Exotic Asia, Third Culture Mothering

Intense Baby Effect

While living in the US and in South America I have observed how [in general] people enjoy babies and toddlers. It’s almost like their energy awakens loving tingles in our energy fields. With Gaia our experience was mostly with women and older people talking to her. They would try to do a quick interaction from a distance and then talk to us about her haircut, necklace or pretty face.

Here in Vietnam… people (men, woman, children) are drawn to babies and toddlers in a way I have never experienced before. Without asking, people come to Gaia and touch her, talk to her, play with her, and kiss her.  Oh yes, KISS HER, I know!!! It was impossible to “purex” her. But then on day 2 after asking our realtor about this situation and him explaining that the vietnamese people believe that a baby should get a lot of love, we were like “Oh well, a lot of love won’t do damage, if anything, her immune system will rock on”. We can live with that.

But that crazy baby effect does not stop with just a kiss. We noticed in one of the first restaurants we visited on day 1, that the waiter started to interact very kindly with her, we then thought “well here comes the kiss”, but little did we know he was actually picking up Gaia and taking her around the restaurant for the other waiters, waitresses, and cooks, to play with her and kiss her. Oh no! Red Flag: Bert said, “check the menu while I watch that our baby doesn’t get stolen and sold in the black market”. Well after 3 minutes or so, which seemed like days, he came back with her. And I was like “men, this guy has some balls to just take our child and leave without asking”. Then on day 2 at another restaurant the waiter proceeded to do the same thing, only this time it was more nerve racking, as the restaurant was on a second floor and he took her to the first floor to interact with the staff there. We just ate our food slowly and silently trying to listen to her little voice or any giggles, and I watched the window ready to run behind someone through the cluttered streets of Hanoi. Yes, he did come back with a happy Gaia. So we started thinking maybe this was not that odd, and “common” was what we needed to put in our heads.

That afternoon, as I was searching for “safe” ways to travel on a scooter with a toddler, I came across a blog from a woman who has lived here for over 4 years, and she confirmed in one of her posts titled “Vietnamese Love Babies”, that in fact the sweet people of Vietnam ABSOLUTELY LOVE babies and toddlers. She posted that YES they will kiss them and that YES they will take them while you eat. She suggested to enjoy the time to eat and not worry about them stealing your baby. So thank you Barbara, I will enjoy my meal on day 3 and for the years we will be here.

Please follow and like us:
0

1 thought on “Intense Baby Effect

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *