To feel angry when strangers touch my dd?

[IcingOnTheCake]

My dd is 10mths and it's lovely when people say how cute and pretty she is but why do they feel the need to touch her? People touch her hands, arms and face and i really don't like it. I just want to push them away and shout 'don't touch my baby!', i wouldn't do that of course, i just stand there and feel angry.

It always happens in supermarkets, especially at the checkout. Am i just a grump or is it ok for me to not want strangers touching my dd?

Hence the discussion. Duh!

spandex, you sound tense

LOL yes it's definitely cultural, only the mad WASP nations have a problem with this.

pmsl at the idea of a baby needing its personal space.

Needs its laptop too, you know.

Incidentally, Kathy was right about the not patting children on the head in some countries - this was one of the first things my diplomat BIL learned when he went to Thailand. The head is the most honourable part of the body & should not be touched by anyone else's hand. Nor should you ever point your foot at anyone - you have to be very careful when crossing your legs, as it means you are showing contempt. Also Thais find it rather repulsive (although they are normally too polite to say so) if you dry your feet with the same towel as the rest of your body.
Our ideas about what is 'acceptable' are not necessarily applicable everywhere...

Unless you're on Mumsnet and then you're not allowed to have a different point of view without being insulted.

I was waiting in the doctors with LO in my arms (around 9 months old at the time) and this woman (who I had never seen before) came up to me and took hold of DS round the chest, yanked him and said "come to me". I had to snatch him back. I would never touch/take a strangers baby although I would admire him/her. Your baby, your choice, YANBU!

You're clearly uptight and anally retentive crokky and you have ishoos. Lighten up.

This is still going??

The OP asked:

'Am i just a grump or is it ok for me to not want strangers touching my dd?'

One by one, shall we answer Icing?

I'll start.

It's ok for you not to want strangers touching your dd. I have a different opinion on 'touching by strangers' but it's ok for us to differ.

lol pointydog - was thinking the very same

I dont really mind people touching my youngest but what annoys me is when they ignore the older one. My 2 are the most friendliest 4 year old and 10 months old you could meet, they say hello and make noises at complete strangers so sometimes i feel obliged to let them touch and talk

This thread has me.

I am 31, not an 'old lady' I thank you. I dare to touch babies, children all the time.I've never before given it a second thought. If I see a chubby face smiling at me at the checkout, I stroke it. I often clasp a newborns hand whose parents I don't know.

I will think twice about it now.

What a shame.

TBH I think people should think twice about touching babies etc. It's rather presumptious to assume it's ok.

I was only too pleased when strangers cooed and touched my children.

Having children gave me, among many other things, a renewed faith in human kindness. People, strangers stopped and talked to me. They asked about my baby. I had not experienced this before. I couldn't get around Tesco without someone wanting to discuss my babies. It was wonderful. Touching them and holding them was all part of that. I couldn't ever imagine feeling hostile towards someone who wanted to, in a very small way, share my joy.

agree with Joan. Its amazing how much more you talk to people when you have a baby.

I think you'll find some parents will have something to say about it!

I really wonder why this is such a big deal for the baby grabbers?

Quote Princess Goodlife:

It's ok for you not to want strangers touching your dd. I have a different opinion on 'touching by strangers' but it's ok for us to differ.

It's not 'such a big deal' WW. This is a discussion board, non?

I do understand that some people don't want their children touched. I just think they're odd that's all .

Cool. It's just that there has been a lot of unnecessary hostility on this thread that bothered me.

No hostility from me intended Winky, just lots of gratuitous touching

DO none of the baby-groping idiots ever think that someone's DC might have a compromised immune system? Or, conversely, might be infectious? It's not friendly overtures in general that annoy me, it's people who not only get right up in your personal space despite your backing away, avoiding eye contact and indicating in every possible way that you don't want them to bother you, but it's the fact that so many of the twunts think that their pushiness is somehow superior to other people's 'coldness'

If you are one of these gruesome slobbering touchy-feely people, at least pause for a minute and check that someone isn't giving off a go-away signal before you actually lunge at them or their LO with your sticky paws. It's not at all unreasonable to be expected to KEEP YOUR F* HANDS TO YOURSELF.

I was on the tube today when there were a foreign couple with the most huge chubby baby boy. He was very very cute, then 2 other foreign women had been watching him from the other end of the carriage came up, asked if they could take a photo and then pinched his cheek. The parents lapped it up, the dad was busy clicking his fingers trying to get the baby attention for the photo.

It was lovely to watch, but I do wonder how some of the people on this thread would have handled it.

My DS is half Arabic - we took him to Syria to visit relatives and there was much cheek pinching (gentle obv!) and head patting in the shops - I loved it - total proud mummy moment!