Changing a baby’s nappy on a food table

[Intsywintsyspider]

I was in a park today having a coffee from a food van. There are 6 large wooden tables close together and on one was a group of new mums.
I was shocked to see one of them whip out a changing mat and change her baby’s nappy at the table.
The park is undergoing redevelopment but there are 2 portaloos, one modern public toilet and of course grass.
Now, I know we’ve come a long way since the days where I used to breast feed my kids in the toilet when I was in public, but I felt this was unhygienic and unacceptable.
i spoke to the food van and they said there was not much they could do, but she comes regularly, but they’d make sure they’d wipe the table.
I’d like to have spoken to her directly but didn’t want to shame her.
AIBU - it’s up to the park keepers to deal with it.
YANBU - I should speak to her, if so, what would you have said

FGS baby was on a mat. There are bigger things to worry about in the world than that!

That is vile. Using the seat would be ok.
I wouldn’t have said anything though - someone so thoughtless and ignorant won’t respond rationally to you.

Ps my vote for you are being unreasonable was based on you being unreasonable and not your options

Exactly this. 👍

Yet I bet you'd have no problem with a dog being up at the table. Baby was on a mat, it didn't even touch the table

Baby was on a mat, and I’m guessing was having one nappy changed for another?? So no bare baby bottom actually came into
contact with the table, surely?

Have you had a word with the birds/rats etc? I would think that tables outside come into contact with worse than a baby’s little bum.

And the birds, rats, dogs and foxes that shit or otherwise get germs on the the wooden table?
How will she change the baby in a portaloo? On the pissy floor?
It's lazy of her not to do it on the grass but she had a changing mat, so I think it's fine

In a restaurant I can understand your point and have commented to a parent changing a shitty nappy on the table next to me. In a park on a picnic bench in the open, not such a clean location anyway, as others have said, probably covered in wildlife excrement anyway.

By that logic it would be fine to change a baby on a table in a restaurant where people were eating, as long as it was on a mat?

It's an outdoor bench area. Guarantee a lot worse ends up on that table than a baby on a mat

It’s not so much that. It’s about changing the baby in full view of people trying to enjoy their food.

Unacceptable. I have unfortunately witnessed a baby having its nappy changed on a table in a pub restaurant as well.

I get that. Wet nappy wouldn't bother me but poonami would be a different story 😂

I would have no expectation of an outdoors table being clean and the baby was on a mat so I wouldn't be bothered.

So if you were at the next table and there was a shitty bum being changed in full view of you that wouldn’t put you off your lunch 🤢

I agree OP. Obviously an outdoor table is never
going to be clean especially as squirrels, rats and foxes etc are likely to be running around on it. But that doesn’t make it OK to add human fecal bacteria to the table (a mat will not reliably prevent this). The nappy should be changed on the grass or on a seat if wet - this makes the risk of contaminating food much less likely.

I saw this when I worked at McDonalds, we had a perfectly good allocated room for baby changing so why would you do it on table where your older children are eating.🤮

I would definitely have a problem with a dog being up on a food table!

Yabu

If this had been indoors I would agree with you. But an outdoor table in a park, is not something I would consider to be clean (different if it were the outdoor table of a restaurant).

It’s vile isn’t it?
I was at a park and saw a man changing a babies nappy (poo) on an outdoor table (no mat)
I confronted him, and told him it was disgusting, and that people eat at that table,his reply to me was that he was a surgeon!!
You can imagine my reply to him!

Who says the changing mat was clean? Regularly thoroughly wiped? There is a lot of assumption that the mat was clean when it may well not have been and could have had traces of faecal matter on it.

Either way, it’s unacceptable to change a nappy on a table that people eat off and do babies not deserve a modicum of privacy or does that only come with being toddlers and older?

On a table, grim. But I did change nappies on park benches occasionally or the grass. Always on a mat. Sometimes it's not possible to get to a toilet.

If it was poonani I would avoid anywhere within sight or communal surface though. No one wants to see that. Once when really caught short I did change in the pram. Would never do it where people put food.

Yeah it’s grim AF. Using a mat makes it no better because let’s face it the mat was probably used to change a poo nappy earlier that day and hasn’t been disinfected so is a germ fest and it’s right where people are eating 🤢. I wouldn’t have an issue if it was done on the grass or in the pram bassinet within sight of the cafe, so long as it wasn’t a stinky poo, but come on, you don’t do it on the table.

I wouldn’t have done it. But when I opened the thread I thought you meant an indoor table. A wooden picnic table outdoors is going to have all sorts on it anyway. So a baby on a mat wouldn’t really bother me.