Which countries lavish love on young children?

[JiveLady]

I went to Palermo in Sicily with my 14 month old a few years ago and it was genuinely like walking down the street with Brad Pitt. Cars stopped, nonnas waved from balconies, a shout of "Bellisimo!" followed us everywhere we went. I'd love to experience that collective adoration with my second child and I was wandering if anyone could recommend any other destinations that adore young children?

Wtf 😂

Cyprus

Tuscany?

The proprietors of a restaurant paid for us to get a taxi back to our accommodation and sent the grandmother in the cab with us so she could sit with our daughter on the ride 😂😂 totally amazing!!

Naples - never experienced anything like it.

I second Cyprus. They love children and so many restaurants have little play areas for families. They also love and dote on older people too. I think they are just massively family oriented which is really lovely!

My baby had this in Sicily. It's a blond thing ain't it? You're never going to find anywhere better than Italy for adoring children, nor anywhere worse than Italy for actually providing child friendly services and facilities. (We were once given a sack of flour when we asked for a highchair.)

Japan.

Costa Rica - everyone loved DS (not blonde!), and it's the little things like serving staff always made sure they put plates with hot things or cutlery out of his reach (as well as always saying hello to him and taking him for a tour around the restaurant of course).

Greece or Cyprus

Lived in Cyprus for a couple of years. The proprietor of a local restaurant genuinely seemed to love every child... he would make one their favourite meal even if it wasn't on the list that day, gave them free lollies and ice cream, sponsored local sports teams... even knew loads of their names.

Greece

Nowhere is quite as adoring as Italy (someone picked up my ((blonde)) DD and kissed her in a shop in Puglia) but Greece loves the kids. And Spain likes them, but if you want screaming fans go to Italy again.

Yes we were in Rhodes with an toddler - in a restaurant she was whisked away from us so we could eat and passed round all the staff - including all the chefs so they could say hello. It was kind of bemusing and a little bit worrying but everyone very happy.

I didn't get the love in Sicily or Italy (we had a 2yo & 4yo at time) but Spain... people would cross the road to coo over baby DS. :-)

People in Spain/the Spanish adored my 2 blonde, blue-eyed DC. And also when we were in New York, USA, they got some adoring looks and compliments. Also happened occasionally in Greece and Portugal too.

Turkey. Children are kings and Queens. There's a children's day, a national holiday. Everyone is cooing and loving the kids. And keeping an eye on them. Played with them in restaurants, cafes, everyone giving sweets, cuddles. Naughty? Not a problem. Viewed as what bright kids do.

Italy, Spain, Greece, vast swathes of Latin America (possibly due to the Spanish influence?)

Agree with pp though, top of the list has to be Italy, especially rural Italy. They seem to (quite rightly I think) believe every single child is the most incredible and lovely thing they have ever seen and couldn't possibly not immediately love them. They do expect them to fit in around the adults though.

Denmark are less gushing but are surprisingly child friendly practically speaking

I think having little blonde children means a greater possibility of amusingly/weirdly (depends on your take) adoring reactions off strangers. I recall the crowd of elderly Brazilian tourists who couldn’t get enough of my 3 very blonde nieces, they were so excited that it was like a celebrity had been spotted! I am definitely not blonde, and after realizing what the commotion was about I thought it was very interesting (do Swedish* people get excited over kids with black hair?).

In general, people are very tolerant and kind to strangers’ young children in Bali and Thailand. Some visitors dislike when cabin crew or restaurant staff make a fuss over their children, or offer to carry the baby during a meal, but it is the culture and a gracious, polite refusal should be learnt.

*I am making a huge assumption that blonde is the norm in Sweden, of course!

Singapore! They whisked my dark haired 18month old away and gave him a tour of the kitchen. First time, I was ready to leap up and get him back, but no one else seemed to worry about it.

He was particularly beautiful- was made a fuss of here, too.

Italy but with American tourists in Italy also going particularly wild for DS

My sister was white blonde age 4. Whenever we went out in Turkey she drew a crowd. They all wanted to touch her hair and hug her.

A bit niche for a holiday but a lot of the Arab nations love children. I remember on a Saudi flight to Saudi Arabia my 2 year old was being an absolute nightmare screaming and melting down (over tired/ poorly) and the stewardess came and took her off me. I think she thought a friendly stranger might help the situation and calm her down looking out the window in the galley but DD just went absolutely ballistic being taken out of my arms. She brought her back after a couple of minutes and said in broken English “why does she not shut up?” 🤣🤣

Another vote for Italy.

We took DS on holiday to Tuscany when he was about 3. He had a head of blonde curls at at the time and looked particularly angelic.
So many people greeted him saying ciao, bello that he thought it was how you said hello to everyone in Italy and he started saying it back when anyone said it to him. (Male or female!)
Luckily they were totally charmed. It was quite sweet, to be fair.

South Africa.
Myanmar.
Indonesia.