Parents Face Backlash After Changing Baby's Diaper On Chipotle Dining Table

[Miles Archer]

Parents Face Backlash After Changing Baby's Diaper On Chipotle Dining Table

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/30/diaper-change-chipotle_n_5908046.html

A mom's decision to change her baby's diaper on a dining table in the middle of a Chipotle restaurant is making headlines this week -- and raising plenty of eyebrows in the process.

According to The Consumerist, the mom in question was having a meal with her 16-month-old daughter when the tot needed a diaper change. However, when the mom found that the establishment -- the store was in the Midwest, the outlet states -- didn't have a changing table, she changed her child's diaper on a table in the dining area.

The woman's husband, Chad, reportedly sent a letter to Chipotle's headquarters, defending his wife's behavior and criticizing the restaurant's employees for telling the family they'd have to leave if they tried to change another diaper in the dining area. In the letter, obtained by The Consumerist, he said that while his wife's choice to change their baby on a dining table may have struck some as "unsavory," the employees displayed an "inability/unwillingness to empathize with parents who find [the car] a less convenient alternative even on a beautiful day like yesterday, much less a subfreezing day as we undoubtedly will have in [this region] this winter."

Chipotle responded to Chad's letter by saying that they were "currently in the process of retrofitting locations with changing tables," according to the outlet. In a written statement to The Huffington Post Tuesday, the company confirmed that it is "looking to incorporate changing tables into new restaurants that are in locations where we are likely to see a high concentration of families as customers."

[yeoman6987]

1. Those poor other paying customers

And the parents use a table in a restaurant that millions of customers use every day? Yuk! That poor baby.

[pintobean]

10. No shit.

[Puglover]

101. Well hopefully not.

Just a wet diaper would have been bad enough.

[MineralMan]

2. Amazing!

How could anyone think it is appropriate to change a baby's diaper on a restaurant table? I know that parents are all centered on their little one, but do they not even think about the next person to sit at that table? If it were my restaurant, I'd have tossed them from the place immediately and told them if they ever returned the police would be called for a trespassing violation.

Self-centeredness to that degree is not just impolite, it's a health hazard. Restaurant tables are for eating, not changing stinky diapers.

Disgusting in the extreme!

[JustAnotherGen]

6. Times ten thousand + 1000000

That's just gross!

[on point]

17. 1000+

[lunasun]

18. +1 You understand where they are coming from and how self centered would one really have to be ???

Sick & disgusting
No poop with my pico de gallo !

[Louisiana1976]

27. + 1 million. Potentially exposing whoever has to eat there to fecal matter.

[Frank Cannon]

98. Not just fecal matter. BABY fecal matter.

Ranks up there with Strontium-90, mustard gas, and puffer fish toxin as one of the nastiest and most dangerous substances on Earth.

[RKP5637]

34. K&R !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! n/t

[Raine]

41. TOTALLY agree!!! nt

[snagglepuss]

62. + bazillion

[sendero]

66. Presumably..

.... they came there in a car and it's back seat would have made a perfect venue for the activity at hand.

Some people are so full of themselves they cannot see how their actions reveal that fact.

I would ask this self-centered bimbo if she changes her kid's diaper on the dining table at home.

[kestrel91316]

74. Probably does. People are STUPID.

[Mugu]

69. Hear, hear!!!! n/t

[kestrel91316]

73. It's a major public health hazard and probably a violation that could get their restaurant permit

revoked.

[Logical]

77. LOL, the trespassing shit is way over the top but ok. nt

[former9thward]

86. They think they are in their own home.

Just like those in movie theaters who talk during the movie think they are in their own living room.

[cwydro]

3. I think I would have taken the baby to the car

for the changing. That's just disgusting.

[sharp_stick]

12. So would most people

with properly functioning craniums I would hope.

[brush]

23. Or the ladies room

Wtf was that woman thinking — and then the husband defending it.

[deafskeptic]

91. I was wondering the same thing.

I would be shocked to see that in a restaurant. It's disgusting at best and at worst, it could make others sick.

[Dorian Gray]

99. Unless it was in a major

city (no cars), I agree. I've used the backseat or my trunk when traveling to suburbs and no facilities worked for us.

And her in NYC when i had to change my daughter i always figured it out in the restroom even if there wasn't an appropriate changing table.

The parents were rude.

[Sparhawk60]

103. Yup

I have three kids, all have been changed more than a few times in the back of the car. On the other hand, come on business's, how expensive is it to install a Kola Kare changing station in the restrooms?

[RedCappedBandit]

4. That is disgusting.

[nc4bo]

5. Wouldn't use a changing table anyway.....cooties

Definitely not on a table where people eat.

Hubby and I always changed our kids in the car.

[IdaBriggs]

7. I understand her frustration (mom of twins, no changing table experience)

BUT changing a diaper on a table in a dining establishment is ridiculously inappropriate.

She should have left, taken care of the matter at her earliest convenience (diapers can be changed in a car - I've done it), or gone to a place with a changing table, then called and made some ears bleed.

What she does in her home (if she chooses to use her kitchen table) is her business, but I can't agree with using a table in a public restaurant as a changing table. Its just ... YUCK.

You know they don't sanitize enough to make that okay for the next person (and yes, sometimes things get "spilled a bit" when changing a diaper -- not always, but once in a while).

[MineralMan]

15. Table cleaning is minimal at most restaurants.

They aren't disinfected, but are usually just wiped off with a damp rag that has been used on other tables. In this case, that same cleaning rag might be used on many other tables, spreading fecal bacteria throughout the restaurant.

It's unbelievable what some people do in public. If I were eating there when they did that, those parents would have gotten a pointed lecture from me before that diaper ever got removed. I'd raise a big enough stink that nobody would be able to smell the stinky diaper.

[IdaBriggs]

19. I am aware -- just YUCK.

I am usually pretty tolerant of "mommy is making bad, sleep deprived frustrated decisions" (twins! lol!), but what an IDIOT move in this case. I would probably have been sitting there self-righteously nodding my head at your lecture!

[pipi_k]

32. I saw a disgusting cleaning rag in action

last week when Mr Pipi and I stopped into a Burger King for a quick lunch. I don't do fast food but once every few months (maybe 3 times per year) and now I'm going to feel even less inclined, but anyway...

An employee went around wiping down tables AND seats with the same rag.

OK I guess it wouldn't have grossed me out so much if I had smelled just a hint of chlorine bleach or something.

So little kids with pissy pants, maybe wiping boogers on the seat next to them, all that's being wiped up with the rag and then transferred to all the other seats and tables as well.

I may have to start carrying around a small spray bottle with bleach/water solution to use in certain places.

[MineralMan]

33. I've never seen anything else used to wipe down tables.

The table clearing person is the one with the rag. Every one I've seen has been one that has been used on many tables already. I still eat at restaurants, though, because I don't eat off the table itself. That's what plates are for. But, then, I'm not a germophobe anyhow.

[pipi_k]

106. I think I've seen people

go around with a spray bottle in other places.

I can see them not wanting to use something that might mess with people's enjoyment of their food, but there are options.

I have a cleaner that's made from hydrogen peroxide and has a very nice, very subtle orange scent.


I try to keep stuff on the tray or paper placemat.

Big time germaphobe here.

[3catwoman3]

88. I have seen this done also...

...and it completely grosses me out. If I ran a restaurant, I would insist on paper towels being used for this, table top first, then the seats, then throw it in the trash. no moving on to the next table or booth.

[tazkcmo]

61. Even less

I believe Chipotle is like many other fast food establishments in that most patrons bus their own table. I have never seen an employee at Chipotle, McDonald's, BK, etc attend the dining room and be responsible for sanitizing each table after every use as is the norm at a full service restaurant. So forget about that "rag" (We call them towels now for obvious and not so obvious reasons), chances are none of those tables have been sanitized properly or improperly in quite some time.

I NEVER eat at a fast food establishment's dining room for that reason alone.

[MineralMan]

63. I call 'em rags.

As I said, I'm not a germophobe. I eat wherever I eat and wash my hands. I've not had a food related illness for many, many years.

[tazkcmo]

64. OK n/t

[Scout]

8. take baby to the car to change that diaper!

gross, nasty, sick, disgusting, lazy, selfish to change it on the dining table in the restaurant.

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. ugh.

[YarnAddict]

11. Yuk, yuk, yuk!!

The whole family should have been booted out immediately.

[snooper2]

13. This is one of the downfalls of the Intertubes

every little thing that happens in some podunk town gets disseminated around the World even though it may or may not be true for people to blah blah about.....


BACK TO WORK!

[OhioChick]

14. That's utterly disgusting

Take your kids out to the car and change them like I did.

[Blue Owl]

81. Vitterly disgusting, even...

n/t

[Tatiana]

16. That is disgusting. Take the baby to the car... hello!

Not only should a baby's changing area be comfortable for the baby, but it should also be disinfected afterwards.

What a set of inconsiderate parents.

[LawDeeDah]

20. That's pretty gross

but it is also gross of the restaurant not to have a change table in the bathroom.

[dflprincess]

28. One has to wonder how parents coped before changing tables were put in any public restaurants

Oh yeah, they used the car or waited until they got home (depending on how badly the change was needed.)

[LawDeeDah]

31. I wonder how fields were plowed before tractors.

Being considerate of parents and babies is nice.

[upaloopa]

38. Being considerate to anyone is nice

Too bad those parents in the story don't know that.

[catbyte]

42. So you think that was the correct thing to do?!?

Wow. Enjoy your stay!

[LawDeeDah]

83. I don't know. The headline and story sounds very gross.

But that is news these days, to shock everyone till their lips blister from tsking before knowing all the details.

[kestrel91316]

75. Poopy butt plus dining table in public is pretty inconsiderate.

Aside from being a major public health hazard and violates any number of health and safety codes.

[ladyVet]

89. Before tractors,

fields were plowed with horses, oxen, water buffalo, or some other beast of burden. Sometimes even human-powered, I could imagine. The world still turned.

Changing a diaper on a public restaurant table is inexcusable. Generations of parents managed to get by without changing tables in restrooms. Most of those are so nasty I wouldn't have used one anyway. Have you seen how filthy people are in public restrooms? Many don't bother to wash their hands after their own use, much less after changing diapers. I've seen people with Master's degrees shit and leave without even rinsing, much less using soap. Some of them didn't flush, either.

As for the wiping down tables with the same rag, you can read about the author's experiences as a maid with a big-name cleaning service in the book Nickle and Dimed. An eye-opener, for sure.

I'm no germaphobe either, but I do take precautions in public, and I have consideration for others.

[Trekologer]

96. Being considerate is holding a door open

Having a baby isn't a universal pass for everything, despite some parents thinking that it is.

[leftynyc]

108. Do you think these

parents were being considerate of all the others in the restaurant who were trying to eat without having to watch and smell their precious offspring getting changed right in front of them? On a table used to EAT? Fuck this family. I'm sick of the way some parents think the world should stop because they wanted to breed.

[gollygee]

45. They might have used the floor

I hope they didn't use tables.

Of course, parents didn't take babies and kids out everywhere like they do now, either.

[hifiguy]

21. Bet that cleared the restaurant posthaste.

What are people using for brains these days? Turnips?

Gross to the disgusting max.

[Marrah_G]

22. nasty

[gollygee]

24. Ewwww

I always took my kids to the car to change, even when it was cold out. Tables people might eat on are simply unavailable. Period. If it was -17 F like it was sometiems this past winter, I might have gotten desperate enough to use a spare space of floor near the bathroom (assuming the bathroom didn't have a changing table) but NEVER in any circumstance a table.

[haele]

111. I changed my then 12 month old grand-daughter in a pedestal sink at a restaurant once.

We also had one of those folding changing pads that went in the diaper bag to put under her so that we could change her pretty much anywhere without too much mess.
And my stepdaughter used to change her in their nice folding traveling stroller where the back dropped down into a sleeper if she was caught somewhere without a bathroom changing table nearby until "M" got too big for the stroller. By that time, she was pretty much potty trained anyway, and diapers had been transitioned to easy to change out of pull-ups were only worn if there was a potential "no nearby bathroom" situation.
"M" was perfectly happy being changed in the sink in a pinch. And it was easy to clean up afterwards.

When babies are small, it's very easy to change them in a public bathroom, no matter how small a space is available. It starts getting difficult around 26 months, but by then, you should be able to change them standing up if you need to.

I've never had children of my own, but I am aware of basic public health requirements and even when exhausted, can think at least to the edges of "the box" when faced with something I'm not prepared for. Circumstances where there is Poop and Pee ("M" loves to sing that out when she has to go) should automatically trigger the "find a bathroom or someplace away from food or other people eating" reaction.

No excuse whatsoever for such lack of awareness of their surroundings - Those self-absorbed parents weren't thinking at all.

Haele

[Capt. Obvious]

25. Customers may have gotten confused over which was the food

[msanthrope]

95. Thread win. nt

[marions ghost]

26. How can people be so piggy

and inconsiderate?

gross....................

[unblock]

29. i've seen this more than once. i'm glad they're putting in more changing tables.

yes, it's a horribly disgusting thing for parents to do.

but restaurants have bathrooms in order to make, uh, elimination easy and comfortable for those who can manage it themselves. i don't see why they shouldn't invest a little extra to make it easy and comfortable to similarly attend to the basic needs of infants and toddlers.

[theHandpuppet]

43. I've seen worse, unfortunately

Busy restaurant on a weekend; the ladies room had a short waiting line for stalls. One Mom decided she wasn't going to wait, so she placed her 3-4 year old on the sink, pulled down his pants and let him take a huge dump right in the sink. She then wiped his ass, pulled up his pants and went back to her table. Never have forgotten that one.

[kestrel91316]

76. I would have pitched a screaming fit at that one, lol, and the manager would have known about it.

And probably the police, too. Not to mention the health department.

[lunasun]

85. Oh dear God

The bathroom garbage can maybe if an accident was going to occur on the floor
But the sink ?????
Hello manager

[3catwoman3]

90. Holy crap...

..so to speak.

[Sparhawk60]

104. Every Rest Room

Every restroom needs to have a Kola Kare changing station installed. They are a cheap, convenient solution to this issue.



Sparhawk
Sales Manager
Kola Kare Inc.

[TheNutcracker]

30. Woman changed a large kid nasty diaper on a Southwest flight, right in the seat everyone gagging!

I lose hope in our society when I read 'shit' like this!

[gollygee]

35. Very hard to change a diaper on a plane.

They don't have any space set aside, and it's unavoidable that diapers will have to be changed. Luckily, this only happened to me on a 747 and there's space on the floor near the bathrooms on those planes, but I don't know how I would have handled it on a smaller plane.

[d_r]

47. there's a changing table

IN the bathroom on planes.

Unfold the daiper befite you go in and out it on your head like a hat. Hold baby and n two hands, go in and fold down table and put baby on it.

[gollygee]

49. He said it was a large baby

I've seen the changing tables and large babies will never fit on them.

[d_r]

51. that's why I said

Put the clean diaper on your head before going in

[gollygee]

52. The baby does not safely or even remotely fit on the table

That's why I used the floor near the bathrooms. I had a baby way, way bigger than could fit on that tiny changing table. The issue isn't what to do with the diaper.

[Capt. Obvious]

79. was it worse than this?

[RKP5637]

36. I would have gotten up and left if I saw that going on by me! n/t

[valerief]

37. That fuckin' revolting. People should go to their house and shit on their

furniture.

Years ago, I was in some Northern Kentucky chain restaurant (can't remember which but it served alcohol) and I noticed there was a changing table in the ladies room but no tampon/pad dispenser. I casually mentioned this to the server (chuckling while I said it) and next thing I knew the manager came over. (There were no harsh words passed by anyone.) The manager was interested in my observation, and I told him to look around. "You see more young women here than babies." Sometime later I learned a tampon/pad dispenser was installed in the ladies room.

Any restaurant that serves alcohol should not be expected to cater to babies, IMHO. Those families can go to non-alcoholic baby-friendly restaurants. Or can make arrangements to use their car for shitty diaper changes.

[gollygee]

40. No restaurant that serves alcohol?

That includes Applebees and Chuck E. Cheese.

[valerief]

46. Shit, Chuck E. Cheese serves alcohol??? No wonder this country sucks.

Do people bring babies to Chuck E. Cheese? I thought it was for kids.

[gollygee]

48. LOL

Yeah I don't know the theory behind that. No wifi either. Anyplace you have to sit and wait for your kids and be bored should have wifi. But I guess they have alcohol instead. (I just bring a book to places like that.)

[valerief]

56. I did a search and found that there have been tons of fights between

drunken parents at CEC, so many that only 70% (as of 2008) serve alcohol. May be a lower percentage now.

One article had a cop say that they got lots more calls to CEC to break up fights than to the biker bar down the street. No kids at the biker bar!!!!

[KurtNYC]

72. One of my neighbors was separating from her spouse due to a variety of issues,

one of which was his problems with alcohol. EVERY time he had visitation with the kids he would take them to CEC and drink. It seems he did this partly to piss her off and partly because he wanted to drink. Once he had his GF of-the-day call his ex and leave a VM: "just thought you'd want to know that your ex is at CEC with a pitcher of beer..." (just to mess with her). As they say "To everyone else the problem is alcohol but to the alcoholic the problem is everyone else telling them not to drink."

Bad pizza, video games, beer and custody battles -- what a combo.

[d_r]

50. why in the world

Would that be a reasonable idea? Someone with a baby CNT have a beer with dinner?

[valerief]

57. I'm not feeding this

[tabbycat31]

55. I rarely see tampon/pad dispensers

And there should be more in case you are caught offguard. I have seen condom dispensers though.

[valerief]

59. Not surprising in this patriarchy. nt

[WI_DEM]

39. No way I can agree with those parents--it is unsanitary

and inconsiderate to other people who are trying to enjoy their meal.

[badtoworse]

44. The parents are gavones

[msanthrope]

97. As a fellow Italian-American, I agree. nt

[Blue_Tires]

53. Those parents are too ignorant and self-important

to be allowed to breed...

At one time people used to be able to address their gripes in a civilized manner instead of going full-Philistine every damn time...

[Vinca]

54. That's disgusting.

Take the kid out to the car for a diaper change if nothing is available.

[liberal N proud]

58. Why would a parent change a diaper on one of those table

In one 2006 study of 23 restaurant dishcloths from 10 establishments, researchers found coliform bacteria on 89.2 percent of the cloths -- E. coli specifically on 54 percent. Tabletops cleaned with such rags were covered with 45 times more bacteria AFTER cleaning than prior to it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/29/restaurant-studies-dirty_n_4676632.html

[TwilightGardener]

60. Disgusting. You don't need a fucking changing table to change a baby--

find a corner of the restroom, spread something disposable on the floor to protect baby, get the deed done, throw away, wash hands, done. Or do it in your car. For chrissakes, what nasty pigs.

[LeftyMom]

65. Great, now everybody has Baby Ebola.

The effects of which are virtually indistinguishable from Post-Chipotle Syndrome, so we're all gonna die.

[Warren DeMontague]

71. Worst. Baby. Name. Ever.

[peace13]

67. I saw that happen in a family restaurant once.

Everyone in the place was grossed out. The mother was un fazed. I would hate to eat at her house not to mention the fact that she didn't wash her hands. Sooo gross!

[starroute]

68. I changed a lot of diapers on ladies room floors

I had a folding, plastic-covered padded mat that I kept in the diaper bag and I would spread it out and do my business. It was actually a lot easier and safer than trying to balance a wriggly infant on a narrow changing table.

[Warren DeMontague]

70. I usually side with stressed out parents of babies and toddlers in trying situations....

not this one.

Simply inexcusable.

[elehhhhna]

78. Chad and his wife are pigs.

[retread]

80. And next customers at that table were served

[Blue Owl]

82. Don't order the #2 combo...

n/t

[Ms. Toad]

84. I'm amazed we're up to 83 comments

and not one defense of the parents. I remember the last time this topic came up - there were quite a few people defending the parents!

[hunter]

87. I have way worse stories.

Fortunately we usually managed to get the explosive kid to the floor.

Okay, sorry about the high chair... maybe ten dollars extra on the tip, even when it's our last ten dollars.

I have some funnier airline stories.

Who would have ever imagined a ten pack of disposable diapers wouldn't be enough? We ought to have been able to slingshot around the moon with that.

Stuffing restroom paper towels in the last disgusting diaper a mere 30,000 feet above the earth... really, kid? You saved up all this poop for now?

[Ken Burch]

92. How could Chipotle NOT have had changing tables to start with?

has nobody EVER brought in a baby before?

[3catwoman3]

93. As someone who works in health care, and is an admitted...

...germophobe (I wash my hands so often I refer to myself as "Lady MacBeth&quot , I find this completely disgusting and utterly unjustifiable, and, altho I typically avoid confrontation, would have mustered up the guts to say something to these incredibly thoughtless people.

[yourpicturehere]

94. Egad!

I would have had to say something to the diaper changer. I had three kids and managed to get them through the diaper stage w/o changing tables and w/o doing the change in public.

That being said, here's another one...How 'bout the people that bring little girls in dresses into food places with a counter and put them on the counter. It never fails that the child's underwear and ass are in contact with the counter. That has ALWAYS grossed me out. Maybe the kid's clean, but the potential for poopy germs is always what got to me. Keep the kid in your arms or on the ground.

[LawDeeDah]

112. Germs and gunk are all over. An adult may wipe their ass and not wash their hands

or pick their noses and hand you a potato chip or make a meal for you with their dirty hands.

Lots of guys do not wash their hands after holding their johnsons for a pee.

Tons of grossness around, so baby butts are a wee bit down on the scale for me.

[Iggo]

100. They shouldn't have done it. It's gross. Now move along. (n/t)

[Skinner]

105. It's a good think Huffington Post covered this vitally important story.

Where is CNN?

[leftstreet]

107. CNN quarantined. Ebola virus is now talk-borne

Is there any news anywhere that isn't M$M shock and awe?

[Miles Archer]

110. One of CNN's current "Top Stories"..."Shocking Tip Left For Bad Service"

http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/bestoftv/2014/10/02/good-stuff-newday-tip-for-awful-service.cnn&hpt=hp_t4&from_homepage=yes&video_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F

[LawDeeDah]

109. Those parents must be Turd Wayers.

and I wonder where they change their oil?