A young couple I met on the boat
I know it is not good to pass judgement when travelling, that everyone, everywhere has their own way of doing things. But while I was going through my trip photos I came across this photo and I remembered something that had stuck in my memory.
It was while Katie and I were doing a two day boat trip along the Mekong River from Laos that Katie had asked to do. On the second day this young couple from a small village we stopped at boarded the boat and they had a tiny baby of only about two months old. This baby would not stop crying and they were desperately trying to rock him to sleep. They were so young and they had anxiety, care and concern written all over their faces. I was so touched by how attentive they were over their son.
They took it in turns to try and rock him to sleep, but their method consisted of shaking him up and down in a very fast vertical fashion which had no effect at all. The more the baby screamed and the more they shook him the more attention they got from the boats other passengers, which in turn made them make a more concerted effort in trying to shake their son to sleep. As a westerner with a child of my own it was hard to watch and not pass judgement on other parents who were, I am positive, doing what they thought best. In England there is so much media attention about shaking babies, that I found it a real lesson in stepping back and not being judgemental against those who do things in a very different way to the way I have been conditioned to.
That poor baby!