one small step for dads (but it’s the mall)
Well, I’m no Daddy Types—Greg’s even gotten New York Times coverage for his quest to map New York City’s men’s rooms with changing tables—but I do stay on the look-out for the occasional Koala Kare-equipped men’s room when I’m out and about with The Pumpkin in Bako and parts south. I always find it ironic that I have to go into the women’s room to take advantage of the fully stocked selection of diapers and wipes at babygirl’s kiddie gym. Of course, I’ve been more caught up by the times we couldn’t find any changing table anywhere, men’s room, women’s room, unisex bathroom, nada. When we took The Pumpkin back to our alma mater last summer, we quickly discovered that even the national chains invading the old commercial strip through campus—even the socialist frozen dessert paradise that is Ben & Jerry’s—weren’t equipped for diaper-changing. We had to change her once on a metal table in front of our old dining hall (outside!), and another time we got into the women’s room in the basement of an old classroom building on what was once the women’s college, and changed her on what obviously used to be the ladies’ make-up vanity counter back in the days of the MRS degree. And then there was the time at a Spanish restaurant in San Francisco, when, after running up and down the street to other restaurants with no luck, I changed The Pumpkin on the concrete floor (on a changing pad, people!) of the miniscule, fashionably dark unisex restroom.
Today, on the way back to Bako from la dra.’s ‘rents’, we stopped at the Westfield Shoppingtown Valencia Town Center in the prefab bedroom-burb of Valencia, off the 5 freeway north of LA, as The Pumpkin sorely needed a diaper change. We looked on the map and found “The Family Lounge,” “ located on the upper level, outside of Playtown. This new amenity offers private nursing stations, baby changing tables, bottle warmers, toys & books, as well as a DVD player featuring children’s programming.” This place is out of control. Nursing moms have multiple curtained-off rooms to choose from with cushy chairs and sidetables, there’s a microwave plus each changing station has bottle warmers. There are Purell dispenser everywhere, diaper trash cans in cabinets everywhere, Elmo playing on a flat-screen in the waiting area with benches and toys and those big wooden cube things that all waiting rooms seem to have. And did I mention the changing areas? Each one has a concave baby-sized depression built directly into the countertop! (Is is sad or what that I’m excited about this?) And the entire thing is decked out like a restrained Starbucks, but with toys dangling from the ceiling above each changing station.
I guess they really wanna court the family demographic at this place. Directly across from the Family Lounge, which is itself right next to the stroller-friendly elevator, is a Playtown filled with benches for the adults and toys for the kiddies. And even the Ann Taylor Loft is getting in on the act. While la dra. tried stuff on, I got to sit on an upholstered bench in the hallway of changing rooms while The Pumpkin went through the store’s stash of books and Etch-a-Sketches on a little wooden toy chest/bench thingy next to me. (That is, while I wasn’t trying to keep The Pumpkin from kissing herself in the full-length mirrors. The younger saleswomen thought it was cute, but I know that older one was looking at me thinking, I gotta frakkin’ windex that tonight.) And then there’s Subliminal, which seems like your average upscale, overpriced-jeans-and-t-shirts-from brands-that-if-you’ve-never-heard-of-them-you-can’t-afford-them emporium, except for the large selection of too-hip-for-your-baby baby clothes in the front. My favorite, from the “that’s just wrong, but it’s so funny” category, was the onesie inspired by the Pussycat Dolls: “Don’t you wish your mommy was hot like mine?” That’s so wrong! Heh. I was mildly amused by the thought of those two young, bare-armed/spiky-haired/tattooed/pierced salesguys ringing up baby clothes, though.
Anyway, we back toward the Family Lounge and got onto the elevator to get outta there, turned around to face the door, and I had to stick my hand in the doorway to hold it open just to take the picture that’s at the top of this page. Heh. I still don’t know if that’s a good thing, showing that they’re thinking about this stuff, or it’s a bad thing ‘cause they felt they had to add that to the big-ass sign hanging from the ceiling ‘cause otherwise nobody would think of that. Huh.
Sunday, March 5, 2006