Dad’s shocking encounter in Westfield parents’ room
A New Zealand father has been asked to leave the parents’ room as he was taking care of his five-month-old daughter.
Josh Anderson was shopping at a Westfield in Manukau, Auckland when he entered the parents’ room to change his daughter’s nappy and feed her.
He also used the bathroom himself while he was there so he could park his daughter’s pram into the cubicle with him, but when he came out he was confronted by an angry woman who told him men weren’t welcome in the room.
The woman then pointed to the sign on the parents’ room door which showed a female figure with a child, and proceeded to tell him he should have taken his daughter to the men’s bathroom.
“You're not allowed to use this facility because it's for women only. Can you not see the sign? You have no right!” the woman allegedly said.
Mr Anderson then asked the woman if she believed he should change his daughter in the men’s room, and she responded: “that’s what all the men are supposed to do.”
The child’s mum Kori Anderson said she was livid when she found out about her husband’s experience.
“It’s called a PARENTS’ room for a reason,” Mrs Anderson wrote on Facebook.
“Parents’ rooms in malls are not just for mums - dads and caregivers are welcome too. If you aren’t aware of this then please take the time to educate yourself and your family,” she added.
Mrs Anderson said a men’s public bathroom isn’t a suitable place to change a baby and her husband has the right to use the parents’ room when with children.
“There are no change tables in the men’s room, let alone anywhere clean or suitable to tend to a baby. There’s also nowhere to leave a pram with a baby safely whilst the father uses the cubicle and for slightly older female children I would consider the men’s room an inappropriate place for them to be,” Mrs Anderson told Yahoo News Australia
A spokesperson for Manukau City Westfield released a statement saying the room was open for all caregivers.
"Parents’ rooms are provided for the use of all parents, carers and guardians,” the spokesperson said.