Clint Edwards is a dad of three living in the US, and runs a ‘daddy blog’ – something of a rarity in the heavily female dominated sphere of online parent blogging.
Clint took to Facebook to celebrate an inspiring win; he managed to campaign and get his local church to add a changing table to the men’s bathroom.
Clint Edwards with his wife and co-parent, Mel.
In his Facebook post Clint says,
‘I’m calling this a win! The church I attend didn’t have a changing table in the men’s room. As a father with a young child I really hate when I can’t change my kid.
‘This isn’t to say that I enjoy changing a squirmy poopy toddler. I don’t. No one does. But I dislike placing the full burden of changing every single diaper on my wife even more. This whole parenting gig is a partnership.’
Clint goes on to clarify that he’s aware that not every female bathroom in America has a changing table, but in his experience, there is definitely a gender biased balanced in the accessibility of changing tables.
Deciding not to take the gender discrimination any longer, Clint brought the issue up to his local church who responded quickly.
‘So I brought all this up with some people at my church. I mentioned my frustration. I was that irritating dad who asked for change.
And boom!
I show up one Sunday to this. So it’s a small change. It’s one men’s room out of a million. But for me, as an active father with a desire to care for my child, it was a serious victory.’
There are many Australian’s who would agree that this is a serious victory, especially Damien Leeson, who in February was called “disgusting” for taking his baby into the parents’ room at Caneland Central shopping centre.
Mr Leeson said after posting about the incident on Facebook, he was flooded with comments from other men who said they’d been in similar situations while female friends applauded him for being a hands-on dad.
Let’s hope that dads keep speaking out and some real social change will be created.
