Okay due to lack of sleep (going on two full day/nights now..) and a shit day, I've been doing some soul searching while looking at my empathy tattoo.
I think if I'm to be honest with myself I don't have an issue with a mum in dire need changing a nappy. I just think given a bus is an enclosed space and have 'no escape' from something that for me, whether other people understand why or not, would genuinely cause me extreme discomfort. I don't expect a mother to ask me if she can change her child, that would be ridiculous. But given it's such an awkward situation, what's sooo wrong with just flashing a 'sorry' smile, and saying something along the lines of "my baby desperately needs to be changed, I wouldn't usually do this," then just doing it as discretely as humanly possible.
I guess my thinking it's a feral act doesn't come from the act itself at all. It's the whole 'I will just do it, and if it makes you uncomfortable you are an extremely unreasonable person' attitude I'm seeing in this thread that find trashy.
So yeah, I change my answer. In emergencies, if shown the tiniest bit of manners/empathy it's just not my natural reaction to judge. Babies are dependant creatures, I get it.
If a parent just did it on every bus then well yeah I'd find that odd.
Please people, stop being offended by my use of the word feral. I'm using it in it's Aussie slang terms, not the English meaning. :)
So after much soul searching, that's my 'heart's' answer, not my 'head's' answer I gave earlier.