Server Offers To Hold Couple's Baby While They're Eating To Give Them A Break
The kind gesture happened in Japan, where people seem much more accepting of kids in public.
Halfpoint | Shutterstock Going out with a baby can be a daunting task. There are so many things you have to remember and take care of. Gone are the days of quickly running out the door and throwing caution to the wind.
One couple went through the experience of not just going out to dinner with their infant, but traveling internationally with her as well. While it must have been overwhelming, one kind woman stepped in to make things a little easier on them.
A server in Japan offered to hold a couple’s baby while they ate so they could have a small break.
TikTok content creator Maggie Boynton identified herself as a 24-year-old first-time mom in her bio. She and her husband recently took a trip to Japan, which went viral on the app, all because of their then-four-month-old daughter.
Boynton, who regularly shares content that includes her young daughter, posted a video showing her and her husband eating out at a restaurant on their trip to Japan. In the video, Boynton is sitting and eating a bowl of noodles while a server carries her daughter around the restaurant, bouncing her on her hip.
Boynton shared just what had happened and how much it meant to her in text she inserted on the video. “I was out to eat with my husband in Japan when the waitress came up to us and asked if she could hold our baby so that we could have a moment to eat together,” she explained. “She has no idea how much this meant to me because I was so overwhelmed, and even just 10 minutes for us to enjoy our meal was all I needed.”
Boynton captioned the video, “Can’t explain how much this truly meant to me.” The server, who had done the kind deed, seemed to be having just as much fun as the parents who had gotten a break, smiling while she showed the baby around her workplace.
This wasn’t the only time Boynton’s baby stole the show while they were in Japan.
In a separate video, Boynton shared just how much of a splash her baby, Gigi, made while they were in the foreign country. “POV: You take your four-month-old baby to Japan,” she said in the video. She captioned it, “Let’s just say Gigi’s been a star.”
Random people could be seen looking on in shock as they encountered Gigi. People shook her hand, asked to hold her, passed her around, took photos of her, and gathered in large numbers just to watch her.
Commenters left sweet sentiments on the video, with one TikToker saying, “Japan adopted your baby,” to which Boynton replied, “Yes.”
“It’s not your baby anymore, it’s the whole country’s baby,” another said. A third person added, “[I] will never skip a video of foreigners’ babies being adored by the locals of another country.” Clearly, little Gigi made quite the impression everywhere she went in Japan, with the locals fawning over her. The fact that their server went so far as to allow the parents to have a peaceful, baby-free meal showed true compassion on her part.
People speculated about why the Japanese locals were so enchanted by Gigi.
One common theme that came up in comments across Boynton’s two videos was that Japan has a low birth rate, so seeing babies is something of a rarity there. It seems that there is truth to this theory. According to CBS News, Japan’s population hit an all-time high in 2018 at 128 million. Since then, the number has been shrinking.
The Associated Press reported that 720,998 babies were born last year in Japan. This is the lowest number since 1899, when Japan first started cataloging the annual births. As Japan prepares for its population to tumble to 87 million by 2070, it’s no wonder that the sight of a healthy new life would excite citizens so much.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
