Babies and Buses

Yesterday, as I was making my way home from the National Library on the 24A*, a woman boarded my bus with a baby in a stroller. She glanced around at the other passengers, and her eye landed on me. She then took her baby out of the stroller, plopped him in my lap with an offhanded, "Hold him for a sec," and proceeded to pay the driver, collapse and secure the stroller and adjust her shoulder bag. The whole process took about two minutes, after which she sat down next to me and took the baby back with a casual, "Thanks."

A few minutes later, noticing that I was making funny faces at the baby, she asked me, "Do you have experience with kids?"

Now, maybe I'm just an uptight American, but...isn't that the kind of question that you ask someone before you plop your baby in her lap? Moreover, isn't it a bit dangerous to hand your baby over to a total stranger on a bus? For all the mother knew, I could have had a highly contagious disease, or been a crazed baby-napper!

While I was mulling this over, I noticed another mother get on the bus and go through the same process, handing her baby to a middle-aged woman before paying the driver and securing her stroller. I wonder if this is just the accepted practice in the particular neighborhood...?

*Note: As I later discovered, this was the wrong bus to choose. Unlike the 24, the 24A doesn't get to my neighborhood. If you're ever trying to get to my apartment from the National Library, take the 9 into town and switch to the 4, the 4A or the 21.