A father on Twitter is gaining praise after calling out the lack of baby changing tables in men’s public restrooms.
Clint Smith, a writer and educator studying a PhD at Harvard University, took to Twitter on Sunday to vent about something that has been nagging at him ever since he became a father for the first time.
‘Something that’s really bothered me since we had a kid is how few men’s restrooms have changing tables for babies,’ he said.
Standing up: Twitter user Clint Smith is gaining praise from parents for calling for changing tables in men’s bathrooms
Myriad of problems: Clint outlines the issues around the lack of tables in his thread, which has been shared by thousands
The father went on to blast the apparent norm, saying that it ‘further perpetuates the notion that the burden of childcare should singularly be on the woman.’
And, he added, it ‘assumes that men are never out by themselves with their kids,’ causing not only an inconvenience for men, but also one for women.
Clint claims that the lack of changing tables available for men is an example of the ‘structural impediments’ in society that perpetuate the idea that women should be primarily responsible for things like diapers and clothes.
‘Becoming a dad has really demonstrated how profoundly our society is both socially and structurally set up to make it so that the burden of parenting falls primarily on moms and is set up to let dads off the hook,’ he said.
‘It’s million tiny things that continue to add up.’
The thread of tweets has been shared more than 3,000 times, with a number of other parents chiming in with support.
‘My husband always made the point of finding the manager, while holding our child, and asking what accommodations were being made for fathers who needed to do changes. And the managers were always surprised that any men cared,’ wrote one user, while multiple other dads chimed in with: ‘Been there.’
Dad’s change too: Clint argued that only putting tables in the women’s bathroom perpetuated the idea that moms should be responsible for diapers and clothing
A rare sight: There is no national law requiring businesses to include the tables in the men’s, though President Obama signed an act in 2016 requiring them in all federal buildings
Of course, Clint isn’t the first dad to have come across this problem and voiced his anger. Over the years, numerous fathers have taken the cause to their political representatives.
!n 2015, actor Ashton Kutcher launched a Change.org petition urging businesses to add changing stations to their men’s rooms after struggling himself while out with his daughter Wyatt.
In 2016, President Barack Obama heard the concerns and signed the Bathrooms Accessible in Every Situation Act, which required that all federally owned buildings to have changing stations fitted in both men’s and women’s bathrooms.
But things aren’t quite there for the rest of the public bathrooms across the country as there is no national law requiring them to be included.
New York City is one area currently working on a solution. The city approved a bill in December that requires all new developments to double up on changing tables, installing them in both bathrooms.
The bill was inspired when New York City Council member Rafael Espinal spotted a new father changing a baby’s diaper over a bathroom sink in a Queens mall.
New York is the first major city to have passed such legislation – with no pushback from developers or lawmakers – but legislators like Espinal hope that this is soon to change.