Do you feel the same way like I do?

I just have to blog about this. My best friend and her hubby recently returned from a trip to Vietnam. She is currently 5 months pregnant with their first child. They took a lot of very nice photos with great sceneries and photos showing day to day lives of the locals and lots of photos of Vietnam toddlers and kids. My best friend's hubby, I'm going to call him D posted the photos on Facebook and one particular photo caught my attention. This is the one:

When I saw this photo I immediately felt very sad. I posted a comment on the photo which said something like this "love the photos but it makes me feel very sad to see little kids being ill treated, dirty and looks like they were not cared for properly. This is the reason why I cannot visit 3rd world countries as I will definitely cry if I see this in person. You will understand how I feel when you finally become parents', well not in the exact same words but something to that effect.

D disagreed with me and replied to my comment asking me "why cry? these kids are happy. This is how they grow up, this is their lives. Although they are dirty, they are very healthy and hardly sick. Their immune system is very good unlike city kids. You shouldn't feel that way about them" again not the exact words but something to that effect.

I guess they won't understand since they are not parents yet. To me, although the kids are laughing or appear to be happy in the photos, you can't help but realise that they are growing up in such poor conditions. Although this is their lives and this is how they live, they are still kids. They take what they were given, they eat what they were fed with. My point is kids are kids. They don't know how to compare, they are not choosy and they have not seen the world. As a parent from this part of the world, I guess we could call ourselves lucky. Lucky to have homes, lucky to have a clean place to live in, to have good healthy food and to have clean water to drink. We can't help ourselves but to compare how lucky we are over here. I felt pity for them and sad at the same time. I am sure I will cry if I see it with my own 2 eyes. When Hayley had a little scratch on her face, my heart ached until the scratch disappears. I couldn't imagine what I would feel if I see my baby covered in black dirt, putting her dirty fingers in her mouth and not wearing any pants! I don't think I can handle that. Maybe the people in Vietnam cannot afford to look after their kids due to the hardship but my point here is, the photo makes me sad and I don't like to go holidays in places that will make me sad! Maybe some people will say that I am being silly and I will miss going to some of the most beautiful places in the world if I have that kind of a perception. But I can't help it.

Do other mothers out there feel the same way as I do or I am over emotional?

D ended the email saying that when he sees things like this, it makes him love his baby even more. I told him that he doesn't need to go see things like this to love the baby even more. He will unconditionally love the baby the moment she is born - its a she :-). And he would even give his life to her. That is how powerful it is. I guess he would only understand when the day finally arrives.