Family Bathrooms

Family bathrooms have to be one of my favorite inventions. Anyone who has ever tried to share a bathroom stall with a crawling baby determined to escape just as you sit down to pee or a curious toddler who wants to see who is attached to the shoes next door will understand why this is a great concept.

I first came across a family bathroom while visiting California about 10 years ago and I couldn’t wait to see one in our local area.

They range in size – some small, some huge – and amenities – from just the basics to some with couches, extra diapers, wipes (though for some reason I have yet to see one with free chocolate and a neck massage for moms).

I’ve only come across 2 so far in the Salem area that were specifically labeled as family bathrooms (though any place that has a locking door and only 1 toilet could be considered a family bathroom as well). The 2 that we’ve come across were at Target at Keizer Station and Wal-Mart on Turner Road (all the way in the back of the store near the shoes). Both were very basic and have changing areas available, but neither had step stools for the sink area the last time I checked. The one at Target has been consistently clean and not surprisingly the one at Wal-Mart isn’t very clean.

The biggest downside to both of these are how often employees use them as their own private restroom while we wait patiently outside. The last time we were wanting to use the Wal-Mart one we could hear one of their employees inside throwing up – eww!

Do you know of other family bathrooms in the area? Let us know what you think of them!

ETA 03/30/09 A reader emailed this to me: "Wanted to tell you there's a great family bathroom at Kohl's at the downtown mall. We always use that bathroom no matter where we are in the mall (or sometimes downtown!). It has a big toilet, a little toddler toilet, and a buckle chair for the baby."