Changing on the road

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nappiesatnight

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  1. Incontinent
Mixed feelings here. Basically I need to get a radar key. That being said there have been a number of times when I've needed a change when travelling on the road in the uk - going to get the key from WH Smiths - and then getting redirected to the nappy/ baby change room rather than being given the key - firstly I probably just need to ask for the without telling them (or refusing to tell them) why - the thing is - when there hasn't been a problem - I've noticed how manky and dirty the disabled loo is in comparasion to the nappy change - so I've started to think - actuially - the baby change is a better place to go - but wired :-s so what do ppl think about using the b/change room rather than the manky d/loos ? ok / not ok?
 
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I'm not from the UK, but are you talking about the rooms set up by the "Changing Places" charity? If they are cleaner and more spacious, I don't know why you'd refuse. You need to change and that's what the room is for. Honestly, I'd get a warm, fuzzy feeling knowing that somebody set up all this with me in mind. :) Kind of like when I'm out shopping and hear a song on the PA system that was popular in high school. Here in the US there is no such thing, nor even a glimmer of such a thing. Locally there is one "family bathroom" at the mall, which makes one single, large, private bathroom for an entire county.
 
depends4me said:
I'm not from the UK, but are you talking about the rooms set up by the "Changing Places" charity? If they are cleaner and more spacious, I don't know why you'd refuse. You need to change and that's what the room is for. Honestly, I'd get a warm, fuzzy feeling knowing that somebody set up all this with me in mind. :) Kind of like when I'm out shopping and hear a song on the PA system that was popular in high school. Here in the US there is no such thing, nor even a glimmer of such a thing. Locally there is one "family bathroom" at the mall, which makes one single, large, private bathroom for an entire county.
Changing places time are great and i have used them. But there aren't a lot of them. I'm talking more about the rooms in the uk the are set aside mainly for parents to change their kids nappies. I guess the closet thing in the US is the family restroom.
 
We have a radar key as my wife has a slight disability and needs more room than average in a public toilet. When I became incontinent I started using the disabled loo to change in. I can be quite blunt and out spoken and one day a lady waiting for the toilet gave me a cold hard stare when I emerged. I could feel her disgust at a perfectly healthy looking middle aged man using "Her Toilet" I just siad sharply "You cannot see all disabilities. I am incontinent and needed to change my nappy" Her shame and embarrassment was a sight to see.
 
ST50 said:
We have a radar key as my wife has a slight disability and needs more room than average in a public toilet. When I became incontinent I started using the disabled loo to change in. I can be quite blunt and out spoken and one day a lady waiting for the toilet gave me a cold hard stare when I emerged. I could feel her disgust at a perfectly healthy looking middle aged man using "Her Toilet" I just siad sharply "You cannot see all disabilities. I am incontinent and needed to change my nappy" Her shame and embarrassment was a sight to see.
Yes, I've had 'the look' - done exactly the same thing myself - I think being a single female helps in situations like - I seem to get more sympathy and less suspicion that most - I try not to travel at busy times though - ther service stations on uk motor ways can get pretty busy - there's always someone waiting at those time - I just try to remind myself that I'll never see them again - although I do sometimes worry about bumping into someone again - I just imigine myself saying "you must be mistaking me with someone else" - this is another reason I prefer to use baby changes - they are hardly ever in use late at night - so not busy and REALLY clean.
 
I'm completely bemused by what a "radar key" may be. But then, I'm from New Zealand, not the UK. Disables facilities do exist in NZ, but they are typically very basic facilities - standard toilet with a bit of extra room at the sides - sometimes with a wash basin in the loo - often not.
I've come across some diabolical and quite stomach-churning disabled loos while travelling in NZ. Utterly gross. Too diabolically bad to even think about using, and I have turned around and walked out on many. My experience is that where the disabled loo is one of the stalls in a male bathroom it is very basic but usable - where it is a separate room it also pretty basic and almost always too utterly filthy to use.
Which of course leaves the problem of what else to do (I can't travel without incontinence protection, and I always use pads with elastic fixation pants because they are easier and far quieter to change than a tape-on diaper).
I must say I have never NEVER used a family room or a baby-changing room to change myself. And I never will. It may well be that NZ society judges more quickly and more harshly than the UK or Europe, but I don't believe that it would be safe for a single male to be seen entering/leaving a baby-changing room alone. There is an automatic assumption that any single male around children, or in a situation that is "for families", is a sexual predators.
Where I can't use the disabled loo (or can't find one) I use a standard stall in a male toilet. Very cramped, and also usually pretty gross. But often the only option.
 
I think I've always used the baby change outside of a few occasions, I think just so I didn't get the stares other posters have mentioned above. I don't think anyone's ever thought of me as a sexual predator but maybe I'll have to keep that in mind! :eek: changing in standard stalls is something I also do, but only when the place isn't busy and there'll be no one to hear my crinkles and taping. In school I used the disabled room all the time, and it was amazingly gross, but I don't know what I was expecting from a high school bathroom.... I got people asking why I used it all the time, I tended to say 'none of your business', but they probably guessed considering how often I had to suddenly rush to it.

There was one time I used the disabled room and got someone in my face asking me why I had to, I basically froze up for a bit and had to stammer out that I was changing my diapers, he didn't believe me so I ended up having to walk off with him yelling at me to take my pants down...
 
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