper? My daughter asked the questions ?Why do they assume there is a mother? What if he is a single father? ?
In a society where family is consistently redefined and reshaped, we should not assume that only women will use the baby changing stations. In today’s society, fathers, grandparents, and siblings are often involved in the caring of younger family members. It is very possible a male family member will need to change a baby at some point.
Being a mother, myself, there have been restrooms I have visited which did not contain a changing station, or possibly, the station was being used by another family. The alternatives are to change the baby on the floor or somewhere else in public view. Depending on the establishment the family is visiting, a public view changing can be difficult.
It’s time the companies which makes the diaper changing stations start including them in all bathrooms.
