Should I let them TOUCH?

... my baby?

I was quite shocked when I first saw my ang moh friends here telling Vietnamese strangers not to touch their babies. They even taught their kids how to say "no". One extreme example was a little boy who spat at a Vietnamese lady.

Now that I have my own baby, I guess I can understand where they are coming from. However, I still can't bring myself to say "no". Tarek insists that I do it - I am the baby's first line of defence. Even the pediatrician told me that he still tells people not to touch his kid. You'll never know where those hands have been - digging their nose, pulling out white hair or lies from each other's head, snorting, touching rubbish, carrying germs etc.

Take this morning for example. I took Ray with me to Saigon Square 2. The new outlet is bigger, more spacious and has proper aisle where I can push the stroller. Also, it is less crowded than the other one. So I thought it won't be so bad bringing Ray.

It was a bad idea from the start.

Every one kept coming towards Ray, crowding around him, touching his face, his fingers and his feet. One went as far as kissing his cheeks and another was grabbing his feet (you know how when babies are so cute, you just want to grab them and "shake" them). They were all over him and the more they cooed and Ray smiled, the more they came... like VULTURES. And they kept calling their friends from the other stalls to come and look at this cute baby.

The one that pissed me off most was the last lady who came, touched my baby, asked me why I dont put on a hat n socks for him (in Vietnam, they like to cover up the baby to protect from both the sun and the cold) - you should dress him up more. Then she went on to my stroller, got intrigued by my stroller fan and started fiddgeting around with it, asking me how much, where I bought it, how it works etc.
(I really must learn to be more direct like the Westerners, esp my MIL, and tell them to "fuck off").

In my heart, I was going "Pls don't touch my baby" but how could I stop them? It's natural for people to love babies and want to touch them, esp more so in Asia. Plus Ray was obviously loving the attention and charming the whole world with his smiles.

All I could do was to give a forced smile and quickly push him away. I must have wiped him 3 times in the 20 mins that I was there!

Would you, Have you, Did you allow strangers to touch your baby?