Hi everyone,
I'm a first-time dad to a boy who turns one next week (where does the time go?!) and over the last year my partner and I have started joking that we now rate cafes not by their coffee, but by their changing facilities.
Finding a good one feels like a huge win, and a bad one can genuinely ruin an entire outing. Even just the other day my partner was heading into Glasgow town centre to meet friends and was getting anxious trying to think of places that are baby friendly, pram accessible, and actually have a changing table that isn't in a cupboard.
So I built an app called ChangeCheck. I've got a background in software engineering but I've never taken on anything like this before — it's been months of evenings and weekends, and honestly I should have stopped tinkering and shared it much sooner!
It started from a thread I posted asking parents what's on their "parent-friendly checklist" and the responses were amazing. Some of the things I've tried to build in:
Combined toilet + changing room (the #1 request by a mile)
Knowing where the changing table actually is — women's only, both toilets, or separate family room (dads feeling locked out came up loads)
Whether there's actually space for your pram without blocking everyone
Highchair type (the beloved IKEA Antilop vs the wobbly wooden ones)
Hidden gems like wall-mounted toddler seats and blue-roll dispensers
A "Hype Gap" feature that flags places trending on social media but not yet reviewed by parents — so you can see if the Instagram-famous brunch spot is actually family-friendly or a nightmare with a buggy
It's still in early testing so it's not perfect, but I've got a small group of parents who've been brilliant at finding bugs and suggesting features. The thing is, the app only works when real parents are sharing what they find — and I need more people in more places to make the data genuinely useful.
If you fancy having a play, it's completely free, no ads, available on both:
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.changecheck.app
iPhone (TestFlight): https://testflight.apple.com/join/QxZ1YyxW
Or just have a look at
https://waitlist.changecheckapp.com/ if you want to see what it's about first.
Would genuinely love to hear what you think — even if it's "this is rubbish and here's why." That's exactly the kind of feedback that makes it better! The more people involved early, the better the data gets for everyone.
Thanks for any time you can spare!