So we were just minding our own business, walking along having a good time in Thessaloniki. It was a moderately warm day, and being Americans, we decided not to dress our infant daughter in a parka when it was 60 degrees outside--crazy, I know.
Since it was so nice out, we let our friend, Summer, (who happens to live in Greece) hold Stazy as we were touring. As we were walking around in the nice temperature, neglegently dressing our daughter in a mere coat, gloves, hood, and warm socks, this seemingly harmless sextagenarian walks up and sweetly takes Stazy out of Summer's arms without even asking. She spent lots of time oohing and ahhing over her and talking about how sweet she was. Summer and Robyn just stood there agreeing while Summer's husband, Greg, and I headed to Starbucks for a coffe mug with "Greece" on it. 5 minutes later, we come back and now there's this hoarde of women standing around admiring how cute and (ominous voice) how young/small she is. As Greg and I approached, the women continued to chuckle and fuss--seemingly without incident.
HOWEVER... once we arrived, we had a problem. The kind old lady started to change.
Have you ever seen Lord of the Rings when Bilbo goes all scary when he sees the ring?--this was her face when we asked to take back our child. Silly, I know, but after 9.5 months in the womb and nearly 2 months out of it, we'd kinda gotten attached.
Turns out, she just really thought it was far too cold for her to be out. This was though interpretation and sign language: Yes ma'm, she has socks on. Yes, we have a blanket. No we don't have another blanket. You want to see inside our bag? Because you don't believe me that we don't have a down fleece in here? Yes ma'm we are the devil. We're actually taking her to Olympus for a human sacrifice. (ok, those last 2 were made up, but the rest are true).
Even after we showed her the diaper bag and her blanket, she just wrapped Stazy tighter in her shawl and wouldn't give her up. I honestly wanted to go and forcibly take her. Obviously, this wouldn't have helped, but my paternal instincts kicked in and I was none-too-pleased with the little-old-lady act anymore. Give me my child, woman!
Fiiiiiiiiiinally, we convinced her that we'd keep her out of the cold so she gave Stazy up. Robyn tucked her safely into the baby Bjorn so no one else could take her. The lady continued to fuss and tucked Stazy in tightly and I managed to put a smile on my face and say "thank you" in Greek (the only thing I knew how to say anyway). It wasn't my true sentiment, but it was better than violence, right??
Lessons learned: don't let strangers take your child. keep said child strapped in Baby Bjorn so said strangers can't take said child.
Lesson taught: If you are a lady or gentleman; young or old; Greek, Turkish, American, East Timorian, or otherwise--> DON'T REFUSE TO GIVE BABIES BACK TO THEIR MOTHERS!*
*CPS excluded
5 comments:
My sister in Law Kaye just encountered the same thing in China! They got very upset with her when if they did not think the children or infant was dressed warm enough! Isn't interesting how other cultures have no problem telling you how to raise your child, but in America we don't say a thing when clearly something should be said! ....I am glad you got Stazy back, I probably would not have handled it so diplomatically!
Okay, first of all, Summer's expression in the first pic is priceless. I'm jealous you got to hang out with those guys.
Second, I think that the "You can't speak our language, so you must be incompetent, so we must rescue your child from you" impulse is found all over the world--I've even seen it here with friends. Haven't these people seen what mama bears do? Do they not have the Discovery channel?!!
hehehe! Loved it! We are so close to where you were --only about 2 hours away. Next time let us know. Or if you guys want to come a little more north, you can visit Macedonia. Your little girl is just beautiful. You really can't fault the old lady for wanting to keep her:) Amy, Jeff, and Maggie
hahaha!!! Awesome!! Glad that ya'll got Stazy back finally, I suppose that all was well in the end... yes, I agree, letting random women take your child is probably a bad idea.... granted, I've only been at this fathering thing for a few years now, so I suppose I could be mistaken (you'd think that they'd put that in the manual! oh wait... you didn't get the manual either? what the crap! maybe it IS only a legend!)
Ha! That's hilarious--thanks for the sharing the incident, and I'll be sure to be careful whenever we travel with Ella....
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