would you leave dirty nappies in a library?

[starlover]

kind of following on from the restaurant thread!

My mum works in our local library and they have a baby jiggle and rhyme time on a friday morning.

Due to persistent requests they got a changing mat so that babies could be changed if necessary and people have now started LEAVING their dirty nappies beside it! for library staff to remove and bin....

I was when I heard it

yeah we are getting a new one, but it's not due to start being built until 2008!

sorry, must hasten to add that i will then take said bag full of nappies with me and dispose of correctly

I'm gobsmacked that people think that nappy bins should be provided - as has been said, they have to be diposed of separately and at great cost. To put this service in place would mean, say 150 - 200 less new books each year, at a guess.

Fair enough about having somewhere to change them, but is it really too much trouble to stick your used disposable in a nappy sack and pop it in the bin at home?

And as for leaving dirty nappies around for staff to deal with - no, not on. If you have a bag in which to bring your spare nappies, you have a bag in which to take them away.

i meant that the activity is free... it is i believe, the only free thing round here that you can take children to.

I am totally in agreement with the NOT leaving the nappies there, but am not in agreement that becuase it is a free service then facilities shouldn't be provided.
and i don't blame the staff, i blame the local authority/gvmnt.

Better week old nappies than overflowing sanitary towels yuk.

But I always take my nappies home with me anyway as they are cloth!!

Yes, in an ideal world, there would be fantastic changing facilities in EVERY library up and down the country - but the world is not perfect, and when there are patently NO nappy bins in Starlover's mum.s library, why oh why are people leaving stinking nappies for the staff?

If it were my library, I'm afraid I wouldn't be quite so tolerant.

I think if library users keep asking for a nappy changing mat, that means that... er... the service end-users need nappy changing facilities.

And the library isn't providing them. The argument about them costing money is the same arguement as providing disabled facilities, or pooper scoopers, or park wardens. Facilities do cost money. If you want young children to use your service, cater for them properly. Otherwise, don't complain if they don't bother to use your service and don't write self-congratulatory articles in the local council newspaper about how user-friendly your local council services are.

Are people gobsmacked by the idea that tampon disposal bins should be provided? Does everyone put their tampons and sanitary towels in their handbags?

but library users in general DON'T ask! the library has never had a problem before, until recently. and it's only the mums at jiggle and rhyme time who want them.

where does it stop?
breastfeeding room? bottle warmers? a cot?

You don't need breastfeeding rooms.

If they don't want mums to change their babie's nappies, don't set up the jiggle and rhyme time.

It stops wherever the end-user demand stops. Every service-provider knows that. That's why someone clever spots a gap in the market where an end-user demand isn't being met, and fills it.

So do you take your tampons and sanitary towels home?

Don't set up the jiggle time...and that would solve??? It would affect everyone, including those who do show a bit of courtesy and take the stinking nappy home if there are no bin facilities NOT expect someone else to tidy up after them.

So do you take your tampons home?

but no-one is stoping them change the babies!

i just wouldn't even think twice about it! i'd either wait and go and use public changing room down the road, or i'd do it and take nappy home.

there doesn't have to be a facility for everything everywhere does there???

i suppose i am aslo struggling with the actual position of the toilets in the building and the fact there is no mat.
dh has just said that he finds changing the kids very hard alot of the time, esp in the library as mens' toilets are often much less than hygienic
but that is another thread!

By law, in local authorities and the NHS (don't know about private industry), female toilets have to provide a sanitary bin. They do not have to provide nappy bins.

Why is a nappy different from a tampon or sanitary towel? These two items are much smaller and can be popped into a handbag (if you carry such a thing - I usually don't) much easier than a nappy.

I have to say, I would just make Linus wait and then take him to mothercare and use theirs!
it's only 45 minutes!

That's interesting PG - why do they have to provide waste disposal for sanitary towels but not nappies? I'm intrigued by the logic of this.

And I'm amazed that someone's bothered to make a law about it.