Yesterday I was out and about, and in one business there was a woman with a little girl, about 5 years old, in tow at the register. The little girl was staring at me. I noticed and looked her way, at which point she waved excitedly at me. I waved back and she was so thrilled when I did that she started jumping up and down, yanking on her mom’s jacket.
Years ago I had a friend whose son, who was around 4 or 5 at the time, would get so excited every time he’d see me that he’d start yelling “My cowboy!” and run to me to show me the toy he was carrying or tell me some important news.
That sort of thing has been common.
I’ve never been a “kid person”, but they have always been drawn to me anyway. Often when I didn’t think I had the time or inclination to engage with them.
People have told me that it may be because I don’t talk down to kids. And I’m willing to do things like show them how I make fires without a lighter, pick apart owl pellets to find bones, or look at bugs under a magnifying glass. Things they aren’t normally exposed to by “normal” adults.
The same things that catch the interest of kids have often made adults unable to connect with me. Or so it seems.
In my experience most adults would rather talk about their team— sportsball or politics. Things I can’t really discuss intelligently (by their standards), and which quickly bore me anyway.
However, that sometimes changes when a kid’s parent sees whatever I’m showing their child through their child’s eyes. Suddenly they are open to something they wouldn’t have been open to before. I’ve made friends this way, when I probably wouldn’t have been able to get to know the parent otherwise.
And, even in other cases, I hope I’ve made some positive impact on the kid. Maybe given them a spark of curiosity they wouldn’t have had otherwise.
Or, even just brightened their day because an adult took notice and waved back.
You remind me of my great-uncle Ray, who was a teacher and later a college professor. I loved visiting him and my aunt (also a teacher) when I was a kid, because he was always up for showing us cool things like that, such as identifying fossils in stones, how to catch crayfish, study bugs and wildflowers, identify the constellations, and so on. There was always a sense of adventure with him, and, like you, he never talked down to us. If he happened to use a word we didn't understand, he would explain it and make sure we did understand it. (My mother always encouraged me to correspond with them, and Aunt Jean often sent my letters back with hers, corrected in red ink, of course. Between the two of them, my vocabulary grew quickly.)
ReplyDeleteYour uncle sounds fun; your aunt I'm not so sure about. I think I might have sent some letters in Hillbilly-ese just to see what she would have done.
DeleteOh, Aunt Jean was just as much fun, really. She taught me grammar, spelling, history and mathematics when I was little. I always enjoyed visiting with both of them, because they could be silly at the same time they were teaching you things. That whole side of the family was a bit pixilated - in a good way, of course. And I found out years later that the corrections in red ink was actually my mother's idea. She was always looking for ways to challenge me to learn more.
DeleteLittle kids do seem to have an instinct about whom to trust. So do dogs.
ReplyDeleteCats may too, but when one tries to make friends with me I disappoint him or her; I have a cat-hair allergy so have to push them away. It must confuse the feline species.