Barista asks if he was 'sexist' to tell customer to stop changing baby's dirty diaper.
Working in food service often means seeing a truly disgusting side of humanity between watching what the general public can to do a restaurant bathroom or witnessing how people can shamelessly abandon all of their table manners...
So, when a conflicted man decided to consult the moral compass of the internet otherwise known as Reddit's 'Am I the As*hole' about an incident in his building's cafe, people were quick to help deem a verdict.
AITA (Am I the As*hole) for telling a woman she can’t change her baby’s dirty nappy on our cafe’s chairs?
Background Info:
So the building where the cafe that I work at is located in, was built in the 1750’s and is therefore a listed building. Because of that, we cannot knock down walls so we are tight on space.
A consequence of that is that we only have enough space for one women’s toilet and one men’s toilet. No baby changing facilities in either. There is, however, a public toilet block no more than 50m away from our premises. It has multiple baby changing facilities, in both the female and male toilet blocks.
The Story:
So a family come into the cafe, they sit down, eat and drink, and then one of her babies must’ve pooped its nappy because she came and asked me whether we had any changing facilities.
I apologized and informed her that we didn’t, but I pointed out the public toilets and said that they were free and had everything she would need.
She said it was okay, and proceeded to change the child right on the chair in front of me. I told her that we cannot allow that as it’s disturbing the other customers and that it really isn’t sanitary, especially as we have fresh pastries and cakes in display.
She went ballistic saying that it’s the law that we need to let her change her child wherever she wants if we are unwilling to provide her with suitable changing facilities.
I said that she’s more than willing to phone the police, but we cannot let her change her child like this. I again pointed out the public toilets and said that she needed to leave and change her child there. Her whole family got up, left and looked at me like I was a sexist bigot. So…AITA?
Trying to find a public restroom with a proper changing table can be a challenging quest for frazzle parents with a baby sitting on a dirty diaper, but where is line between desperation and biohazard?
'The customer is always right' until they're contaminating the pumpkin bread?
Of course, the jury of internet strangers was eager to weigh in on this parenting drama. Here's what people had to say:
Proud-Marketing7431 said:
NTA (Not the As*hole). Sorry lady, but that’s gross… it’s like the equivalent of wiping your own a*s in the middle of the restaurant. I know that it’s hard as a parent sometimes when buildings and places don’t have convenient areas to tend to your child, but you pointed out to her the facility she could have easily used.
Cheezslap said:
NTA. I have a kid and I understand the frustration of a lack of IMMEDIATE facilities, but I've definitely walked more than 50M through a store to get to a restroom, so she was just being entitled, unsanitary, and disgusting. Good on you for sticking up for the customers who definitely didn't need poop with their pastries.
MundanePlanet said:
There's a vast ocean of difference between the plight of a parent in finding suitable accommodations to look after their kid and...well...this. You're running a food services establishment, and she's exposing her child's feces coated undercarriage to the general customer flow and the employees. It's inappropriate to say the least. NTA.
_Tsukuyo said:
NTA, you told her where she can go to change her kid's diaper undisturbed. It's extremely unsanitary and people e a t there. It would be better if the cafe was equipped with baby changing facilities but well... the fact that it's not doesn't mean that other customers should be forced to smell someone's poop while eating. Disgusting.
The_real_Psu said:
NTA - who in their right mind would pop a pooped butt in a eating area? I hear the saying than as a parent you will have at one point or an other some feces in your mouth, but come on. No display of feces where others eat isn't so hard to follow as a common rule
So, there you have it!
Everyone agreed unanimously here that this employee wasn't at all wrong to politely inform this mother that there were facilities close by that she could use, but whipping her baby's feces out near the croissants was not allowed. Good luck, everyone!