An Alabama woman couldn’t believe her eyes after discovering that McDonald’s had its baby changing stations riveted shut in the women’s restroom. She confirmed that this wasn’t just a coincidence after seeing this done at two separate restaurants during a road trip. “I asked the workers up front and they said it was a corporate decision. Yet, they have a play area for children!” she exclaimed, and over 50k Reddit users were quite intrigued by her findings.
“Zero chance that was a corporate decision. Franchise did it. Send this to corporate and they will handle it,” a person commented in disagreement. The mother, who goes by Cheerychameleon on Reddit, assured in her r/mildlyinfuriating that she was telling the truth. She updated her description, saying that she emailed McDonald’s corporate directly about its policy on whether it “actually supports or requires disabling baby changing stations in customer restrooms.”
Needless to say, this wasn’t a policy of the past, considering McDonald’s had initially built baby changing stations into the restrooms, only to now lock them up. “The whole reason we stopped to eat there is because we knew they’d have a changing table. I left reviews for the restaurant itself & the owning group franchisee,” Cheerychameleon wrote in frustration.
Redditors Support The Decision to Lock Up the Changing Tables
While many commenters took this viral post as an opportunity to joke around or throw out a pun, several more serious Redditors explained why they believe the McDonald’s baby changing station was locked. “I’ve worked fast food, and you don’t want to change your baby on that, your car’s front seat is going to be cleaner,” remarked an individual.
“A few years ago, my husband used the changing table at McDonalds and when he reached for a cover from the little bin, he got stuck by a used needle,” another commenter recalled. “The amount of burn holes I’ve found on changing stations, I’m not surprised,” added a third on Facebook. There are plenty of other stories, posts, and comments online of people allegedly finding traces of drug use on these tables.
McDonald’s isn’t the only chain preventing parents from using its baby changing stations. One Redditor claiming to manage a separate restaurant franchise wrote how they had a problem at multiple locations involving customers complaining about “residue” left on the tables. “It’s not like you can catch these people or monitor the bathrooms enough,” they sighed.
In the end, it’s a lose-lose situation for everyone, customers with children and McDonald’s reputation, with no one but those abusing the changing tables to blame.
