Nursery rooms help fathers take part in parenting duties with more ease

There is good news for fathers on a day out with small children. Shopping malls in Chinese cities have begun introducing family restrooms and changing areas for babies that can be used by both men and women, reflecting an emphasis on optimizing public service infrastructure as more couples share parenting duties equally.

At a shopping mall in Beijing's Chaoyang district, what was once a mother-and-baby room has been renovated into a nursery room for both fathers and mothers. Outside, a board reads "A room that not only belongs to her" and another says "Co-parenting". Inside, there are changing tables, a feeding bottle heater, parent-child toilets, sofas and washbasins. Behind a glass door, there are several cubicles with curtains exclusively for breastfeeding mothers.

At the Huiduo Mall in Chaoyang, a Super Dads' Spot has been in operation for the past few months from 10 am to 10 pm daily. According to a staff member, the facility was created in response to a number of requests from customers.

A man surnamed Wu, who had taken his 3-year-old daughter to the mall on Friday, praised the dads' spot, which basically offers baby rooms complete with hot water dispenser, bottle warmers, training pants and disinfectant wipes for the convenience of men visiting the mall with their children. "It was not convenient for us (fathers) to enter the mother-and-baby rooms," he said.

In Shenzhen, Guangdong province, the Rainbow Shopping Center in Bao'an district has set up a father-and-baby room next to the mother-and-baby room on two floors.

According to mall manager Li Yinfen, the mall was renovated in 2021, and the father-and-baby rooms were built in response to customer needs.

"Since there are breastfeeding mothers in the nursing room, it was inconvenient for men who are alone with their children to enter, so setting up a father-and-baby room was very necessary," she said.

In Shanghai, a mall offers separate family restrooms for men and women equipped with changing tables for the convenience of parents. It has received widespread praise since opening in October last year.

The topic "shopping malls having father-and-baby rooms" had received about 5.91 million views on hot search lists of Sina Weibo as of Sunday.

A netizen, who's also a father, commented that every time he took his little daughter out, it would be very inconvenient using restrooms, as it was awkward entering the men's restroom with his daughter or accompanying her to the women's restroom.

Zhang Hongchuan, an associate professor at the Central University of Finance and Economics' School of Sociology and Psychology in Beijing, said that while traditional perceptions often assign mothers a greater role in child rearing, research has recognized the importance of men's participation, since the absence of either parent in a child's development is far from ideal.

"Father-and-baby rooms provide essential infrastructure to support fathers in their parenting duties. Through slogans and thoughtfully designed spaces, public perception and behavior can be nudged, encouraging men to step into the parenting sphere, establishing social norms, and reinforcing the idea that it is perfectly normal for men to take an active role in child-rearing," he said.

As birth rates continue to decline year by year, it's necessary to build a childbirth-friendly society, and actions like these can cumulatively help this process, he added.

Zhou Yunqing, a professor at Wuhan University's School of Sociology in Hubei province, believes that the emergence of father-and-baby rooms is an important step in improving family and life services. This development shows that public spaces are being created with the needs of people's livelihoods in mind and is a mark of civilizational progress.

Huang Lei, who has often spent time alone with his high school-age daughter since childhood, said that such measures show that the stereotype of women dominating parenting is changing, and are helpful for fathers to develop a stronger sense of responsibility.

"Besides, I think most fathers want to and are capable of taking care of babies, but sometimes mothers worry whether they can do it well," he said. "Such father-and-baby rooms give fathers the chance to prove themselves, while mothers get the opportunity to use the free time on themselves."

Yang Che contributed to this story.