A Crappy Restaurant

Just when you think you have seen everything, someone wrote to an advice column, asking if it was appropriate to change a baby's diaper in a fast food place on top of one of the tables. When the other customers were grossed out and said so, the mother went to the manager to complain about their rudeness. He told her it was OK. On top of it all, the changing/eating table was not disinfected or cleaned in any way afterward. The response on the part of the advice columnist was to complain to the local health department.

This is just another sign that more and more people do not have a clue. Most fast food restaurants of any size have a changing table in the restroom. Some even have them in both sexes' restrooms. The fact that the mother didn't get it, portends problems for others later. She is obviously the kind who thinks her kid's behind will never stink. Her complaint is another example of crude behavior being treated just the opposite of the way it should be treated.

But really, we should not wonder that she pushed the limits a bit. Human behavior is becoming more coarse. We could even say, our manners are going backward instead of improving. We see parents changing diapers in many public places. People attempt to walk and relieve their dogs wherever they want. Drivers cut off other drivers, and are given and return the finger to each other. Cell phone conversations take place in just about every public venue. Rapp music (an oxymoron) pounds our eardrums through closed windows. All Terrain Vehicles race up and down our streets and across our fields and back yards without permission and without a thought of how disruptive it is. In this mother's mind, this was just one more place where this activity could be done. And after all, everyone knows that restrooms are such dirty places.