to think this is rather odd and contributes to PAEDO HYSTERIA?

[CelticPromise]

I was in a local children's centre with DS (2.5) this morning and needed to change his nappy. There is a very handy changing station which I have used many times before. It is tucked around a corner by the toilets. I was mid-nappy change when one of the staff walked past and we had this conversation:

Her 'Do you want me to put a screen around you for privacy?'
Me 'No thanks, we're fine.'
Her 'But sometimes there are men walking through here, the men's toilets are in the corner'.

I was a bit and said I wasn't bothered and neither was DS but she pulled over a 6' screen of the type you would see in mobile clinic type places and put it up around us.

I thought this was totally bizarre, and the sort of 'can't be too careful' behaviour that leads to madness. AIBU? Or is this a standard precaution for toddler nappy changes?

It was a polite way of saying that nobody want's to see your child's shitty nappy.

The centre was BU to put it in the corridor in the first place. The smell alone....

thepeoplesprincess

The decision on the layout was nothing to do with the Centre.

Sure Start's design guide stated that the location for nappy changing will be ".. separate but visible from the playroom .."

Do you know what I think is odd?

The fact that people (MNers, anyway) now create hysteria about paedo hysteria.

I used a motorway service station a few months ago and was taken aback to discover the changing facilities were a series of fold down tables at the entrance to the women's toilets. As a new mother with a phenomenally squirty baby, I hated nappy changing in such a public area. I prefer to have my poo-induced breakdowns in a private cubicle. Plus it can't have been remotely pleasant for those walking by who were treated to the sight of a sleep-deprived and slightly deranged woman trying to contain and clear up a massive, mustard coloured landslip of a shit, including tearfully attempting to remove evidence of shit leakage from clothing with naught but a wet wipe (the sinks were helpfully positioned too far from the changing area to permit washing hands/clothing before the change was complete.)