Penguin RushDiaper rooms
For those of you who have watched Mrs. Doubtfire, or at least know what the movie is all about, surely you'd know it's about this divorced father who's willing to go great lengths just to be with his three kids. With the wife gaining custody of their three children, the father dresses up as an old lady and gets a job as the kids' nanny, just so that he can spend more time with the kids.
Now what I'm about to talk about does not concern with the movie, nor to discuss how many of you fathers out there who are willing to do the same, should you are in the same situation as Mrs. Doubtfire?
It's more about, well, if Mrs. Doubtfire were to spend time with his baby kids around the shopping complexes in Malaysia, with dresses like that, he'd have no problems whatsoever gaining entries into our diaper changing rooms.
Why? Let me explain why. Occasionally, whenever my wife is working on weekends, I'd bring Ikhwan for some jalan-jalan or window shopping, even if it was just briefly. Of all the shopping complexes we've been to, we discovered that almost 100% of them were not father-friendly.
Why? Here's why.... as far as Malaysia goes (sorry, I still didn't have a kid while in overseas, so I don't know what's the situation like out there), most of the feeding-cum-diaper-changing rooms are restricted to females/mothers only. Understandably, of course mothers won't want any strange males to be around while breast-feeding their kids. But the thing is, the rooms to change baby's diapers are usually connected to the feeding ones. In one major shopping place, they are actually located inside women's toilets.
Now where does that leave us fathers? Where should we bring our kids to in the cases of major diaper crisis? Look, times have changed. Gone are the days where husbands not wanting to get involved in household matters. These days, husbands want to share marriage responsibilites with their wives, including raising the children, and this includes going out with their kids, even if wives don't tag along.
True, we don't want some pedophiles or sex maniacs lurking around, invading our wives' and kids' privacy (not to forget, safety) while they're in the feeding/diaper-changing rooms, but then, genuine fathers shouldn't be punished too. Perhaps it's time that shopping complexes should allocate diaper-changing rooms for fathers. What you guys think?
By the way, in the (unlikely) scenario that I do stumble upon a Mrs. Doubtfire (as what is shown in the cartoon), I wouldn't trust him with my life to change my baby's diaper :-)
Labels: Life, My Children, Parental
posted by The Pisces Man @ 12:39 am
6 Comments:
emmm... this topic never crossed my mind before. Betul jugak kan, our shopping malls don't cater for fathers at all!
anyway, a suggestion.. maybe you should add a wig and a skirt into the baby outing bag so that you can blend in and use the feeding rooms when in need! hehehehe..
Haha.. u r suggesting the unthinkable... and no, i won't follow the suggestion.
Or, look for disabled toilet....abis citer...dalam tu ade its own washing sink and so on, and above all,u still gain ur privacy and do the diaper change, cleaning and all that.
Or kalau payah sgt, bring everything necessary and put them inside ur baby stroller like baby wipes, fresh diapers and so on. And bila nak pi change, carik la ceruk yg jauh sikit dari org lain, usually the staircase part or tolak ke arah parking area and do all that business in ur car. Bukan sumer shopping area provide baby changing section pon even dalam ladies room.
And please remove that game link above. The sound of it makes it difficult for me to listen to ikhwan's videoclips.
Hi Auntie Manal...
this is Ikhwan.. yesterday, had a good day out with Ayah, just the two of us coz Ibu was working. Ayah bought me a vcd on a learning programme, while he bought for himself two belts and a pair of pants. They are all on discounts you know..
Altho' I was being a good boy as usual, I did give him some hard time after I soiled my diaper quite badly..
Ops, while in the baby changing room, unintentionally Ayah saw... errr, well... u know... hehe, but then since it was kind of emergency, Ayah just concentrated on my bottom after that incident, hahahaha.
My parents still hardly use water at the sink or in the toilet to clean me up, coz whenever they are by themselves, it's hard to handle me due to my (still) rather 'wobbling' condition. So, they still resort to baby wipes. After all, I'm still a baby, and the one by Carrefour has such good quality wipes. They are extremely cheap, and yet very wet/damp and with perfume smell.
Bringing baby wipes is one of the must things, whenever my parent go out with me. In fact, Ayah bought this special small bag that can accommodate small-packet wipes and up to 4 diapers and when the bag is opened, it can also be used as a mat for diaper changing.
I understand my Ayah's need to prefer changing me at a comfortable place, whenever necessary and possible.
Yep, Ibu once changed me in a disabled toilet.
With regard to the game, I find the penguins' sounds so cute. Try playing it, they make more cute sounds.... Ayah said in time, he'll change the game to something else, a much much quiter one, or at least it'll only produce sounds when you start to play.
Thanx Auntie Manal for visiting Ayah's blog.
I don't recall my husband having a difficult time entering baby's changing room. In fact, he will just enter it (even though it says for women only, but because he needs to change the kids, my daughter, usually, dia masuk jer). Sometimes, when I need to breastfeed, he would stay in the same room as me and later, I would see him asleep next to me.
Contrary to what you say, we haven't encountered difficulties when it's time to change the kids' diapers. There are always rooms to accomodate our needs. If you can't find it in any of the shopping complexes, look for major anchor tenants. They always have baby rooms. Nursing rooms are always behind curtain-like doors. So you won't kacau nursing mothers.
I concur with that Ija... honestly, I haven't had that much difficulty entering baby's changing rooms (despite the signs for females only) in shopping complexes before, either. I'm just highlighting it here, not really making a mountain out of a mole hill, hahaa..
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