Don't Kiss the Baby

From time to time during the years you are a parent your children will embarrass you. I did not have to wait long for the moment as it occurred when my daughter Amber was just eighteen months old. Granted she did not know better but it was still embarrassing to say the least.

My husband was stationed in South Korea at Camp Humphries in 1998 so I took our young daughter over to be with him for a while. Our daughter was just a toddler and pretty much a happy go lucky kid as they often are at that age. Every one from the soldiers stationed there to the South Korean people whose village we lived in just outside post loved this little blonde haired blue eyes smiling girl.

It was nothing to walk down the streets of the small village and have the shop keepers come out to watch the playful little girl as I tried to get her to walk without dancing. One elderly woman really caught the attention of my young daughter. This older woman would play music so that Amber would dance for her, and then she would give Amber a cookie. One particular day, as a friend and I were walking with Amber this elderly woman decided she was comfortable enough and bent down to be eye level with my daughter and she kissed her. My daughter pushed the elderly woman back and took off running. She was screaming no, no, no as she ran on her short stocky legs as fast as she could go to a mud hole.

The elderly woman had been eating Kimchee, which is a very spicy pickled cabbage. When she had kissed Amber on the lips, my daughter had tasted it on her own lips and it was hot. Amber was headed to the mud hole to cool it down I guess, but I reached her before that happened thank God.

My friend helped the elderly woman back to her feet, and quickly caught up with us. This is when I began asking my Korean friends how to say no kissing the baby. It was my first Korean phrase and one I remember to this day, 21 years later.