Why Parents Love Thai Baby Snatchers

I was having lunch with a couple of friends who both have young children when all of a sudden one of them looks around to the right, to the left, then swivels round in her seat to look behind her. "Where is the baby?" she asks, bewildered. It seemed that in the second she had turned to say something to one of us, her baby had disappeared. She was in her high chair, with no way of getting down on her own. If we were in almost any other part of the world, we'd all have panicked, searched the restaurant and called the police, fearful that someone had abducted the six month year old girl. Not here. "One of the waiting staff must have gone off with her," the mother said, and carried on with the conversation she had started earlier.

The reason for this woman's nonchalance when faced with the disappearance of her baby daughter is that it happens all the time in Thailand. As I have mentioned before in this blog, the Thais love children and are particularly fascinated with western babies. They think nothing of running after them with a camera, taking shot after shot of a child they don't know, or trying to cuddle a small child they've never met before. Similarly, the staff at restaurants and bars will pick up your baby or toddler and walk off with them. They would never take them out of the premises but will walk into the kitchen with them, for all the kitchen staff to fawn over, or over to a fish tank, pointing to the fish swimming around, or they'll just wander around with them, rocking them in their arms.

I expect it's probably a shock the first time it happens but after you realise that they're not going to run off with your child, it's actually rather nice. The child is kept contented and enjoys the attention that the staff will undoubtedly lavish on him or her, and the parents get to have a relaxing meal. The staff love it too - playing with other people's cute little children is far more enjoyable than clearing tables. It's a win-win-win situation.