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Dad left 'insulted' after being kicked out of parents' changing room

Family washrooms are supposed to offer parents a welcome space to tend to their children in public spaces, but unfortunately for dads, that doesn’t always seem to be the case.

Father’s are revealing they are often unwelcome in parents changing rooms.
Father’s are revealing they are often unwelcome in parents changing rooms.

An Australian father was left to change his child’s diaper on the sink of the men’s washroom after he says he was forced out of the parents change room by a group of mothers.

Troy Tinson was shopping with his daughter when her diaper needed changing. When Tinson went into the communal parents’ changing room, three mothers blocked the changing table and told him to leave.

“They said there were women breastfeeding in the room and that he wasn’t welcome, that he was a male and that there were male toilets that he could access,” Tinson’s wife Terina told ABC Perth in an interview last week.

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Tinson went to the men’s washroom to change his daughter’s diaper, but says he felt ‘insulted’ by the experience.

“He was devastated, he’s a great dad, a hands on dad,” Terina Tinson said. “He looks after the girls while I’m at work and he’s a great father.”

Tinson’s story has gained a reaction on social media from outraged parents.

“He walked in a with a baby to change,” one commenter wrote. “Not to perve on breastfeeding mothers and had every right to use the facility.”

“As a father of 4 there is no way I would be leaving that room,” another said. “I’m happy to take a seat and wait my turn. If the women have a problem with it they can leave.”

Tinson isn’t the first father to receive backlash from mothers in communal changing spaces.

In 2017, Damien Leeson was called “disgusting” by a mother for feeding his seven-week old daughter in a parents room of a shopping centre.

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In a Facebook post, Leeson admits he was speechless when a woman approached him while he changed his daughter’s diaper.

“I got into the room, gave her a change and started feeding her when a mother walked in with her son,” Leeson wrote. “She looked at me and said ‘that’s disgusting to see a full grown man in a parents’ room with a little girl.'”

When the mother left with her son, Lesson says he heard her tell a friend that there was ‘a dirty old man’ in the parents room.

Leeson’s post received comments from hundreds of men who shared similar experiences.

“It’s awful but unfortunately not uncommon,” father of two Jeremy Phillips replied. “I often get strange looks as if I’ve walked into the wrong toilet or something. It’s not a nice feeling when you know you have every right to be there, too.”

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