“Why do I have to run to the car to change a diaper or get into a perfect man squat and do a ninja position to change my child?” said Donte Palmer, 31.
A Florida dad looking to support his family in every way he can has called for changing tables in public men’s restrooms after struggling with uncomfortable positions as he tried to change his baby’s diaper.
Donte Palmer, a 31-year-old father of three from St. Augustine, posted on Instagram that he’s sick of squatting in a men’s bathroom just to change his youngest son.
“[My wife] said, ‘Us mothers don’t have to walk into a changing room and come up with creative or innovative ways to change a diaper’ and that stuck with me,” Palmer told InsideEdition.com. “Why do I have to run to the car to change a diaper or get into a perfect man squat and do a ninja position to change my child?”
He and his new wife raise three boys: Isaiah, 12, and Taylor, 7, from previous relationships and Liam, 1, who they had together.
“We both were excited that we could blend our families together with no issues, no complications," he said.
But with the added family members come extra responsibilities, which the couple worked out by agreeing to take on all parenting duties together.
"Everything we do in our house is 50 percent equally,” Palmer said. “I want to push that stroller, I want to wake up at 4 o’clock in the morning to warm the bottle. In this particular moment, instead of doing a man squat, I wanted to go into the restrooms and change my baby."
Palmer’s post resonated with other men experiencing the same plight and quickly went viral. He is now calling for other fathers to post pictures of themselves in a similar squat position with the hashtag #SquatForChange to call on public facilities to install changing tables in men’s restrooms.
For now, Palmer said his solution is to continue showing his sons he’ll go the extra mile to take on his fatherly duties.
"Continue to be that father — be creative, be innovators. Because when we do that, our kids are looking at us," he said. "And that’s what makes them grow up and have wild imaginations."
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