Your Favorite Restaurant Needs Your Help!
You’re in a restaurant and you need to change your baby’s diaper but there is no diaper changing table. What do you do? You likely take one of the following actions:
- Leave the establishment and change your child in the back seat of your car.
- Improvise; possibly using a pad on whatever surface you have available- the table where you are dining, a chair, or the floor.
- Drop everything and rush home to your own changing table.
- You choose restaurants that welcome you and your baby with the expectation that changing a diaper is going to be commonplace.
Restaurants that welcome families should accommodate the needs of the entire family, not just the adults. If a restaurant provides a toilet for adults, they should also provide a changing station for babies in both the women’s and men’s restrooms or in a Family Restroom.
Don’t abandon your favorite restaurant- they need your help. As a customer and a parent, you can be an agent of (diaper) change. Below are a few tips for you to keep in mind, for the next time you are in that sticky situation.
Share Your Concerns
Talk to the owner or restaurant manager and explain the frustration of going to your favorite restaurant and not being able to discreetly change your child’s diaper.
Explain the options available to you if there is no changing table. How would they like it if you changed your child on the dining table, or worse, if you never came back? Sometimes, a restaurant owner doesn’t think there is space for a baby changing station or that it will clash with their décor.
Ask the manager for their business card or email address and send them a link to this Baby Changing Station Viewer, where they can select the best model for their restroom, and experiment with different styles, colors and wall backgrounds.
How to Buy
There are many ways that a restaurant can purchase a baby changing station. The simplest way is to do a Google Search for “baby changing station”. There are several online retailers offering many brands at competitive prices. Suggest that the manager talk to their distributor. Restaurants purchase products from a variety of suppliers, depending upon their purchasing preferences. These distributors offer a range of products for businesses, from pots and pans to baby changing stations.
Tell them to speak with their corporate purchasing department. Some décor decisions are made at the corporate level of the business, providing a uniform look and pricing discounts. Getting a baby changing station may be as simple as the restaurant adding it to their regular supplies order.
You want to help your favorite restaurant earn more business, not drive away families and loyal patrons. Please be polite when you have this conversation with the restaurant personnel. Suggestions or comments? We would love to hear from you.
Thank you for taking the time to be an advocate for this cause!
– The Koala Kare Team
