Let me paint you a picture. You're having a wonderful day out with a friend and your four month old. You decide to stop at Wendy's for lunch. While there, your baby messes in her diaper, like all babies do. You grab the baby, diaper, and wipes and head to the bathroom to use the changing table since it would be inconsiderate to change her in the dining area, and you do not want to be inconsiderate. As you walk in, two girls watch as you go into the handicap stall to find there is no changing table. You turn to look at the wall outside of the stall hoping you missed it, but instead see one of the girls eyes get wide. You follow her gaze and realize your baby's diaper has basically erupted and is now halfway up her back. You hold your baby a little further away from you and look around trying to figure out what the heck you're going to do. You eye the sink and for a moment wonder if you can balance her on the edge while changing her since that would be the better option to laying her on the wet public bathroom floor. Not even wanting to use the sink, you rush to grab the keys from your friend who is horrified by the pool creeping, not so slowly, up your baby's back. You quickly walk past the other patrons (the ones you were trying to be considerate of in the first place) while trying to hide the mess, and holding your baby just far enough from you to keep it from getting all over you since you have no way of changing for the next two hours. You unlock the car while almost dropping your baby and lay her on the backseat. the seat is slanted so it makes it hard to keep your already wiggling baby in one spot. Plus, there isn't a lot of room, so her head is hanging over the side, which she finds hilarious. You wipe her quickly and get her new diaper on. You then have to carry your newly changed and clean baby back into Wendy's without anything else on besides the diaper because you were in too much of a hurry and left the diaper bag inside.

This was a reality for me, and probably many other parents. The Wendy's in my town does not have a changing table. Like most people, I took my shock to social media where I found out from a friend the Wendy's two towns over also does not have a changing table in their restroom. What? This is considered a family establishment! How could they not have a changing table? Having a family many times means there is at least one child in the family. A child who starts off in diapers and needs to be able to be changed anywhere their parents, guardian, or care giver takes them. Upon doing some research, unless Wendy's is privately owned, the franchise does not have a policy to allow access to a changing table for liability reasons due to misuse.

This is a huge issue! This makes things unnecessarily difficult for parents, and their children. It also makes changing a blow out diaper an issue for anyone in the restaurant since we have to walk by everyone else in order to take our child to the car. What happens if it is too cold? Or the car is packed with things for a trip? We are considerate of you and your patrons, Wendy's, to change our children away from the dining area. Wouldn't it be appropriate for you to give us a place to do so? How can you call yourself family friendly, if we have to leave to change a diaper, something that could happen anytime during the day?

Please do not punish all parents for the misuse of a couple. Having a changing table in a restaurant is as essential as having a functional toilet. Unless you want a decrease in patrons or someone to change their baby on the table, I suggest you get with the program, Wendy's! It's 2016, this needs to change.