Thanks Nick! Yeah, it’s still a bit strange – but now he’s a bit older and when someone comes up to him and wants to hold him or see his toy or something, he usually just says “No!” Not sure if it’s because he’s just a jerk, or he has somehow learned from me that it’s better to just be left alone haha.
The years sure do go by fast – I look at his baby pictures now and can hardly even remember them. It flies by so quickly, but you’re always so focussed on the present.

hi Greg
my son is nearly 16 years old now and we took him to Thailand every year until his 3rd birthday, we were always treated like royalty in restaurant and bars and he would very often have lots of women coming over to hug him and kiss him, men would just say hello and not touch him in fairness, as times have changed now, I am surprised it still goes on in Thailand as thai s have modernised in many ways when it comes to helping them chase the tourist dollar but not with child protection laws. My son when he was a baby was a very happy child and loved the attention but some children are not comfortable with it and not all parents are comfortable with it either, the only advice I would give to anyone visiting Thailand would be be prepared, when we visited Thailand it was not as popular as it is now and they didn’t see many western babies as they do now so yes we did find it overbearing at times.. My wife said your son is a beautiful and it’s bringing back memories for us when our boy was little enjoy the times Greg they fly by…….

Thanks Stephane, bit of a jump there from kissing kids to jumping queues in 7-11 but I get your point. 🙂
I’ve come to the conclusion that when it comes to the environment around my kid, it’s 100% my decision what happens, and I’m not feeling bad if anyone gets hurt. One example: older lady across the street from us used to love coming up to my kid and tickling him, grabbing his hands, cootchie-coo, etc. Pretty harmless, but he usually didn’t like it, saying “No, no!” and pulling away.

Okay, he’s probably overreacting, this woman is nice and means no harm, but the point was, he didn’t like it. So one time she did it and he said no, then she kept doing it. I had enough and looked right at her and said “He says no, stop touching him!” She probably doesn’t speak English, but my intention was very clear. She totally ignores us now, but that’s fine. All it was doing was teaching him that adults can touch you, even when you don’t want them to, which is bullshit.

So yeah…don’t feel bad about telling others not to touch your kid. I don’t care if you think I’m weird or overprotective or don’t understand. My kid, my rules. If you don’t like it, go pester someone else’s kid.

What bother’s me is the total lack of respect with which it is done…

Often my son wants to go play with other Thai kids, but their parents just take their kids away, like my son had the plague.

Meanwhile…

– He was kissed 3-4 times on the mouth by unknown men!!!
– When he was really small 6 months old or so – many women touched his genitalia to know whether he is a boy or a girl.

What I find strange is that, when I am alone with my son, they do things they would never do when my wife is present. For example, I was alone with my son in a swimming pool in a hotel in Pattaya. Three women came to us (so far so good!), interrupted our game and started hugging him and so (not so good anymore!), while totally ignoring my presence. When my wife joined the pool, the 3 women went away, quickly, acting like nothing happened.

I have NEVER seen Thais do this to other Thai kids… NEVER!!!

I can accept that it is a Thai culture to not touch someone’s head and I would never do that. But how can I teach my son to not touch people’s head, when everybody touches his?

Mai pen rai pen dek… My ass, if a foreigner did what they do to our kids he would be thrown in a jail. And rightfully so.

I am starting to be totally pissed off by their Thai culture excuses… Their culture is 100s of years old. There were no 7/11 to jump queues. There were no elevators where people entering the elevator could push people exiting the elevator further back. There were no mobile phones to look at while bumping into other people. And there were certainly no luk krungs to harass (again, they DO NOT do it to Thai kids).

It is easy to want to have all the latest technology while not adapting to the modern world, and say it’s my culture when it suits you.

Hey Pete, thanks for commenting. Yeah, Thais will go crazy for that, and almost no one will understand that reaching out to touch and pinch a stranger’s baby is uncool with foreigners. I was explaining today to a friend’s wife how the cops would be called if you started doing that too often back home, and she thought it was a bit strange to get so worked up about it. Maybe she’s right, but that’s the way it is. My first suggestion is learn how to say “Please don’t touch her” in Thai. They might think it’s odd behavior, but who cares. Second suggestion is don’t forget that when it comes to who does what to your kid, you have the final say, cultural norms be damned.

Good luck – let me know how it goes after your first few months!

Thanks for posting this. We will be moving to Bangkok with a 1 and 1/2 y/o little blond haired blue-eyed baby girl. I’m trying to prep my patience, trust and sanity for this behavior. I gotta say, the touching and hold would not fly with me.

Hey Lannnig, great counter-point. That’s something I worry about too – no matter what, my son will be ‘different’ than most other kids. Will that cause friction? Will it make him special? Will it get him bullied? There’s also lots to think about with cultural expectations – most Thais think foreigners are rich, so whey they find out his parents are most definitely NOT rich, will they make fun of him? Will they tell him he can’t have an opinion or take part in things because he’s not a real Thai? It’s illogical to us, but kids can be jerks…parents sometimes, too.

Yeah, handing him out to strangers I think is a bit much. In the end, I think a parent has final say over what makes them uncomfortable. It’ll be different for everyone.