Elon James White doesn't mind when strangers compliment how cute his child is. What he does mind, however, is when strangers begin touching his child.
In a video uploaded last week to his YouTube series, Daddy Game Proper, White laid out exactly why it's so weird for strangers to suddenly start touching his baby without permission.
“As a loving caring father, I’m asking society, could you stop touching my baby?” he says in the video. "Admittedly, my child is adorable. Let's have that moment. I love when people tell me my child is adorable. What I don't always love is the follow-up."
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The instinct to reach out and touch an adorable baby is totally understandable. But as White asks, "If you wouldn’t touch a stranger, why do you feel like you should touch a child?"
"It’s such a weird thing to me, because I see babies all the time and I don’t think 'I should touch this child,'" he told The Huffington Post. "And after mentioning it to other parents there seemed to be a shared 'ugh!' about this. Similar to women having their belly’s touched during pregnancy. Stop touching people, big or small, without permission!"
As White points out, it also puts the parent of the child in an uncomfortable position.
"It's really awkward when someone is clearly being happy, like 'oh my god it's a baby! Hi baby!'" he said. "I don't want to be a dick to you. But at the same time, you're touching my baby. Stop touching my child, I don't know where you've been."
It's true that people often feel entitled to touching babies as well as pregnant women's bellies. While it can seem irresistible to touch and kiss a cute baby that you see, remember that it may not be sanitary, and even lead to health problems for the baby. And if you really want to play with the baby, at least make sure to ask permission first.