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

Never acceptable for any reason ever:
If you are inside in public - in the toilets is acceptable, in a changing cubicle or area in a swimming pool is. NO-WHERE else is EVER!
If you are outside in public - grass is (preferably with your own mat), your own car is, or obviously public toilets NO-WHERE else is EVER!

But would you want to see and smell shit when you're having your lunch?

Indoors I'd have issues with it, but outside tables - there'll be bird shit, dog wee on the legs, foxes can climb over them and pick up any scraps at night. Outdoor tables are not somewhere that you can keep sterile unfortunately. It's good the food people wipe them but they are in the open air, a baby on a mat is the least of your worries (and they wouldn't worry me either - that's why we have plates!)

Get a hobby, ffs

This is the craziest thread I’ve ever read.
A mum changes a baby, on a table where people eat.
She has a changing mat, so could easily have laid it on the grass, and changed the baby there.
Yet because the table is outside, it’s deemed perfectly acceptable?
I have been a childminder for 15 years, innumerable babies/toddlers in that time, never once have I ever done this, or would even dream of doing it.
And to the posters saying mum may have had mobility problems? So change baby on the bloody bench seat then.
Mumsnet is officially wild.

It may well have been a typo, what with the M and N being next to each other, but I feel it's important to clarify:

Poonani - human female genitalia.
poonami - a play on the word tsunami, so a huge wave of shite that spills out of an infant's napkin top and bottom.

Same table that birds and other wild life shit on? YABU

Is this table outdoors? If so, there's a good chance it's already been crapped on multiple times by birds and other animals. I don't think changing a baby on a mat on it is really an issue.

Are you eating your food directly off the wooden table?

Oh dear... yes it was a typo! 🤭 My phone and fat fingers are never a good combo! Hadn't even noticed

Have all the people posting on MN lately, got a touch of heatstroke?

She put a mat down and its an outside table how many animals do you think have shit and pissed on it , kids in dirty shoes standing on it or the more adventurous getting frisky on it ? dear christ

Stunned that you would breast feed your baby in a toilet OP! How long ago did you feel you needed to do this?! My DS are 19 & 20, my sisters eldest DC is 30 and my mother BF me and DS56! None of us BF in the toilet! In a cafe, at the table with boob covered was always fine.

When did you last use the baby change at this park? Portaloos aren't for baby changing, I tried using a disabled one at the weekend as it had a changing table, but it was falling off the wall.
Most baby changing facilities are honestly just not good enough. Usually just a pull down table shoved into any space possible. One in a cafe left my baby in full view of everyone either walking past the door or walking into the bathroom. Some are locked and require a key, usually requiring you to ring a phone number and hope someone answers and is actually close by. Sometimes there just isn't one anywhere and mums have to make the best of the situation. I'd probably have opted for a mat on the table too.

Really?
So changing on the grass would never be an option?

Christ almighty, the actual GROUND was not an option??

It’s actually unreal!

She probably used the mat to protect the baby's bum from the seagull/pigeon poo that was already on the table.

OP didn't say if it was a pooey nappy or just a wet nappy.

A quick wet nappy change, absolutely fine IMO. Pooey nappy I'd have found a spot on the grass away from the picnic tables - my babies had the most disgusting poonamis that took ages to clean up so I'd rather do that in a quiet spot away from people!

Unfortunately, as a PP also said, 99% of baby changing facilities in public places are absolutely filthy, awkward and unfit for purpose so I'd always avold them if I could.

I totally get where you’re coming from, especially as I’m a little bit of a OCD clean surface kinda person but the baby was on a mat and most likely nothing from the baby or nappy went on the table!
i know lots of people who change their babies nappies on their sofa 😳 and then have guest over sitting on that sofa!

I was in a restaurant last weekend and my baby did a dirty nappy - I asked the waiter where the baby change toilet was and he said they don’t have baby change facilities there and said there was space on the bathroom floor to change her! Definitely more unhygienic for a baby to be changed on a bathroom floor than a baby being changed on table with a change mat between them! (I walked 5 mins back to my car and changed her there, I would never change her on a restaurant bathroom floor!)

The mat makes a difference, but I think a lap or the grass would’ve been preferable. Lots of people don’t wipe their mats, so it can have bodily fluids on one side and the outside could’ve had anything on (if you’ve ever wiped down a public changing unit before using it then the colour of the wipe is sometimes very offputting). If it was a pooey nappy then yes I think that’s gross to change in a place where people are eating or drinking. And I think people should antibac their hands as a minimum after touching wet pooey baby wipes

Met up with our family at Sherwood last week. Saw three people at a table outside having a picnic. Large Alsatian type dog lying on the top of the table sharing their picnic. People are basically just foul.

That underneath of that mat has probably been on so many different baby changing tables that had previously been covered in poo and wee.

(or maybe not as she doesn’t seem to use them!)

I don’t think it would have been right for you to say anything considering the lack of facilities available. I wouldn’t be bothered if the baby was very young and it was just a wet nappy. A poonami should have been done on the grass… I have many times had to change my babies nappy in her bassinet because the baby changing toilets were locked for whatever reason.

I can kind of see your point but there will be animals crawling over those tables and all sorts so I wouldn’t particularly get wound up about a baby’s nappy change on it.

These answers are fascinating. On another thread there are loads of people saying they would be outraged to have someone else wear their dressing gown, and I thought wow, my standards must be on the low side as I wouldn’t care. Then I come here and there are huge numbers of people not bothered by toileting functions happening in a food area, which I think is disgusting! I’m with you OP.