A new father felt mortified after he was shamed by other people as he took his baby into a shopping centre’s parents’ room to feed her and change her nappy.
Dad Damien Leeson, from Mackay, was at the shopping centre last weekend�with his wife, Melissa, and seven-week-old daughter, Harpah. When he felt that his daughter was ready for a feed and a nappy change, he took her into a public parents’ room. What happened next left him speechless.
Mr Leeson recounted to�The Daily Mercury�his encounter with another parent.
“I got into the (parents’) room, gave her a change and started feeding her when a mother walked in with her son.
“She looked at me and said ‘that’s disgusting to see a full grown man in a parents’ room with a little girl’ and (the woman said) that I’m ‘a dirty old (expletive)’,” he said.
However, he said that the woman didn’t give up on her tirade.�”She took her son to the toilet and then, as she walked out, she said to her friend who was waiting outside, ‘there’s a dirty old man in the parents’ room’, and the friend replied with ‘yeah that’s (expletive) up’,” he said.
The young dad, whose first child arrived just a few days before Christmas was shocked, saying he couldn’t believe another parent could think that way.
“I’m quite a hands-on dad, dirty nappies, feeding, anything I can do.
“My wife was there too and we just looked at each other in shock. I was doing the right thing,” he said.
Mr Leeson then took to Facebook to share his story to others. Surprisingly, a startling number of dads have shared that they knew exactly what he had gone through.
One father said he was called a ‘creep’�after taking his two-year-old into a parent’ room, while another one said he�felt ‘intimidated’ when he used parents’ rooms. He said:�”One woman standing next to me watching while I changed my boys nappy, it became intimidating to go in to a parents’ room. But my son comes first, and his comfort and happiness comes first, me feeling uncomfortable is small price to pay.”
Mr Leeson says he won’t let the experience stop him from carrying out his fatherly duties.
“I’m still going to keep taking my daughter to the parent’s room and trying my hardest to be a good dad,” he said. “Males are there to look after their kids too, it’s not just the mum’s duty.
“I hope other dads will keep their chin up and not worry about those comments and looks, just keep doing what you’re doing and stay involved with your kids.”
A Caneland spokesperson told The Daily Mercury the centre’s parents’ rooms could be used by men and women who needed to tend to their children.
Source:�Kidspot.com.au
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