The Baby Whisperer

One of my daughter’s jobs is at a daycare center taking care of infants and toddlers all day. To some people, this would be a nightmare scenario. For them, the joy of not having their own kids is in the fact that they can hand someone else’s child back to them as soon as they make a mess, start getting fidgety or start crying. 

Instead, my daughter has this natural ability to connect with babies and toddlers anywhere she encounters them. Here’s a recent example:

We were in an airport lounge at JFK recently killing time before our flight. My daughter spies a baby and immediately starts engaging with her. She charms the child (who I’ll refer to as Baby X) and the parents and before we know it, these parents have handed my daughter their child and are getting themselves food from the buffet. My daughter brings Baby X over to us to say hello. She has learned that this family is on our flight to Lisbon. 

It gets close to flight time so Baby X gets returned and we head to our gate. Fast forward a few hours until we’re on the plane and I come back from using the bathroom to find my daughter holding Baby X and walking up and down the aisle with her. We all play with Baby X for a while until my daughter brings her back to the parents. 

Hours later we land in Lisbon and run across the same family in baggage claim. My daughter exchanges contact info in case they ever need a sitter in New York (the family is from Texas and was changing planes at JFK). 

Two days of fun sightseeing later and we are in a taxi to go to dinner. My daughter points out the window and says “oooh look, a baby.”  My wife looks and says, “yes, but she’s no Baby X”.  My daughter continues to study the kid and says, “Actually I think it is Baby X!”  She rolls down her window and shouts the mother’s name. The mother turns in the direction of the voice and my daughter says “It’s me, the woman from the airport.”

The mother, who is holding Baby X, runs over to where our cab is stopped at a light. Baby X sees my daughter at this point and gives her a huge smile! They chat for a second, the light changes, we wave goodbye and off we go to dinner, all amazed at what just happened. 

I use this story as an example of the kind of thing that happens to my daughter all of the time. People she has just met hand her their babies quite frequently. It must be that they sense her calm, confident way around babies and they know their child is in good hands. Such is the life of a baby whisperer. 

Thanks for reading. 

Frosty