Oh boy, look what’s making the rounds of the social media blogosphere: another mother changed a poopy diaper in the middle of a restaurant. KHOU TV and ace reporter Tiffany Craig report that it happened at Brother’s Pizza Express in Spring, Texas when a woman named Miranda Sowers thought, “you know, I’ve got my own changing pad, she’s tiny, she fits right here on the chair,” so she went ahead and opened up a foul diaper that was full of the wrath of lentils and beets. In her defense, the mother had already gone to the restroom to learn that there were no changing tables and she was with her two other kids, a four-year old and eight-year old. She says she didn’t want to have to take all of them out to the mini-van to deal with the diaper. Well, the shit hit the fan when customers started to smell things other than mozzarella, tomato and basil. One of the employees brought out Miranda’s food in to-go boxes and asked them to pack up their crap and move on outta there. Of course, Miranda called the news to alert them about this very important news story and she also filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, because, you know, why not?
This is a tough one, y’all. I mean, there were no changing tables in the restroom so what’s a mom to do? Should she let her baby stay in the soiled diaper and marinate? Should she have just dealt with the trouble of taking all three kids out to the mini-van? (We can all agree that she did the right thing by not asking her server to watch the other two kids while she took the poopy one outside.) Miranda claims to have done the deed “quickly and quietly” but even if you do it at the speed of light, that odor is going to emanate beyond the diaper and other people are going to smell it. They should not have to fucking get a whiff of that when all they’re trying to do is enjoy a pepperoni slice. Mothers probably become immune to the funkified smell that comes out of a baby’s diaper and think nothing of it. For those of us who don’t change diapers ten or fifteen times a day, that smell can assault us with a bitch slap to end all bitch slaps. If I was at Brother’s Pizza Express in Spring, Texas and saw someone changing a diaper, I would not be happy. Actually, odds are good that I was already unhappy to begin with just by being in Spring, Texas and eating pizza in a strip mall. However, I would have been one of those customers complaining to management about the chick changing diapers in the restaurant. No word on what she planned to do with the used diaper full of shit, but if she’s like plenty of other moms out there, she was going to roll it up in a ball and place it on the plate when she was finished eating so that the bus boy would think it was a napkin and clear it away for her. Yes, we have all seen that happen. As inconvenient as I’m sure it would have been, I think that Miranda should have just gone to the damn mini-van and dealt with it. Yes, the the restaurant should have had a changing table, but they didn’t, so you have to suck it up, buttercup. Nobody ever said that having children was convenient. Pushing three kids out of your sweet potato pie hole entitles you to Mother’s Day cards for the rest of your life, stretch marks and grey hair, but it doesn’t give you the right to change your diaper two feet away from someone who is trying to eat a goddamn piece of pizza.
The restaurant stands behind their decision but they are now considering buying changing tables for their restrooms which is probably a good idea. As for the complaint filed at the Better Business Bureau, why bother? If you really want to make some noise, Yelp is the way to go!
Iris
This piece is so apropos to the discussion I was having on Facebook. Changing a baby’s diaper in public outside a restroom is so unsanitary, and it’s embarrassing how many of my friends, who are themselves young parents, think that since the restaurant couldn’t be bothered to provide changing tables, then they have the right to change their diapers wherever they choose.
Sia
Thank you.
Rebecca
That is just discusting! When it was my 16th birthday me and my family went to a really nice, fancy expensive restaraunt. There was a couple with a baby and they change its nappy on the table and I was right by them. I said lets leave and I was really angry. I am a mother now to my beautiful baby girl and I have not change her in public EVER. Its discusting and rude for other people trying to have a nice time. There was even a baby-changing thing there about 12 feet away. Seriously people?!?! If my baby had solied her nappy I would quickly go to the car or to a changing facility, I wouldn’t do it in a park either, not even on a park bench or anything. Some mothers are just pure lazy and don’t think about how other people would/will feel like if that was right by them.
My beautiful girl (Laura) : 9/6/14
My baby boy (Ben) : 16/5/16
formerserver
I worked in 7 different restaurants over way to many years and every one of them had changing tables in their restrooms including the fine dining places that didn’t have height chairs. Regardless, I have seen parents change babies at tables more times than I can count. At least half a dozen times I have seen dirty diapers left on tables for the staff to dispose of after the patrons left. This particular behavior happened in some of the most expensive restaurants I worked in. All of my restaurant experience occurred in an extremely affluent area. People are pigs. Entitlement is everywhere.
Yvonne
There are just no words for this ridiculous. Inconsiderate and disgusting – was she even planning on washing her hands after??? Everyone saying the restaurant should get a changing table annoys me. Yes, it would be convenient for those with diapers to change. No, it is not a right for changing diapers to be convenient. It never is. Duh. Kudos to management for handling it.
California Girl
BW, you wrote of a similar incident in a banquet booth a few years ago. I was appalled then and am still appalled. I don’t know how I managed two babies, one year apart, both in cloth diapers because I don’t believe in Pampers et al & averted these stress-inducing decisions. Oh. Right. I probably took them outside or out of the restaurant altogether. WTF is wrong with people? Our universe is so dumbed down now that even the most vile behaviour like the Jenner brat trying to skip out on her meal etc etc & this redneck mother changing her kid in a restaurant full of diners is status quo. I am turning into one angry pissed off diner/driver/moviegoing/pedestrian type person on this planet. I just want to tell everyone off. That’s why I take a chill pill and read your blog.
Denise
If there is no changing table a more refined response would be to go to the manager and ask them where the diaper could be changed since this lazy mother didn’t want to go to her car. If they chose not to have a changing table then they get to deal with the fallout from that decision by being put on the spot for a solution.
Going to the media over this is just beyond the pale. She stands there with her smarmy smile thinking everyone will be on her side only to find out that everyone thinks she’s a dirty selfish pig. I hope she’s proud of being a horrible example to her daughters.
Tazzy
Why is it so hard for people to understand that you shouldn’t shit where you eat?
When it comes to young children, this fact applies in both directions. Mothers shouldn’t be harassed about breastfeeding in public and “just doing it in the bathroom” isn’t a viable option. Know why? Because you shouldn’t shit where you eat. Making babies eat in some nasty bathroom is disgusting.
Conversely, it also means that those same mothers shouldn’t change diapers (regardless of their contents) at a table because again, you shouldn’t shit where you eat.
Everybody say it with me now, “Don’t shit where you eat.” How do people not get this?
Ugh.
SlumSlut
U ppl r h8rz! Do’nt u now, u where kydz onece, n 2days baybees will b wipin ur ass’s n chagning ur diepers @ teh nursign home!!!11!!~ & payign 4 ur oBamacare. loll
anne marie
WTF are you smoking? give that shit up!
Emily H
Ummm slum slut? I can’t understand you around the dick in your mouth.
Barreleh
You got three kids, one in diapers. What are the chances the diaperee is gonna need a change soon? Pretty good.
So WHY didn’t this woman just order take-out????
chacha1
Some states may require restaurants to provide changing tables in their public restrooms, but I’m betting Texas doesn’t. And if that’s so, then the restaurant was not “wrong” to not have a changing table.
Pretty sure no baby ever was permanently damaged by being changed on a bathroom floor. If the mother had a changing pad with her, as evidently she did, then she should have taken all the kids into the restroom and changed the baby there.
And maybe the other kids would have gotten a good lesson on “you act considerately toward the people around you even when you have kids.”
April
Here’s the thing. Almost all new mothers get a fancy diaper bag. In that diaper bag, there is a changing mat. If there is no changing table, you go into the bathroom, lay the mat on the floor, change the kid. Then you use the fancy antibacterial wipes every parent has these days, wipe up the mat, put it back in the bag and go on your way. Or put the mat in a bag and take it home for cleaning.
I have two kids. I’ve changed them on the floor of an airport bathroom whose changing table was SO disgusting that I couldn’t imagine putting the mat on there. The floor was preferable. I’ve taken kids to the car to change diapers. I’ve changed a kid in a stroller, down a side alley to be out of the way of a bunch of people meandering the streets. It’s not hard. It’s not “perfect parenting” called common courtesy to those around you.
DiatribesAndOvations
This woman needs to do some simple math … Eight plus four plus one in diapers equals stay the hell at home.
She knew she’d have to change a diaper when she left the house and that she wouldn’t have anyone to watch the older two when the need arose.
Restaurants are not required to provide changing tables. But they ARE required to provide clean tables at which patrons can eat.
Rachel
I love how this entitled bitch goes to the media to make the restaurant look bad, then no one is on her side. I live in Houston and I’ve been dying to try Brothers Pizza, now I have an even better reason to go!
Yummynotmummy
Ugh. Seriously? Changing a dirty nappy at a table where people are eating? Foul, disgusting and rank, and for her to actually think it’s perfectly fine to do that, well that’s the worst part.
Here’s the thing about travelling and going out with kids. You plan ahead. You decide what place you want to go to. You ring ahead and ask if they have facilities for kids (changing table, babyccinos, crayons or play area, whatever floats their little boats). If they don’t cater to your needs, as a paying customer, you can choose to go somewhere else with your brood. Vote with your feet. Perhaps if the restaurants with no changing tables hear “oh, that’s a shame, I won’t be booking a table because there’s nowhere to change my kid” they might realise they’re missing out on the parent dollar, and get one. But then, there’s always the ones who will breathe a sigh of relief that they’re not going to get a shrieking baby in the house. Too bad, take your kids there when they’re older, or when you can leave the baby with a sitter.
Parents: it is your job to ensure that the places you take your kids to caters for their needs. Nobody else has an obligation to do that for your kids apart from YOU – you, I would assume, chose to have them, so that’s your bag. Getting butthurt and doing something nasty and antisocial like filling a restaurant with eau de babby poop just because you failed to ensure the restaurant had the right facilities for you to bring your kids to, is the height of selfish, entitled behaviour.
Loraine Dawley
Wrong on so many levels. Even a dog doesn’t poop where it eats. I have four children and if I was sitting at dinner and smelled someone else’s kid’s poop, there would have been puke to clean up. Come on mom….not at the dinner table. Completely disgusting!
White Russian
I think restaurant is right on all counts. They don’t have to have a changing table. Its a nice thing to have one but it should be considered as an added convenience, extra service feature and courtesy. People shouldn’t fucking think they’re entitled to having a changing table everywhere they go. Learn your ways, find out if a place has them or not beforehand, make an educated choice of an eatery to go stuff your face at.
Restaurants don’t have to provide cheerios, crayons, or little baby toys or -hell why not – extra diapers for their customers just because they have kids. Have your shit taken care of yourself. Don’t be so entitled and ignorant like everybody owes you something.
After all, the restaurant is right just because – be it a baby or a grown ass mother herself – that was a human being shitting in the middle of the dining room. Its a health control violation if you ask me. Health control requires to have shirts and shoes from the customers and a bathroom from the business so you can go poop away from people’s food. This lady can go fuck herself.
I sure hope she doesn’t change her baby’s diaper at a dining table at her house. So I don’t see how it can be okay to change shitty diaper on a table where people eat, even if its no your house. Oh, then again she didn’t fucking care and is nothing but a dumb ignorant lady.
megan
I am shocked not only by the woman who thought it was all right to change a smelly diaper in the middle of a restaurant but also by anyone saying they would do the same thing because there was no changing table provided. Maybe we just have it too easy nowadays, that’s the only explanation I can think of when someone claims it’s unacceptable for a place not to have changing tables. An owner can have whatever facilities they wish to have because it’s THEIR place. Don’t like it? Go somewhere else! If they don’t care about loosing bussiness over this it’s their right. Same as it’s a right of a customer not to be exposed to feces while eating dinner. Attitude of some parents out there is just appalling, get a fucking grip.
Denise in WI
You said exactly what I was going to say! It kills me that some people go to a restaurant and expect to have all their needs and wants catered to. You call ahead or do a little research online to find the restaurant that meets your needs.
Emily
If she had taken the children to the minivan to do the changing, even if she told her server, she’d risk being treated as skipping out on her check. Not that changing at the table is any better, I change diapers all day long and would be grossed out to see it at dinner, this is a scenario where I see no clear correct solution. I’m definitely on the side of if you have a restaurant that is family friendly, have changing tables.
Jess
The correct solution would be to change the diaper in the bathroom, even without a changing table. She had a changing mat, so she could’ve put the kid on her lap, on the counter, on the floor, in an environment where feces is acceptable and she could wash her hands after. I’ve changed a diaper on the floor in a restaurant bathroom before. Nasty, but it was the only option aside from taking him out to the car and it was a hot day. (Not my kid, though. I was helping out the stressed out mama who was dealing with in-laws.)
anne marie
changing a diaper at a table is WRONG on all counts; can you say BIOHAZARD waste?
the restaurant is in the right for asking the woman to leave.
she SHOULD have gone to her car and done the dirty deed there.
the restaurant is in the wrong for NOT having changing tables in BOTH restrooms (honestly, in this day and age, WTeverlovinF?)
the way the woman handled this incident is WRONG.
and no one asked her to have bratleys in the first place.
Chris
Totally unacceptable. They absolutely did the correct thing. If they don’t have a changing table, you sit your butt down on the toilet and change your kid in your lap. It’s not the easiest thing and you cross your fingers for no fountains or delayed blow-outs, but it’s not rocket science.
Sandi
I usually would be on the side of the other diners, I have a 5 month old baby and wouldn’t change his diaper at a table, it is gross. However, not having baby changing facilities at what is probably a family restaurant (if its in a strip mall) is not really acceptable either,
The other diners have the right to be annoyed, but the restaurant should have found a better solution to an issue that was of its own making.
Jay Marquette
Absolutely never ok, under any circumstances. Get your food to-go and take your savage family home. Absolutely disgusted, they should rub her nose in it.
Peach
Yeah, I am going to go ahead and pick up a nice, mediocre pizza from them in the near future, just to show my support. I do agree that they need a changing station, and hopefully some boosted patronage will help offset the costs.
Adolisca Murphy
So here’s my respone to poopy diaper nonsesnse, both are at fault here; the restaurant is at fault for not having changing tables. In fact I’ve wanted to change my sons diaper in the middle of a restaurant to prove a point to that particular establishment. Something like that just puts me in a foul mood. If you are going to open up a restaurant it needs to accommodate all types of customers. If you don’t want children under a certain age there, make it obvious by posting a sign. This was a pizza place, kids are always going to be in those kinds of environments. As for what she did, yes absolutely disgusting. Poopy diapers should be changed elsewhere, although if my son had a pee diaper I would change it in a restaurant that didn’t accommodate my sons needs. His health is more important to ME than anyone else’s. Now that I’ve established that both are at fault, I want to comment on the consequences here. First, we all have choices to make, each choice has a consequence (obviously), it was well in the servers right to ask her to leave. She should have just left and let this whole thing go. What irks me about her situation is that she thinks it’s ohkay to do this, otherwise she wouldn’t have contacted the news. It’s not ohkay to change a poopy diaper in the middle of any restaurant. If I did such a thing I would deal with the consequences.
Now from another perspective I want to argue on her behalf. Maybe she’s a great fucking mother who promised her kids a treat if they succeeded in school; maybe that treat just happened to be grabbing pizza. I don’t know if she’s a single mother or not, regardless she was there alone wth three kids for a reason. Maybe dad is working his ass off trying to provide for his family. She’s probably stressed the fuck out and didn’t think that changing a poopy diaper was such a big deal, she has bigger things to worry about, like 3 lives that depend on her for survival. I think this whole thing was blown way out of proportion. Although it’s her own fault for contacting a third party. She should have talked to the owner and requested changing tables. Any ways, the ignorant assfucks commenting on this post should think before they judge so harshly. You nor I will NEVER understand why ANYONE does what they do. The human psychie is the most complex thing in the world. Our motivations differ extremely from person to person. This is why it is virtually impossible to put oneself on another’s shoes, all we can do is speculate. I hope everyone learned their lesson here.
MrsMac
If you would change any nappy, even if it was ‘just’ a urine-filled one, then you are one foul, dirty bitch. That kind of behaviour belongs in a pig sty.
I have an infant, who I take to restaurants, many of which don’t have change tables. Inconvenient, yes. I *do* wish more places had change tables – but being a foul, disgusting human being is pretty counter-productive, and besides, why should fellow patrons be made to suffer?
Change your kid in the damned car, or place your change mat over your knee and change your kid in the bathroom stall like a normal person. And yes, it is inconvenient to have to drag your older kids with you – but you don’t choose to have kids for the convenience.
Just to bring it home – you are a disgusting, unsanitary hobo if you think changing a baby’s nappy in a restaurant is at all acceptable.
Ashley
Oh Fuck no!
You’re telling me you’re a parent and you would be so immature as to change a piss soaked diaper at a table where people EAT just to get back at a restaurant for not having a changing table? What if that baby were to start urinating again and the pee went all over the table, the floor, another person? That is unsanitary and Neanderthal. How about just bitching to the owners to get a changing table installed like normal inconsiderate customers. Or even better, you could just protest the place and never return again..gasp! Also, I get that you don’t care about the health of others, but the laws that were implemented to guarantee sanitary conditions for the other customers, do. That being said, I hope that you get the embarrassment of being kicked out of a restaurant for being the rude ass, entitled mommy that you are. Au revoir to you and all the fecal matter you carry with you, too.
Denise
I think you are the “ignorant assfuck” as you so eloquently put it. For someone telling others not to judge you sound pretty angry and judgmental yourself. Not cool, kindly stop frothing at the mouth.
sally
If you think your kids aren’t going to eventually pay the price for their mother acting like a disgusting pig in public you are one dumb bitch.
Javonne Gray
Shut up for everyone with this damn changing table shit. This lady has pushed out 3 damn kids and still can’t change a diaper on het lap you ppl are dumb you put said child on a lap with a cloth on it grab said child little feet cross them lift wipe said child remove diaper wipe again give privates a little air so that all little chunk folds may dry let child down and fasten fucking diaper WHAT THE FUCK AND I HAVE ONLY ONE KID AND SHES 9
Christine
I raised two kids prior to the advent of changing tables in public restrooms, and I managed to never change a diaper in public.
Disposable diapers may be considered a great invention, clogging the landfills as they do, but they’ve led to kids being in diapers long past the time they should be toilet trailed. If people still had to use cloth diapers, those kids would be out of diapers at 18 months, like I was, because who wants to tote around stinky, moist cloth diapers? I’d bet you would see a lot less babies in restaurants.
DiatribesAndOvations
AMEN!