A Dad’s Instagram Post Goes Viral For Showing The Difficulty Of Not Having Changing Tables In Men’s Restrooms

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Donte Palmer is a 31-year-old Dad of 3 boys and a teacher based in St. Augustine, Florida.

This week, Donte sparked many online debates after his older son snapped a picture of him struggling to change his youngest son’s diaper in a public bathroom.

Accidentally Dante has now become the face of a movement to install changing tables in men’s restrooms around the world.

About 2 weeks ago, Donte, his wife, and their 3 sons went out to dinner at a local Texas Roadhouse. Soon, his 1-year-old son, Liam, started getting fussy.

“That’s when I realized he was either hungry or needed a Pamper change,” Donte told BuzzFeed News. “So I did what any parent does and took him to the bathroom.”

He said that he often needs to get the help of his 7-year-old son, Isaiah when he changes Liam’s diapers because there usually aren’t any changing tables in the men’s room.

As he squatted down and started to carefully balance Liam on his legs to change him in a bathroom stall, Isaiah started taking pictures of his dad.

“We got back to the table and that’s when [Isaiah] showed me the pictures,” Donte said. He said he and his sons found them amusing at the time.

Dante’s wife, however, then raised a serious point about the pictures.

“We as women, we don’t have to come up with creative ways to change a diaper, and you have to get a ninja squad to change Liam,” she said to Donte and that’s when he was inspired to post the photos to Instagram.

“What’s the deal with not having changing tables in men’s bathroom as if we don’t exist!!” Donte captioned the photos. “Clearly we do this often because look how comfortable my son is.”

After the images were reshaped from The Shade Room rpage, they went viral. 

Many people in the comments instantly identified with the problem — and others admitted that they had not even realized it was a problem for parents.

 

Donte admitted that until he saw the photo of himself and shared it online, he didn’t think too much of the issue, either.

“If there’s no changing table available, then I do what I do to get it done,” he said.

Once he started getting messages and comments from other dads, he realized how unfair it was.

“As a father, we need to be seen as an equal,” he said.

“We’re more than just protectors and providers,” Donte added. “We’re the stroller pushers [who] get up at 4 a.m. to warm bottles.”