A mum changed her baby's nappy on my table at a cafe

"I don't want to look at or smell this while I'm eating," she told the mum. Wait until you hear her response. 

Mel* was frequenting a local cafe as she always does on the way home from the gym. 

It's a small-ish place, where you can order things like sandwiches, smoothies, acai bowls and salads. 

On this particular afternoon, she had an encounter with another customer that left her completely mortified.

She explains the layout of the cafe for context, saying, "There are five tables and a counter with three stools in the front section and another counter and two tables in the back."

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Image: IStock

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"It hit me what she was planning to do"

The woman continued to explain to an advice forum, "When I got there everything up the front was occupied, so I ordered and went and sat at the counter in the back. Other than me, there were two women at one of the tables."

Not long after a waiter brought her food over, a woman who'd been at a table up the front walked up to the counter at the back carrying her baby and a big cloth bag. 

The OP writes, "She put the bag on the counter right next to me, then spread out some kind of mat. It hit me what she was planning to do, so I said, very politely, 'If you need to change the baby, there's a restroom right behind you'."

"She said, 'Yes, I know, but there's no changing table and I don't want to put the mat on the floor. It'll get dirty'.

"My response was, 'Please do not change your baby's diaper on the counter where I am eating my lunch'. Again, still being polite."

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"I don't want to look at or smell this while I'm eating"

The mum then launched into a rant, saying, "It's a baby. Do you expect her to stay in a wet nappy because you don't like where I change her?"

She replied, "I don't want to look at or smell this while I'm eating. You have a table in the front, change her there if you don't want to use the restroom to do it."

She added that she was sitting about two feet away from the mat.

Then the mum got even more worked up, saying that anyone could see inside the restaurant from the street and, "How could you do that to a baby?"

The OP then decided to get the waitstaff involved, who ended up telling her she couldn't change the nappy on that counter. 

The mum stormed out and threatened to leave a bad review online. 

"AITA for not letting someone change a dirty nappy on the surface where I was eating my lunch in a restaurant?" the woman asks.

"The entitlement is off the charts"

So, what did commenters have to say about the cafe nappy change?

"You're not the a**hole here. The level of entitlement from her is off the charts. Her wet baby is your and the restaurant's problem because she didn't want to lay the mat on the floor? That's insane. The mat is made to keep the baby from touching a surface. That's exactly what it would do, then you wash the mat," the top comment with 2k likes read.

It continued, "And she didn't do it at the front table, not because everyone could see into the restaurant but because it's where she was eating. If she wanted privacy she would have gone to the bathroom."

"Parents think they are able to do whatever tf they want, including getting their piss nappies all over your lunch," someone else wrote.

And a third claimed, "This is gross and unhygienic. Nobody wants to eat right next to baby piss/poop, not even their parents. I bet if she tried changing the nappy on the dining room table during family dinner, she'd have gotten the same reaction as yours."

Other mums weigh in on the situation

Then this mum pointed out another reason why she thought the situation was gross, "I have a baby. The fun thing about nappy changes is that babies often pee when you take the nappy off. Something about the cool air on their little bodies. So not only is it disgusting to do a nappy change where people are eating, but there is a real chance of pee getting everywhere, including on food. Absolutely NTA."

The OP replied to that saying, "I am SO glad I didn't know about this then! Polite would have gone right out the window for sure."

Then this other mum shared, "I've been in that mum's situation more than once with my daughter. Never even considered changing her nappy at a table where people eat, as that would be an a**hole move.

"What I (and other mums I know) did, was take her pram to a quiet corner of the restaurant and change the nappy in the pram. Later when she was a toddler and we didn't take the pram everywhere we would use pull-up nappies that we could change standing up. NTA."

Originally published as A mum changed her baby's nappy on my table at a cafe