Three of us hopped onto an empty songthaew in Chiang Mai. Or we thought it was empty until we noticed a tiny girl, maybe four, sitting in a shadow near the front. Our Thai friend, a teacher in his thirties, was in the midst of explaining something. Without a pause he reached over and pulled the child onto his lap. She leaned back into his chest. He kept talking. Both seemed entirely comfortable. The driver was most likely her dad, but he never looked back to check on her.
In America the child would have been trained to pull away and yell “bad touch!” The driver would be suspected of neglect, and the teacher of abuse.
Since that songthaew ride I’ve seen many examples of Thais watching out for other people’s kids, and the kids taking it for granted. I’d try it myself, except that unfamiliar kids can get nervous around huge pink skinned grandpas who speak worse Thai than they do.
Living small means paying attention. There aren’t layers of protection and regulation surrounding every encounter, just common sense and knowing who to trust.