If they could afford a taxi, they could probably afford a car, and wouldn’t need to take the friggin’ bus! People are supposed to spend money they can’t afford just to avoid momentarily offending your delicate sensibilities? I can’t imagine you would even stoop to riding a bus with the unwashed masses.
I understand the OP’s reaction, particularly because the woman was rude about it. But I’m also sympathetic to the fact that sometimes parents might change a diaper on a bus in an emergency. It’s easy to play Goofus and Gallant with strangers, and desiring not to be one more whining and put-upon American, I occassionally try to give someone the benefit of the doubt… she was hurried, desparate, etc. However, she should have publicly apologized, and visibly cleaned the seat with an anti-bacterial wipe.
As for Mexico City, there is no exaggeration to say that there is feces in the air.
So when it rains, it’s like diarrhea?
Gives a new meaning to shit storm, doesn’t it? 
So we aren’t allowed to ride the bus if we own a car? Because I ride the bus every day to work, and my husband rides the El, and we can afford to own a car (a new 2004, in fact). So you don’t whether she could have afforded to ride a taxi or not. Only poor people use public transport, is that it? So since she was poor, she is allowed to change her kid’s filthy diaper on the bus without regard to those around her?
To the OP, I think you were right be grossed out, but I probably wouldn’t have actually said anything. (Mostly because you never know how someone is going to respond. She might have thrown the diaper at you! 
)
My dad took the bus to work for years because it went right by his work, and it was cheaper and more convenient to take the bus than to find parking every day. My mom took the bus for ages because she didn’t know how to drive. (She finally learned and is now a menace on the road!) I have an aunt who never learned to drive and always takes the bus. I also took the bus every damned day for several years, because I didn’t know how to drive at that time (I’ve since made up for my late start). My sister has taken the bus plenty of times, because she’s visually impaired and can no longer drive.
So, no, the bus is not only for the “great unwashed masses” who can’t afford any other transportation. I’d say that a lot of people take the bus for the convenience of it, to not having to worry about finding parking, because they never learned how to drive, or because they are physically unable to drive.
Just wandering in to remind folks that Biggirl lives in New York City.
So, no, it wasn’t a situation like someone hopping the Greyhound Bus from the Upper Peninsula of MI, and the child needing a change just as they were about to cross the Mackinac Bridge.
If it’s a mass transit bus system, either one or the other concepts work: there will be another bus along shortly and/or they length of the bus trip isn’t expected to last hours.
If it’s a non mass transit bus, the probable length of the trip is potentially hours and hours, and no, there wouldn’t be ‘another bus’ along shortly, but they also have bathrooms on the bus.
So, I am making the assumption, based on teh OP’s location of NY, that it was a mass transit type of situation, where there’s no bathroom on the bus, but the length of the bus ride isn’t going to be hours and hours, and/or there’s another bus coming soon too. Exiting the bus and taking care of the situation in a more reasonable location was the proper thing to do.
Now, there may be some set of circumstances such as: the mother had used her very last pennies to get on the bus to take the child to a doctor’s appointment for treatment of a very rare condition where the child would explode if feces came into contact w/it’s skin for more than 45 seconds. Barring such an explanation, I’d say mom should’ve either waited for her stop, or gotten off the bus to attend to the situation, whichever was a better option for them.
Congratulations on making one of the ten stupidest posts I’ve ever seen on the SDMB. Your certificate is in the mail.
The one thing that definitely isn’t acceptable is not at least putting down something to protect the seat for other users.
It doesn’t matter how old the shitee is, I don’t want to sit in a leftover smear of it.
Well, I was going to explain the situation what I was in, but wring beat me to it.
Look, the kid was not in imminent danger of her ass falling off if the stinky assed diaper was not moved IMMEDIATELY. The child had a perfectly pink ass-- I know, I saw it. The woman got off the bus-- at her stop-- 10 minutes after she changed the diaper.
I’m a mom. I had two kids in diapers at the same time. It ain’t all that hard to change your baby in the right place. Especially not in New York City. Saying that the woman had to change her child right then and there is a cop out for lazy parents who are more concerned about their own convenience than they are about consideration for the rest of the world.
First off, as others pointed out, the bus isn’t just for nasty ol’ poor people. I do ride the bus whenever I’m staying in the big city because it’s more convinient and because it’s more kind to the environment.
Erm, actually, yes. As I would do for them. Golden rule, karma, civilization, that sort of thing, you know. Or maybe not.
Truthfully, I wouldn’t want them to spend a bunch of cash they couldn’t spare, but the situation could have been handled so much more agreeably. A bit of forethought, discretion, whatever would have been called for. Heck, if the woman had just made a little joke and covered the damned seat, then apologized to the people around her, I’ll bet the OP would have been very different.
Bit of an irony there. Seems that any parent who would just lay out their kid and stink up whatever joint they happen to be present in, to hell with everyone else, would be a much firmer believer in “the rights of the individual trumping that of society” than the people being forced to endure the stench of the kid’s shit. You know, the rest of society immediately present?
My thoughts exactly. Personally, I think it’s crass for the woman to change the child’s diaper in this situation (as the OP explained in a later comment, the woman got off the bus 10 minutes later). Having said that, putting SOMETHING (even if its her OWN coat/bag) down under the child would be better than what she did.
Lastly, what’s wrong with the OP warning the next person to sit down of the possible mess? All these people who are defending the mother haven’t once mentioned that she could have just as easily said “wait a second, let me make sure there’s nothing there before you sit down. I just changed my child.” Then again, anyone rude enough to do what she did, would be too rude to do the right thing.
What about people who have a medical reason not to come into contact with feces for their health? The elderly, HIV patients, chemotherapy/radiation patients, the list goes on and on. I know many people think the rights of a child are above and beyond the rights of the rest of us, but that situation could have been handled in a far more appropriate manner by the mother. What kind of mother doesn’t carry baby wipes for her child? She couldn’t have spent 60 seconds rubbing the seat down with one or two? I’d hate to see what her home looks like.
Hey, guess what? Not everyone in the US lives in New York City, or someplace with comparable public transportation. The woman in the OP’s post probably could have waited, or at least been nice about it. But to say that everyone should get off the bus if their child has a dirty diaper, no matter what the consequences, is assholic. If another bus will be along soon, and I can afford to wait, then I probably would get off. In my area, that would be true about %.0001 percent of the time. I’ve taken the bus my whole life, in areas where the public transport absolutely FUCKING SUCKS. Suppose someone is taking their child to daycare so they can work. They get off the bus so that your pwecious little nose won’t have to smell the diaper for a few minutes, and they are late to work, and get fired. In the wintertime, I’m supposed to get off the bus with a small child and wait for an hour in the freezing cold? Fucko off. No one around here would be schlepping their child on the bus unless they had to. Generally, that’s because of money issues. Everything is spread out, the buses run infrequently and don’t run all day. Even when they do run, they are unreliable. (I was once 45 minutes late on my first non-training day of work, because a bus driver got running late, and they turned the bus around before it reached the light rail station. No employers around here are sympathetic to the plight of people who ride the bus. Another reason why virtually no one who can afford a car takes the bus around here.)
I have a 3 month old baby, and I have to take the bus to doctor’s apointments and such. I also have a 14 year old that I schlepped around on the bus as a toddler, and a 3 year old stepdaughter who I also schlepped around on the bus. I would have gone to great lengths to avoid changing any of their diapers on the bus. As it happens, I was fortunate enough not to have to. But I just love the assumptions that some of you people make-- “Oh, they should just take a taxi.” A friggin TAXI? Around here, not only would most bus riders (like myself) not be able to afford a taxi, it usually takes an hour or more to get one to pick you up. The only place you can flag down a taxi and just hop in is the airport. If I have no choice but to change my child’s diaper on the bus, I’ll be apologetic and as hygenic as possible. But no way in hell am I getting out and shelling out for a taxi just because you think I should. I don’t live in the fantasyland where everyone has hundreds of dollars in their pocket at all times that they don’t really need. If I had that kind of money, I wouldn’t be dealing with our piss-poor transit system.
You know, I don’t really have a problem with the OP saying the woman was rude and had no consideration for others-- she didn’t. What I have a problem with is the idea that people should get off the bus even if it means they’ll be stuck out somewhere for hours, or have to spend on a cab. Even if I could afford it, what if I didn’t have cash? I have a debit card now, but for years all I had was cash or checks. Cabs don’t take checks anymore.
So your comments then had nothing to do with the OP’s situation then? (since she does indeed live in city w/mass transit etc)
basic comments stand - if you’re on a bus w/a bathroom, use it. If you’re not on a bus w/a bathroom, it’s pretty damned likely that your trip is going to be relatively short (it’s not practical to have a public system of transportation w/o restrooms scheduled to haul large group of people w/o stops for hours and hours - hell I’ve even seen people need to use the bathroom w/in minutes of take off.). OR that there’s mutliple stops etc w/multiple buses.
If you don’t live in such a circumstance, sorry - but I’d really like to see some evidence of a mass transport situation where it exists, but has no possability of bathrooms for any passengers for hours and hours.
In any event, the situtation described by the OP wasn’t justified. and yes, I am a mom. did use mass transport at times, had limited funds, etc etc.
so, barring any real life example of “oh, there’s only one bus, it only runs every two hours, it’s 30 degrees below zero outside, I’m on my way to daycare to drop off my child and then go to work at my shit job, and if I let my child sit in it’s dirty diaper for more than 10 minutes, it’ll explode”, then I’ll just let you fucko off instead, ok?
Congratulations on being one of the ten pettiest jerks I’ve ever seen on the SDMB. Now fucko off.
When I lived in Colorado Springs, for one particular job, I took a 90 minute bus ride twice a day to get to and from work. I didn’t have a child in diapers to take with me at the time, but that’s quite long enough for a child to get a bad rash. This was a mass transit bus with no bathroom. There was a bathroom in the terminal downtown, but for most of the time I lived there, it was locked and for the drivers use only. A couple years before I moved to Denver, they remodeled and let the public use the bathrooms. However, they were filthy and had dangerous types hanging out in them. In Denver, there are lots of bus trips that take several hours. The buses used for the longer trips usually are Greyhound-type buses, but there are never bathrooms on them.
Damn, wring keeps beating me to the punch!
My answer to you, MinniePurl, was going to be:
IF you’re locked on a public bus for hours and hours with no hope of seeing the outside world unless someone calls a SWAT team-- then changing your baby on a bus seat is just fine.
IF your baby shoots fire out it’s ass instead of shit-- then it would be imperative for you to change it the minute it you smelled it.
IF your baby is one of those plastic bubble babies and contact with any thing less clean than sterilized teflon will cause it’s skin to roil and blister-- then I could see not waiting ten minutes to change it.
This was not the case on the 63 going down 5th Ave in Brooklyn.
I never said it did. I said it’s not always feasible for someone to get off the bus and wait for the next one.
Sorry to abridge your reply but according to http://www.rtd-denver.com/
The transit seems pretty good, and their mission statement says it all:
“To meet our constituents’ present and future public transit needs by offering safe, clean, reliable, courteous, accessible and cost-effective service throughout the district.”