Ignorance is bliss they say, but even though Chris could not understand much of the conversation going on around him, his blood pressure soared as a scene of chaos greeted us.
Having made a grand entrance, Hannah was the immediate centre of attraction. Known as a baby-loving clan, several great aunts instantly swirled around the infant carrier, even whilst Chris was struggling to set it up in the stroller.
An elderly great aunt, obviously not familiar with the 5-in-1 contraption of stroller/ infant car seat/ infant carrier/ rocker and feeding seat looked in disdain at us. The instructions shot out steadily (translated from Hokkien):
“Are you sure she’s comfortable in that?” (despite the fact that Hannah was sleeping soundly)
“Why are there all these straps? Look, it’s leaving red marks on her skin. Take it off!” (off went the safety belts)
“She’s feeling cold, quickly cover her with something.” (a clean nappy cloth was thrown over her legs)
“Why is her head in a funny angle? Can you adjust this thing so she’s more comfortable?” (I had to insist Hannah was feeling perfectly comfortable by now)
Thankfully, Hannah slept soundly through lunch, cleverly avoiding being passed around from one person to another. Still, she was ‘exhibit A’, and could not avoid viewings from relatives, with the occasional poking and pinching.
It became slightly unbearable when my aunts turned the attention to me.
“Have you been drinking enough DOM?”
“Don’t eat that! It’s too ‘cooling’ for you” (dessert was a delicious-looking honey dew sago with ice cream)
“I thought you were not supposed to eat spicy foods?”
And so the afternoon went by with an almost constant barrage of well-meaning comments on how I should be taking care of Hannah and myself, and of course, comments about breastfeeding.
No comments:
Post a Comment