Some priceless 'Vietnam' moments

When we returned to Vietnam after being in Thailand for 3 months I was happily greeted with cooler weather. In Thailand the weather was nice. 70's at night and 80's during the day. A perfect warm spring like weather. Isabella and Preston were used to wearing light clothing. However, in order to fly back to Vietnam I wasn't sure if the plane would be cold, but I put Isabella in long sleeves and pants just in case. She sat in her car seat and I had a blanket covering her. She was cozy enough, or so I thought.

We arrived in the Hanoi airport and as Tim was about 15 feet away arranging our taxi a lady came up to me to admire Isabella. Im used to Preston getting poked at by complete strangers and being asked to take a picture with people. However after a minute of this lady admiring Isabella we soon had a crowd of women gathered. around us.  They all smiled and commented about various things from her red hair to her tiny body. It is true that when you get pregnant everyone has an opinion about how you should or shouldn't raise your kids. In Asia, or rather Vietnam it is almost the God Given Right of the community to make sure you follow certain unspoken rules. I found out quickly that not only do people have an opinion about how you should raise your children but there are certain things that are close to child abuse if you do not follow them. I found out last week that putting a hat on your newborn is one of those RULES.

As I stood there waiting for Tim to finish negotiating for the taxi  it became clear that I was not going to be able to leave the airport without proper clothing on my child. They felt it would be negligent on their part if they let me do so. Let me just say it was probably 60 degrees outside and Isabella was pretty snug in her car seat. Clearly not cold, but when in Rome do as they do right?

I was glad that I had my moby wrap in the bag next to me so, with a crowd of people looking to see how I was going to remedy the problem tied the moby on and tucked my cozy sleeper in it. They weren't sure this wrap was going to be enough, but when they saw that even her little head was tucked away underneath the wrap they were all satisfied, and there was a sigh of relief in the crowd and a clearing was made to let the 'negligent' foreigner through.

It was a fun moment reminding me that in this country it takes a village to raise a child.

We now know to never leave home with out socks and a hat on our tiny red head. A huge thank you to Renee Horsman for the MOBY and to all the ladies at the airport who helped me see the error of my ways.