A question about baby etiquette.

Question

Let's say you happen to come across someone you know somewhere in public, i.e.,a restaurant, grocery store, department store, etc. and they have a baby or even a little child whom you either never meet or even saw before. My question is how do you acknowledge the infant? Do you try talking to it? Do you just tell the parent what a nice child they have? What's the proper thing to say or do?

Personally I'm not that good with children so talking to it would seem kind of strange. But at the same time I feel like I'm being rude if I don't.

Answer 1

I would either start flirting with the baby (e.g. smile, say hi, ask him "what's your name" even if he's too young to actually answer you, etc), or say to the person something along the lines of, "who's this little guy?"  That way, you're not assuming the kid's relationship to the person, and it's easy for them to answer with, "this is my son/nephew/part-time job/whatever."

Answer 2

Well, friend, I'm afraid I would need more information before I could give you a definitive answer: 1. How well do you know the person with the baby?  2. How long has it been since you last saw this person?  3. Is the person with the baby the father or the mother?  4. How old of a child are you talking about - newborn, two or three year old, older?

My father was the oldest in his nuclear family of four siblings - my mother was the second oldest in her family of seven siblings.  Thus I have a lot of younger cousins (some were babies when I was a teenager), several second cousins, and even third cousins and probably some fourth (?) cousins!

I've had a lot of experience with children of all ages in a lot of different situations, especially in my very small hometown of approximately 700+, and in the various, numerous churches we have attended and belonged to over the years.  Some of these churches have had a lot of family activities, picnics, etc.  Our present church of approximately 300+ has dedicated well over 40 babies in the almost eight years of it's existence (we don't practice infant water baptism).  I am one of the few members over the age of 60 (I'm just slightly younger than our pastor's father and the pastor is just a few months older than my older son)!

As a teenager, I babysat for a few different families  and even changed a few diapers as part of my duties(!), as well as changed a lot of my own son's and grandchildren's diapers!

At college, I took more than one course in early childhood development as part of my curriculum.

In conclusion, I am an "old timer", a father, a grandfather, an uncle, a great uncle, etc., with numerous life experiences.  Without actually bragging (yeah, right!), I seem to have had a way with children most of my life, so I might be able to give you more help if you can give me more specific details!