Sunday, June 17, 2012

Sunday Haiku Plus: Kid-unfriendly Sinks

Why don't kid-friendly
places have kid-friendly sinks?
Dad!  I can't get soap!


I took the boys bowling recently and encountered something that drives me bats: in the bathroom, my five-year-old could reach the faucet, but he had no hope of reaching the soap.  Of course, almost no one operates a bowling alley on its own.  This place in the 'burbs has an arcade and snack bar and laser tag.  We were there during what turned out to be afternoon cosmic bowling with crazy lights and disco balls and music videos by exclusively teen recording artists.  It's totally family-oriented and hosts several birthday parties a day. 

Why wouldn't a place like that have sinks that enable little kids to reach?  Museums oriented to children tend to be no better.  Teddy could at least reach the faucet and bowl in this one.  Many times that's even a challenge.  I have only seen in one museum bathroom clever, fixed, fold-down step stools under a few of the sinks that get a child to the level where he/she can reach everything.  Having a few four-dollar Ikea stools kicking around isn't the worst idea, either, but almost no one does it.

Of course, when I pick up the child or the child does the tiny climber routine, the counter against which we necessarily lean tends to be covered in that slurry of soap and water that bedevils most public bathroom counters.  Then the slurry, of course, finds its way onto my clothes or the child's clothes.

To quote Gob Bluth: come on!


No comments: