Pet peeve time! Ever notice that when moms ask for so-called "special treatment" for us and our kids, we get accused of being self-centered? The really cranky folks in the childfree community (not every childfree person, just the ones who refer to our kids as crotch fruit) are all over us like white on rice. Sometimes they're absolutely right. But right now there's a mom petitioning Delta airlines to add changing tables so moms can deal with a diaper blow-out in private, rather than out in the aisles where every Tom, Dick, and childfree Harry can smell it. She's gotten some kick back, and all I want to do is stand up and scream from the rooftops, "She's doing this for you too, you idiots!"
The truth is, most of us moms don't want to piss off our childfree friends. We remember what it was like to be the woman without kids wondering why that jerk at the next table in the restaurant was letting her kids turn the place into a pigsty. We don't WANT to be her!
But now that we're parents, we see how some of it happens, and we also see ways to fix it ... for all of us. In fact, I'd wager making things easier for moms and their kids is actually the best way to bridge the gap between us breeders and the rabidly anti-kid.
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Just imagine if we had the following:
1. Changing tables on airplanes. This is what mom Rachel Simmons is asking for, and it would help mitigate the stench for all the other travelers, not to mention a diaper change usually quiets a baby down ... reducing yet another annoyance on airplanes.
2. Special spots for strollers on buses. If I've heard it once, I've heard it a million times: Folks are sick of the strollers always being in their G.D. way. So how 'bout we all get on board with creating places to stow them?
3. Kid sections at restaurants. They used to have smoking and non, so why not dining with kids and dining without sections? As a mom on date night away from my kid, I wouldn't mind the "dining without" section myself. I leave her with a sitter for a reason.
4. Breast milk pumping stations at work. Oh right, legally we're supposed to have these, but every other day, it seems we have a news story about a woman whose co-workers are just so mad that she gets a space all to herself. Those people might want to meet up with the folks who hate seeing a woman breastfeed in public and have a chit chat ...
5. Changing tables in restaurant bathrooms. We've all seen the (absolutely disgusting) photos of moms changing kids on restaurant tables. I'm not down with that, but I do remember what it was like sitting on a toilet and trying to juggle a flailing baby, a clean diaper, and a dirty one, plus wipes because there was NO PLACE provided to change the kid.
6. Bigger public bathrooms. I know, again with the bathroom thing. But it's not just diaper changes. It's having to share that space with a stroller. It's trying to find a private spot to breastfeed without stealing the sole handicapped stall. It's really all about getting out of people's way, y'all. But when there's barely any room for the toilet in that thing, it's not easy to hide mom and kid in there too.
7. Parent hours at the grocery store. They already provide special times for seniors and specific hours for business people. So why not for parents and kids? It doesn't mean other folks can't run in there, but they'll at least be warned in advance that we've got our screaming brats in tow (and maybe they'll think twice before doing 55 in the parking lot if they KNOW a woman will be carrying a baby and holding hands with a toddler around that time?).
8. Drive throughs. Drive throughs EVERYWHERE. I have kind of had it up to here with the drive through hate lately. It's not just lazy fat people who use drive throughs, y'all. It's parents who don't want to wake their sleeping baby and drag her inside where she'll annoy you by screaming her bloody head off.
9. Mom movie matinees. A friend actually shared that this is happening at a theater in her neck of the woods. To try to up their matinee attendance, they're making them Mommy and Me events, where the lights are turned up a bit so Moms can see, and crying babies aren't frowned on. The movies have higher ratings than something they'd go see with the older kids, but it's an opportunity for moms to actually get out and see a current movie once in awhile ... without disturbing other moviegoers.
What would you add to this list?
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