me, helping a little girl pick out a locket at the shop: do you usually like to wear goldtone or silvertone?
little girl: I like silver because of Artemis, the goddess of the moon and the hunt and also she’s a warrior and she never got married.
me, internally: never let the world change you
btw this was only a partial listing of the many Artemis facts imparted to me by this very good small child. I told her Athena was always my favorite so she also told me some Athena facts.
her dad gave me a look like ‘thank u for being patient’ and I tried to convey with mostly eyebrow moments ‘oh please I WAS this kid, only for ancient Egypt and also Marguerite Henry books’ but i’m not sure it got across
I just blocked at least three people in the notes on this for being snidely superior calling it fake.
REALLY? Really?
It’s that fucking difficult to believe “a child who was interested in Greek Mythology talked about it enthusiastically with an adult who was paying attention to her”? And then the parent appreciated that the other adult was nice to his kid?
THAT’S your cut-off for unbelievable?
Do you know zero children, or are you just being a dick on purpose? Or were you just a boring-ass kid? OR are you just a dick to children who try to engage with you?
My husband teases me because I will unintentionally make friends with children in public ALL THE TIME. LITERALLY all it takes is if a kid says something to you, even of you already know about it, you go “wow, really?” And smile and nod while they excitedly gibber away.
Most kids aren’t used to adults listening to them. If you show (or feign) genuine interest with what a kid is talking about, letting them feel smart and knowledable for a few minutes, you have won them over FOREVER.
That sounds really damn creepy. Not gonna lie. You’re an adult you have no right talking to strange children.
I don’t really know how to explain to you that not every interaction between adults and children is inherently predatory? Like, for example, standing in line next to a family in Disney World and having a kid talk to you about Oswalt the Rabbit while their mother stands next to him isn’t “really creepy.” It’s a normal human interaction, particularly if you view kids as, like…people? Sometimes kids will try to talk to you, even if they don’t know you, and there are appropriate and normal ways to respond to kids when they do.
But, if YOU feel like YOU can’t interact with children without being creepy, then by all means, please avoid doing so.
in JUST Disney World I would just GIVE kids Trading Pins that I bought in bulk on line. Like, in line to meet Phineas and Ferb two kiddos were eyeing me and my SO’s lanyards and we traded pins (they wouldn’t let me just give them pins). There was a kiddo who was in front of us for the rivers of Pandora ride who was legit freaking out. Her parents were just screaming at her to be calm. I knelt and asked who her favorite Disney character was (it was goofy and I said she had good taste) and I told her I’d give her a pin, any except the like two I’d gotten that day that I was VERY attached to, if she promised to be brave and ride the ride with us. she rode, she was brave, she got a pin, and she didn’t scream or cry anymore.
Most kids get talked to like they are dumb. If you treat kids like they aren’t complete dummies they become so fulfilled! I was that kid. I was MILES smarter than other people I knew, and my mom to this day tells her friends that “[I] has a fun fact for everything”. Sharing and learning things are so important and treating kiddos like what they say matters is even moreso.
The comments be like
[Image ID: An Onion headline that says, “Newly Discovered DNA Evidence Suggests Children Could Be Closely Related To Humans” /End ID]
As a parent too can I just say this is a fucking godsend. An adult who engages with your child when you’re operating on half an hour’s sleep for the past six weeks and have only been able to manage monosyllables to the person you love most in the world (your kid) because of that when someone treats them kindly, when someone gives them some attention that isn’t a tired “yes honey?” It can make that kid’s day and by knock on make the day a thousand times better for their parent too.
For fuck’s sake. Smile at babies in supermarket trollies, you might manage to postpone the tantrum they were about to throw by a few seconds and mean mum or dad will get home without a migraine. There are parents out there that would give OP a thousand bucks because of the joy they gave that kid, that kid will talk about the “nice person in the shop” for WEEKS, they will also probably remember them for life.
Children deserve to interact with people of all ages positively. Some of the people in these comments should not be allowed to have them.
if you think it’s creepy for adults to talk to children just on the basis of them being adults and children then please never have or be near children.
