Babies and Commonalties

To be honest, I'm not a kid person. This really shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who knows me. Sure, I find babies adorable, and sometimes I do want to hold them or make funny faces and make them laugh but I'm not a kid person. I have a friend from college who is a kid person and it's amazing how interesting and adorable she finds all children. Frankly, I only like the cute ones and I like them when they're quiet, but she has patience unending for all kids. Until very recently I thought she was an exception to the general rule (who likes crying kids?) and then I've started to watch my hfmom more closely. It turns out, she's just like Sarah - she's a kid person too! Crying, cute, ugly, sick, happy, giggling, you name it, she'll hold your baby. Maybe, in her case, it's something that comes from having 11-ish (it's bad luck to count your children here so I have no idea exactly how many kids she has but it's between 10 and 11) kids but she, somehow, still has patience that I don't. There's the very real possibility that this is just something every parent has and, due to my age and lack of younger siblings, I haven't come to appreciate children yet. But I'd rather attribute it to universal commonalties.

Even though somethings seem so foreign to me still (cut me some slack I do live in Africa), almost everyday I come across these little things that are the same in any culture. And really this probably isn't an enlightening observation. Maybe it's just that mom's are the same all around the world but sometimes Africa doesn't feel quite as foreign.