It is time for some potty talk. No, not the dreaded potty training phase, but a lesser-known potty issue. I’m talking about public restrooms.
There is a special kind of dread when my children tell me they need to use public restrooms.
It usually starts with me thinking, “I hope we can find the bathroom in time before my 4-year-old has an accident,” followed by, “I hope they are clean.” But these are just a couple of the issues that cross my mind, and once I enter the bathroom, the problems typically go to functionality. And after being a mom using public restrooms for over seven years now, I have come to one conclusion: Most of them were not made with children and their parents in mind.
It might seem obvious, but why not make a bathroom that is convenient for all to use? The general design for the first public bathroom was created by a man at a time when men did not typically take care of the needs of children. Considering this, it makes sense that many restrooms were not designed for little children and their mothers because it was not a problem the male engineers and architects at the time would have had to encounter personally. Even though there are more women in the STEM fields today, and I have seen more family-friendly bathrooms with accommodations for children and even adults with disabilities, I still find that it is difficult to use most bathrooms with small children.
Setting aside cleanliness, one of the issues I have is squeezing all of us into one stall, or having my children stand outside the stall separating us, which makes me nervous for obvious reasons. Another is hand washing. My kids can rarely reach the faucets, soap or paper towels. I have to hold each of them up to wash their hands and then wash my own. I can’t help but realize how simple of a fix this would be for many businesses, just put a simple $10 step stool by the sinks so they can reach.
My 4-year-old doesn’t like the sound of the hand dryers, so he usually walks out leaving his hand wet.
He doesn’t have a disability, but this makes me feel for those who do, and how loud and difficult it could be for those with sensory sensitives. Not even having an option to use paper towels can make things difficult. When my kids were in the diaper-changing phases, this was maddening, as I couldn’t put paper towels between the public changing table and our own changing mat. I understand the environmental concerns, but sometimes, there are circumstances only paper towels can handle. Automatic dispensers and sinks not picking up on their tiny hands or not working at all and not being able to control the pressure or temperature have also been issues. And don’t even get me started about not having hooks for diaper bags or purses!
I know the state of public restrooms is not the most prevalent issue in the world, but I always leave these types of bathrooms thinking about how simply fixing some of these issues would be, and wonder why they aren’t thought about. But I think it goes back to what I mentioned earlier; if you haven’t experienced something yourself and the men who came up with these original designs probably didn’t have to deal with children and their bodily functions, you don’t think to account for it. As far as some places have come in making life a little easier for families using restrooms, there are still a lot of places that could make some simple changes to accommodate their littlest guests or those with disabilities and make restrooms more inclusive for all.
