Batgung

Mr Tall,

Thanks for the suggestion. Mrs B has two older sisters and four older brothers, so we're never going to be short of a running commentary on what we're doing wrong. Thankfully all manner of things we do can be explained away with a quick "Oh, that's just the way foreigners do things".

I can see that having a baby opens up plenty more opportunities to ponder the differences between East and West. eg I'm allowed to compliment Baby B in English - all the usual "Who's a beautiful baby" comments - but not in Chinese !

As for dealing with "helpful" advice from strangers, one of the baby books we have gives great advice :
- Smile.
- Thank the giver for their thoughtful advice.
- Ignore whatever you just heard.

Works for me !

Mr B.