Anonymous wrote:Why is this common practice? It’s sooo gross. I don’t care if you have a mat. People are supposed to eat there. No one is disinfecting it.

You need to send this memo to the birds, insects, and small mammals that crap on that table nonstop.

Anonymous wrote:I get stuff happens, but just to be considerate, why isn’t this done on a bench or the ground!?!? Come on, people are doing this because it’s more comfortable and convenient. It’s not sanitary.

Comfort and convenience are legitimate. No rational person thinks a public picnic table is pristine or food-safe.

I get stuff happens, but just to be considerate, why isn’t this done on a bench or the ground!?!? Come on, people are doing this because it’s more comfortable and convenient. It’s not sanitary.

Parenting has really revealed to me that there is a sharp divide between people who are paranoid/fearful about "bathroom germs" and those who just want to get on with life.

My DH is on the paranoid/fearful side, and though he has changed his fair share of diapers, the amount of stress it causes him is absurd. I once watched him wash his hands three separate times during the course of a single poopy diaper change [albeit, a bad one]. During potty training, I finally had to have him bow out of the process because the level of anxiety he seemed to have around the prospect of accidents was seriously giving our kid a complex.

Fortunately for our family, I"m firmly in the "get on with it" camp. I'll change a baby on the floor, on my lap, in the car, on a picnic table, a bench, etc. as necessary. I'll take normal precautions (mat, wipes for after if necessary, etc.) but I'm not going to make a huge fuss about it. Diapers need changing. You can't confine babies to their homes for the duration. There is bacteria everywhere. Don't set food you're going to eat directly down on a public table. Get on with it.

+1 on tables at the pool. Walk to the bathhouse.

Uh oh. We can't say picnic anymore. Picnic tables have to be renamed!! Hmmm... outdoor meal table??

Eh, picnic tables are definitely already gross (as PPs noted, bird poop, squirrels, and I'm sure more than a few raccoons have traversed them overnight at some point). But I do use the bench portion of the table, not the table top.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lighten up Francis

+1. It's not your personal table, OP. If you're that neurotic, bring your own folding table.

I’m the OP, and yep... never eating on a playground changing table again.

Ok.... good?

If they have a mat, what exactly is the problem?

It’s gross and rude, I agree with you PP. change your baby on the ground. nobody wants to see that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lighten up Francis

+1. It's not your personal table, OP. If you're that neurotic, bring your own folding table.

I’m the OP, and yep... never eating on a playground changing table again.

Seriously lighten up! It’s an outdoor table at a public place. What about the birds pooping on it? Or the raccoons walking all over it?

Anonymous wrote:Lighten up Francis

+1. It's not your personal table, OP. If you're that neurotic, bring your own folding table.

Lighten up Francis

Why is this common practice? It’s sooo gross. I don’t care if you have a mat. People are supposed to eat there. No one is disinfecting it.