The Genevoise's reaction to children has been something of a culture clash. There appears to exist an open invitation to chat to children one doesn't know and to pat them on the head. Everywhere we go this rule is applied. In supermarkets especially the people chat to the children, the only response I can give, in French, is "She's a year old and she's three, we've only lived in Geneva a month". Yesterday when we were walking on a bit of a narrow path, we stopped to let an old man overtake us. Considering it was nearly tea time, and it was heaving down with rain, the time he took to chat to my girls could have been better spent by all of us.
Still, it makes a change from what I'm used to, in the UK the most a child in a buggy might get is the occasional nod and a smile. On an everyday basis a parent is content if they don't get tutted at and aren't forced to take militant action just to progress down the high street.
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