What to Know When Visiting New Parents (From Bali With Love)

Becoming a mother has made me look at many things differently and one thing I have noticed is the difference in cultures. 

I, being American, am now living in Indonesia. Having a new baby at home to new parents is definitely handled differently here in more ways than I have time to blog about.

Back in America, if a friend or family member has a baby, the people very close to you, visit you at the hospital or birthing center. Once home, visitors start to come by to see the baby and often times, bring a gift for the baby. If you have good, close friends, they will call before they come, see if you need them to pick something up, maybe even bring you something to eat or look after the baby while you get a shower and freshen up. 

Here, all that I knew before was hurled out the window. :) Luckily, I've already adapted to the lifestyle here so I already anticipated this chain of events before giving birth to my daughter in February. Here, people stop by to see you, anywhere between your first day back home up until the first week home. Generally, people do not call and come by at random hours day or night and here, it is customary to serve your quests snacks/food and coffee no matter the time of day or reason for their visit People may stay most of the day, may even take a nap at your house and not even hold the baby while they are there. :)

SO, having experienced all of this, I found something that made me smile and I wanted to share it with you. 

I recently came across an article titled, 10 Things To Know When Visiting New Parents. It is written by a man, after becoming a new father, and is absolutely true and quite hilarious the way he details and words his reasons. Here are my 2 favorites:

#6. Be on time. It is quite a big production to prep a baby for visitors; tasks include: timing the feeding so that the baby’s in a good mood for you, changing her, cleaning her and calming her; and, let’s not forget the work involved with the parents trying to decently spruce up themselves and the home. If you’re late 30 minutes, it’s like tossing half of that work out the window..

#4. Bring food! The best gift for new parents is food. That’s prepared food period, whether purchased or homemade; new parents have little, if any, time to cook while occupied feeding, changing, nursing, walking and rocking the wailing li’l chim chim.

You can find the full list of Things to Know When Visiting New Parents HERE.

Enjoy!