Woman Changing Kid's Diaper in Restaurant

[bogey]

So this happened yesterday and totally grossed me out and I didn't know what to do.

I go out to eat with my gf at a Vietnamese Pho place in this Vietnamese type shopping center in Philly. Its a pretty cheap place as most Pho places are, but nothing especially dirty or anything about it, just standard.

So two tables away, this big extended family is sitting down (like 12 people). The father leaves and comes back with this plastic bowl type thing and then the mother has her kid (who looks too old to be wearing diapers, maybe like 6) stand up on the chair at the table in the middle of the restaurant while she takes his pants down and changes his diaper! I wanted to say something, but it was a huge family and I really had no idea what to say to a family where everyone thought that was an ok thing to do. No one else in the restaurant acted like it was out of the ordinay at all.

WTF??

[Tweety]

Parents changing babies' and toddlers' diapers in public is a fact of life. Babies need anywhere from 8 to 15 changes a day, so unless you plan on keeping your baby in your house around the clock, which is not good parenting, it is inevitable that you will have to change a diaper or two in a public place. People who have had kids understand this.

With that said, if I were in a restaurant I would almost certainly take my child to the restroom or possibly even out to the car if I drove there. I agree with you that it is pretty disgusting in a restaurant. But when I see it going on in the park or at the beach, I don't think anything of it.

Unless your parents really sucked, I can almost guarantee that you had many of your diapers change in the view of total strangers at one time or another.

[Evan]

This is totally unreasonable.

[JasonK]

Nasty. That's what restrooms are for.

[AquaSwing]

I'm guessing the general feelings about this are different based on whether or not you have kids.

[Evan]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm guessing the general feelings about this are different based on whether or not you have kids.

[/ QUOTE ]
Whether or not you have kids, you have to realize this is going to affect people all around you, some of whom probably won't have kids.

Getting kids naked in a public setting: Not desirable but necessary at times
Getting kids naked around people that you don't know and are eating at a restaurant: Give me a break

[LondonBroil]

OP: Which PHO place? What street?

[bogey]

Tweety,
Yeah, park or beach, whatever I don't like it but I realize sometimes its necessary, but the middle of a restaurant at a table full of people!

Its not like there wasn't a restroom right there and I'm pretty sure she wasn't carrying around a bottle of Purell. Not to mention the restaurant prob doesn't bleach their tables after every customer.

Is this any sort of cultural anomaly?

[Homer]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I'm guessing the general feelings about this are different based on whether or not you have kids.

[/ QUOTE ]
Whether or not you have kids, you have to realize this is going to affect people all around you, some of whom probably won't have kids.

Getting kids naked in a public setting: Not desirable but necessary at times
Getting kids naked around people that you don't know and are eating at a restaurant: Give me a break

[/ QUOTE ]

This has nothing to do with the kid being naked and everything to do with the fact that people don't want to see or smell [censored] while eating.

edit -- but anyway, yeah, obviously take the kid to the bathroom.

[whale_hunter]

My daughter is 5 now, but I used to change her back in the day.
NEVER AT THE DINNER TABLE.

That's just sick. Go to the damn bathroom.