To say a quick thank-you to the brand-new mum in M&S cafe yesterday.

[Iffy2014]

Just in case she's an MNer!

Took my 88-year-old granny out to town for a walk around the shops and into M&S cafe yesterday. Whilst we were eating, you came in with your partner and four-day-old son (gorgeous). You were sat right behind my gran's seat, so she could hear the baby, but didn't want to turn around and make a nuisance of herself by butting into your cup of tea.

Cue lots of cooing from the rest of the customers/staff, naturally!

As you got up to leave with your baby, you brought him over to my gran for her to see him properly, and let her touch his tiny little hand. It's been a long time since we've had a baby in our family, and it clearly made my gran very happy to be introduced to someone else's little bundle (she raved about the "'andsome boy"! she'd seen for the next hour or two).

To the very new mum of this gorgeous little boy: thank you for sharing him for just a moment, when you were busy enjoying a day out with your new little one. You brightened up an old lady's day, and I hope you and your son and partner had a lovely day yourselves enjoying being a new family.

It's not only elderly ladies that like to say hello to new babies, but if you're not elderly you do sometimes feel the need to only take furtive glances from a 'safe' distance, in case the parents get funny with you.

When DD was about a week old, we went for a day out in Northallerton. We went for a meal in a pub and had to share a table with some other folks. The grandmother was cooing over DD so I offered a hold and the old lady cried because 'Nobody ever lets you do that anymore'. That made me feel so fantastic (especially since I was suffering from a traumatic birth and undiagnosed PND!)
DD also became the best paid baby since everybody seemed to give her money after a cuddle

Mind sharing the location of the cafe?

I quite enjoy staking out places that older ladies frequent as it tends to mean I get to eat hot food

That cheered me up. Thank you for sharing.

Awww that's lovely

I was in a shop with DS in a sling a few days ago (he's 7.5 months so not a little baby anymore), and in one of the aisles was a woman who appeared to be a carer/helper for a man with what appeared to be some learning/mental difficulties/disabilities. (No offence intended whatsoever if I have used an in correct turn of phrase so please forgive if I have)

The man turned to the woman and excitedly told her there was a baby, wondered what his name was. I was only a few feet away so went closer, said hi and told him DS name. Had a brief chat with them both, the man waved at DS and "chatted" to him. We then all carried on what we were doing.

We ended up leaving the shop at the same time and the carer/helper quietly said to me "thank you. Letting X see the baby and talk to him has made his day"

Made me all warm and fuzzy

Was close to tears anyway and this op has finished me off
I'm happy that your gran was happy. And I know the new mum would have loved her baby being admired so win win for everyone.

No whattheseithakasmean - not "disapproving" - just 'surprised' as I said. I would not have had the energy. Even after I relatively normal birth I felt shatterd and fairly weak for a couple of weeks. I was 37 though so that might explain it!

That is lovely. I'm also always happy when strangers want to interract with my littlies - I enjoy seeing the pleasure it brings to both but MN always seems a bit sniffy about strangers wanting to interract or touch ,(shock horror) babies or treating babies as a parcel.

I gave birth to DS2 at 7.15 a.m. and was in the pub soft play with him (and his elder siblings if course - I wasn't shoving him down a slide by himself or anything) by 2.15 pm. seemed less dull than us all sitting around the house.

Aww squishy that's lovely!! we took the dsc's and dd swimming over the summer and the local day centre had taken their clients too and I was disgusted by the number of people who were making snide comments and keeping their distance, most had some degree of autism (I was chatting to one of the carers) although there were a couple who had down syndrome. I was with dd in the spa pool (she had just turned 1) and one of the autistic men was fascinated. he was talking to his carer about the "pretty baby" and that he wanted to hold her hand, his carer was telling him no and explaining why not so I said hello to him and introduced dd and said I was sure she would very much like to hold his hand too. the man had the biggest Cheshire cat grin going afterwards and his carer chatted to me for ages saying thank you. we bumped into them later in McDonald's and the autistic man went and fetched dd a highchair for me and a balloon for all 3 kids. he was lovely

My beloved Nan had Alzheimer's and died the week before my first was born. She kept forgetting I was pregnant, and I'll never forget the joy on her face every time she was told. I miss my Nan. She so enjoyed babies. My 3 kids would have loved her :(

I love it when old people get a cuddle. Ds was about 4 months and we were at our local library. A couple took him round to look at all the pictures and were so happy hey could do it. Lovely that this family stopped to let their ds say hello.

This has made me cry, I really hope that there are more people like you Wheresthelight when my autistic daughter is an adult.

Lovely :)

Aw what a lovely thing for that new mum to do!

ll12 I really don't understand people's fear of autistic people. the brother of my best friend growing up was autistic so it never occurs to me to treat people with it any differently. I think it is important that it people's reaction is as normal as possible as it's far less disturbing for the sufferer that way. I hope your daughter grows up into a more understanding society than has been around!

Such a lovely heart-warming change from the 'OMG an old woman touched my baby' horror stories we sometimes see here (and which I can never even come close to understanding) - Thanks OP - nice of you to share

Aw :)

Lovely story.

When I was born, my Mother made my Father drive her to the nearest 'old man's' pub on the way back from the hospital because she was desperate for a glass of Guinness!

This may make her sound awful but, my Mother doesn't enjoy alcohol at all, normally.She's always the driver if my parents go out, hates being around drunk people, sometimes has one glass of wine on special occasions but that's it.

She said she'd been craving Guinness all the way through pregnancy but daren't have one, and as soon as I was out I had to be dragged to a pub just so she could have her wish. Apparently my Dad sat there with me, with her with (as she puts it) 'her big fat belly sticking out' and a few old men came up to admire the newborn and my Dad said he went from feeling very awkward to very proud.

It's one of my fave tales. Sorry to hijack your thread, OP :)

I went shopping with my daughters were they were 13 hours old and 36 hours old...

In hindsight probably not the best idea but DP and I wanted to show them off! One of his friends was shocked that DD1 (5lb 12oz) was actually real!

I also had to get them to the GP by the time they were 72 hours old as they were born at home.

With DS I went out when he was about 5 days old as I was a clueless, single parent and had stayed in hospital until he was 2 days old.

I went for a pub meal with my family when DS was 4 days old!

I did a big supermarket shop when PFB was 2 days old. DS was 2 weeks late so needed to, DH has never been good with shopping.

I nice story I bet it made nan a very happy women.