My husband taking the hat option this time
The first time we took our newly born daughter out for a walk in Shanghai, we caused a minor local sensation. Forget Instagram shots of Kourtney Kardashian breastfeeding in Vegas. Jaws visibly dropped as we sauntered by carrying our daughter – without a hat.
Middle-aged women in quilted jackets rushed to peer into the baby carrier on my husband’s chest.
Just tall enough to peep their eyes into her cocoon, the women’s eyes widened at the sight of our three-day old daughter – hatless, outdoors and alive.
In China, it is considered dangerous to dress a child in an outfit that offers less warmth than a duck-feather duvet.
My new housekeeper confidently explained that we should dress young Scarlett in socks and a sleep-suit until the beginning of June, when the thermometer regularly hits 30 degrees and the humidity soars.
I smiled, and unwrapped my baby from a tight swaddle for the umpteenth time.
It’s also customary for newborns to stay at home with the mother for a month after being born. During this period of ‘confinement’, both will be expected to rest, and any attempts to leave the house are thwarted by well-meaning relatives.
Children can never wear too many layers
Said baby certainly doesn’t go gallivanting around town in a carrier attached to the husband’s chest, without a hat, while mum disappears into the grocers to buy apples.
I mean that’s a recipe for….
Well actually no one knows, because it’s never been tried.
From a few metres away, where I was buying fruit, I watched my husband attempt to navigate the furious exchange of comments happening across his daughter’s head.
Some were convinced my child would get pneumonia. Even though it was 18 degrees out. And that’s not how you get pneumonia.
They were also sure that we must be lying about her age, because no sane parent would take a three-day old baby out for a walk.
“Three months old?” one lady asked him husband repeatedly, gazing in disbelief at Scarlett’s already lengthy body.
“No. Just three days,” he grinned – loving the controversy. (My daughter wasn’t helping matters by being in the 97th percentile for height).
At which point, they pointed again to her bare head and starting making clucking noises, indicating that she should be indoors.
Finally, my husband managed to get away, and we regrouped – only to be surrounded by another matriarchal coven at the next corner.
It’s possible I may well decide never to take my child outside again in China. Well in any case, not without a hat.
