a cute little anecdote about a baby at a grocery store

May 9, 2022 10:17 AM

"i wiggled a mushroom at her and she gasped and kept staring." Single paragraph.
posted by brainwane (55 comments total)

*happy sigh*

My mother is basically The Toddler Whisperer, and is so good at that it got her a job. She started out as a volunteer at my brother's daycare, and then stayed around on a cheap-and-cheerful paid basis - it was easy work, low-stress, and in her wheelhouse. After a few years, there was a job opening with the Child Development Lab at the University of Connecticut, and my father encouraged her to apply - she was hesitant at first (they stated a preference for people with a Masters in Early Childhood Education, and she only had a BFA in painting), but ended up getting the job. She had to promise to at least take the occasional Masters' level COURSE in early childhood education (for free) to satisfy any complainers.

After a few years, they had another job opening, and Mom was one of the panel helping to interview candidates. One woman came in that had all the credentials on paper - the right education, a prestigious school, etc. - but after the interview, everyone was discussing that something about her seemed off - it wasn't a qualification thing, there was some kind of personality thing that no one could really put their finger on. Finally one of the other teachers said, "You know what I think - I just get the sense that she wouldn't ever do something like strike up conversations with little kids in supermarkets."

Mom laughed. "I do that all the time!"

"Yeah, we figured you did," the other woman said. "That's why you got hired."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:27 AM on May 9, 2022 [52 favorites]

Interacting with very little kids is, like, the opposite of my strong suit... unless I can tell what they're fixating on. Given that, it's fun to make 'em giggle.
posted by humbug at 10:34 AM on May 9, 2022 [2 favorites]

Speaking as a parent, I eff'ing LOVE IT when people did this kind of thing with my kid when he was an infant. And, generally, I love it when any well meaning person interacts with and engages with him. He's not as enthusiastic about strangers these days but it just takes a bit of patience to crack his shell open.

If I'm trying to hold my kid's attention because I want him to focus on what I'm telling him, threatening a time-out or whatever other parenting thing I'm doing, give me some space to work. But any other time, especially if I'm splitting my attention between him and some grown up thing like talking to a cashier or doctor or something, please help demonstrate to my kid that the world is mostly full of kind, caring, safe, nice people. To anyone that's ever done this kind of thing with my kid or anyone else's, a sincere thank you. Whether you have kids of your own or not it takes a village and this is one of the most noticeable every-day ways the villagers help raise my kid with me.
posted by VTX at 10:45 AM on May 9, 2022 [35 favorites]

My dad was and still is the grocery shopper in my family and I truly believe that part of what he enjoys about that routine is making babies smile at him. I learned the best baby-smile-procuring techniques from him and it's served me very well in life (basically: turn yourself into a cartoon character) but I have never wiggled produce at a baby and now I'm very happy to have a new tool in my baby-smile arsenal.
posted by lunasol at 10:47 AM on May 9, 2022 [7 favorites]

For the past ten years, I've worked mostly in a grocery store. One of my specialties is entertaining children and babies. Surreptitiously playing hide-and-seek while the parent has no real clue why their child is giggling is one of my favorite things. I don't have children but I enjoy entertaining other people's kids so much.
posted by schyler523 at 10:55 AM on May 9, 2022 [17 favorites]

I enjoy messing with young kids' minds (in a gentle and humorous way).

I wear prescription glasses, so I wear clip-on sunglasses that flip up when I don't need them. One sunny day I had just flipped them up as I entered the grocery store; a young child (maybe 4 or 5?) who was leaving the store with his grandfather saw me do it and was clearly astonished - wide eyes, open round mouth, the whole bit. So of course I had to stop and flip them down and up a few more times! His grandfather and I shared a chuckle, but the boy's facial expression never wavered or diminished.
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:56 AM on May 9, 2022 [9 favorites]

I wholeheartedly endorse this as Best of the Web. 🦭 of approval.
posted by tiny frying pan at 10:59 AM on May 9, 2022 [20 favorites]

I remember when my kids were very little and we were at a restaurant and they were staring in awe at something. I looked over and saw this very old man sitting there, just eating his breakfast. Then I looked back at my kids and they were still staring in awe. I quickly looked back and caught the old guy moving his ears--up down forward backward--a performance obviously intended for my kids. I had never seen anything like that before. He saw me catching him in the act and gave me a sly, joyful smile.
posted by eye of newt at 11:02 AM on May 9, 2022 [42 favorites]

I would move that, given all of THIS (*gestures vaguely at the entirety of existence in the 2020s*), the "Best of the Web" threshold for anything that inspires delight, happiness, or mild amusement for even a half-second should be very low indeed.
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 11:07 AM on May 9, 2022 [20 favorites]

Greg_Ace, that sounds fantastic.

lunasol, I would love more "turn yourself into a cartoon character" pointers. Personally I sometimes put something I'm holding (e.g. a book) on my head and wear it like a hat.
posted by brainwane at 11:10 AM on May 9, 2022 [1 favorite]

just widen your eyes and you're already improving your younger human interactions

I'm convinced we're becoming a bunch of squinters, with all our screen time/doom scrolling/loss of wonder

open your eyes wide and your heart will follow.. I volunteer once a week in a 4-6 school just to get away from The Usual
posted by elkevelvet at 11:15 AM on May 9, 2022 [6 favorites]

this is unremarkable by most yardsticks

That is an accurate statement. Fortunately, we have better measures for the quality of human interactions than yardsticks.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 11:21 AM on May 9, 2022 [19 favorites]

What a lovely share. This is exactly why I love babies and toddlers. EVERYTHING is interesting (as it should be) and you can demo the simplest thing to them and they will be FASCINATED.
posted by The Adventure Begins at 11:22 AM on May 9, 2022 [2 favorites]

I would love more "turn yourself into a cartoon character" pointers

Kinda related. Kids don't really know what an appropriate reaction is to what they're hearing and they look to the speaker for cues. So if you ask them something in an excited smiling voice and have a happy excitedly anxious face while they form an answer, they'll be happy and enthusiastic about it. They'll hear the smile on your face as well as see it. Otherwise they can feel like they're getting interrogated.

And not just questions. Talk to kids in a tone that tells them how to react, you might have to coax them into it but they'll catch on.

And that kind of thing has ripples like you wouldn't believe. Raising kids and puppies is very different in many ways and earily similar in more ways than I'm comfortable with. With puppies, it's important to expose them to lots of different people, things, settings, etc. By have a wide range of positive interactions in their young life they hang onto the impression throughout their lives that the world is full of wonderful safe things that are fun to explore. So there is basically no reason to lash out and bite at anything or anyone and they step into new situation with calm confidence.

Same thing with kids but it's a lot more complicated and MUCH wider reaching. Especially boys.
posted by VTX at 11:25 AM on May 9, 2022 [11 favorites]

Command+F 'Portabello'
0/0 Found

"Sadly, the education of the youth of amerika is declining in more than one way."
posted by now i'm piste at 11:37 AM on May 9, 2022 [15 favorites]

Best of the webs.

This morning when I was walking the dog, there was a stressed out dad walking his clearly sick child in a stroller. The child was crying and crying, I suspect the poor parents hadn't had a moment's sleep all night. But when the child saw my pup, he stopped crying.
For a while, I criss-crossed their route and every time the baby saw my dog, he stopped crying, but I didn't want to seem creepy (remember, I'm the old lady with a huge black dog and a murder of crows circling around her). Now I feel I should have said hi to the dad, and help distract the little one.

But in supermarkets, we must all do our best to help parents relax. It is so incredibly stressful to be in a supermarket with a child who doesn't want to be there, or who wants all the things. Tell them it is normal, that their horrible child is normal, and that this too will end.
posted by mumimor at 11:37 AM on May 9, 2022 [14 favorites]

Mod note: Deleted several comments regarding the "Best of the Web" derail, feel free to take this to MetaTalk instead.
posted by loup (staff) at 11:41 AM on May 9, 2022 [4 favorites]

I'm quite socially inept with adults, but babies and toddlers seem to usually like me. I get a lot of stares and smiles in responses from little ones when I'm out and about.

When I was in my mid-20s, I was walking through a grocery store and saw a cute two-year-old excitedly saying something to me from his shopping-cart-play-car thing. I couldn't hear him and went closer and asked him to repeat twice before I heard him: "Are you a grown up?" I'm 4'10" so it's not the first time ever I've been mistaken for a child, but it still took me by surprise. I was like "I think so...?" (thinking about how my parents were behind me doing the real grocery shopping, and about my very grad-student-style lifestyle). My parents pointed out later that the woman pushing the cart, presumably his mom, was also relatively small, so maybe this is a question they have talked about before.
posted by bread-eater at 11:41 AM on May 9, 2022 [7 favorites]

What’s that age, early toddler-hood, where babies loooove to interact with strangers? Like they lift up their face and positively *beam* at anyone passing by, especially in the supermarket.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 11:49 AM on May 9, 2022 [4 favorites]

This made me smile. I am a mother to a small human born during the pandemic and just yesterday was the first time I felt the joy of many strangers interacting with him in public, at the garden and grocery store and cafe, and him getting to be a lil goofball in return.
posted by paradeofblimps at 11:50 AM on May 9, 2022 [13 favorites]

I'm the old lady with a huge black dog and a murder of crows circling around her

My kid is into Halloween all year, don't make assumptions, I sure as hell don't. Angels* can appear is all kinds of guises and my kid would LOVE yours.


*I'm honestly not sure how much I mean this as a a metaphor vs. literal divinity, I have been that dad.

An empathetic look on your face (which I'm sure you'd not find hard to do in the moment) asking, "Hey, they seem into my dog and I've got time. Could I try to keep them occupied for a few minutes while you rest?" and my reply would be, "Can you take him overnight?" and then just run home before you change your mind. That's hyperbole but you'd be amazed how close to that I'd be willing to get after asking a few questions. But if you told me you're a mefite? Give me your number, I'll see you tomorrow.
posted by VTX at 11:53 AM on May 9, 2022 [9 favorites]

Oh, yeah, nothing brightens up a long grocery line like making faces at the baby staring at me from over their parent's shoulder.

...Well, talking to a dog would, but in a grocery store they're usually service dogs you aren't supposed to distract.
posted by praemunire at 12:28 PM on May 9, 2022 [4 favorites]

Kids and animals have always been very interested in me. So much so, that I usually don't even have to initiate the interactions. This has been true since I was a child, myself (which is long ago). I've had rescue dogs (and one horse) that fear men come right up to me, much to their owners astonishment. I've had cats who hate everyone curl up in my lap. I've had wild animals approach me out of curiosity.

I'm also very good at rocking sick or fussing babies to sleep. And even better at getting babies and toddlers to smile and laugh. Usually all it takes is looking them in the eye and smiling.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:41 PM on May 9, 2022 [7 favorites]

I don't relate to kids terribly well, but I love making funny faces at kids on buses to see if I can get them to laugh at me.

I was once in a Costco in a huge checkout line and the kid in the cart in the line next to me was absolutely pounding on the moveable bit of the cart and it was LOUD as it bounced back and it should have been ANNOYING but that kid was so clearly unceasingly delighted with how he could kick the thing and how much noise it made. I mean, just sheer joy on his face every single time he kicked it and it came crashing back. I couldn't be angry at him for having way more fun than any of the adults in Costco.
posted by jacquilynne at 12:56 PM on May 9, 2022 [6 favorites]

IRFH - I have that same weird skill with dogs. There have been MANY times when I've been walking down the street and someone with a dog comes towards me, heading in the opposite direction, and as they approach, the dog will stare at me, and the tail slowly starting to wag as we get close and then as we start passing, the dog will veer to one side, heading towards me. I smile at the dog but follow the owner's lead on that; if they're distracted or in a hurry I let it go, if they seem amenable I will say hello (and usually get an excited fast-flying tail and some sniffs and maybe a jump up on my shins or a lick on the face).

The thing that always amuses me is if the owner starts trying to reassure me that "it's okay, he's friendly", as if I hadn't already seen the enormous doggy grin and the flying tail, and everything about the dog's body language shouting "HI there!"

I am half-tempted to join a dog walking service as a post-retirement pin money job.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:57 PM on May 9, 2022 [4 favorites]

This works both ways. I hang out with a seven year old, who has said hi to almost everybody since he was two. Over the past five years, he usually does not get a hi back whether another kid or an adult. But he persists. Last week we were walking to school, and as we passed by a bus stop, he looked up, made eye contact, smiled, waved, and said hi to this woman standing there. She noticed him right away and her look of WTF turned immediately into a huge smile. She leaned over and said hi back to him, and then she asked how he was doing. With a big smile he emphatically said Good! And we then kept walking. I turned around and she was still smiling. Despite the usual ignore the little kid lack of response, this happens a lot, especially with older adults. There have been times when they look at me and tell me how charming he is. Usually in elevators. It’s kind of scary to see a little kid “charm” strangers.
posted by njohnson23 at 1:00 PM on May 9, 2022 [7 favorites]

I used to be a very entertaining person for a baby to sit in front of at church, when I attended church.
posted by dismas at 1:14 PM on May 9, 2022 [2 favorites]

I am one of those people who always wears a fedora. When I see a small child in the grocery store, I pop it off my head into the air, catch it, flip it around - if I'm feeling confident, I drop it on the floor, catch it on my foot and kick it back up onto my head.

My goal is to do all of this before the parent turns around, so that the toddler has now seen a hat trick routine that nobody else did. Just a little moment between them and me. Maybe, if they're just a little older, it will stick in their head as a dream-like half-memory about how the world can just be... kinda weird and cool sometimes.
posted by Xiphias Gladius at 1:54 PM on May 9, 2022 [17 favorites]

It’s kind of scary to see a little kid “charm” strangers.

Heh, my mom tells me that when I was a toddler I used to drive her crazy by constantly always running off to make friends with patched biker gangs, random stoners, rockers, surfers and other colorful if not outright disreputable looking counterculture types that she probably would much rather I didn't try to be quite so friendly with.

I still vividly remember my toddler logic and thoughts going something like "WOAAAH THOSE GUYS LOOK DIFFERENT AND COOOOOOL! HI HI HI!"

For better and worse I'm slightly more reserved now. Slightly.

As an adult talking to kids I've been known to do well with entertaining kids. I just treat them like small humans and I like answering questions about the world around us, or asking them the questions, especially about the natural world.

But much to their horror I also am known to try to teach toddlers subversive words or phrases like "anarchy" and "smash the patriarchy!" because watching a 3-4 year old running around screaming "aaaanarchy!" is fucking hilarious.
posted by loquacious at 1:55 PM on May 9, 2022 [14 favorites]

A terrific part of working behind a library desk is playing peek-a-boo with little ones through the book drop. They think it is hilarious that a grown adult suddenly disappears and reappears to cheer them on as they return their materials.
posted by MonkeyToes at 1:59 PM on May 9, 2022 [11 favorites]

This works both ways. I hang out with a seven year old, who has said hi to almost everybody since he was two. Over the past five years, he usually does not get a hi back whether another kid or an adult. But he persists.

Who are these monsters who don't say hi back to a little kid!?!!?!??!??!?!?
posted by praemunire at 2:09 PM on May 9, 2022 [21 favorites]

Oh my gosh, once I was at a restaurant with my best friend and her cousin. As we were leaving, we passed by a table with a highchair whose inhabitant had just dropped their pacifier on the floor and was starting to cry. Cousin continued walking. Best friend and I both dove to catch the pacifier before it hit the ground. Guess which one of us loathes children so much that they won't engage with one at all no matter what's going on. Some people just really don't like kids or babies.
posted by The Adventure Begins at 2:27 PM on May 9, 2022

I will talk to dogs and almost entirely ghost the owners. For kids, the rule for me is as long as they're staring at me and the parent doesn't see me, I will make faces/funny-yet-restricted movements, whatever is going to work in Severely Constrained Miming Theatre For One.
posted by user92371 at 2:45 PM on May 9, 2022 [3 favorites]

This is sweet.

I never really know how to interact with kids, perhaps because I'm a single child with a tiny family and no kids. I've been doing some volunteer work with preschoolers lately. . . and it's been really confusing. My natural inclination is to talk to them as if they were adults, which is what I always wanted as a child. Half of them love it and instantly want to be my friend. Half of them look at me like a Klingon just walked into the room. (My close friends' kids always respond well to their "uncle" when I do that. I expect they're weird kids trained by weird parents.) When I try to mimic the over-the-top mime style that I see other people do around kids, it also doesn't really work. I suspect the kids know I'm faking it. I don't know how to be unironically enthusiastic except in a very quiet way.

Dogs and cats, I can do well. Even really mean ones. Kids are harder. More like horses.
posted by eotvos at 3:15 PM on May 9, 2022 [2 favorites]

I love kids. They seem to like me right back. I was on a charter boat once, and the only child on that fishing trip came halfway around the boat to chat with me. I had a young kid (10?) chat to me at a red light, only a day or two before Superstorm Sandy hit..we talked about the weather (he was in the passenger seat of the car next to me at the light).I love this stuff. I love playing peek-a-boo to keep kids distracted while Mom or Dad is trying to decide what to get for dinner. I once drew animals on a piece of cardboard for a little boy whose mom was chatting overly long with a friend.

Kids can be one of the few things that make me smile these days at work.
posted by annieb at 3:19 PM on May 9, 2022 [1 favorite]

By have a wide range of positive interactions in their young life they hang onto the impression throughout their lives that the world is full of wonderful safe things that are fun to explore.

I think the babies have done this to me. Babies & toddlers love to look at me. Friends and family have commented on it, particularly when I am in a church. I always get a positive response so of course every child that crosses my path, I say hi to or make faces at or anything else.

My method is a combination of: total cartoon facial expressions plus normal adult-type speaking voice.

One curse of the self-checkout is that you don't have the same line formation and fewer baby-Emmy interaction opportunities.

Also, love and honor to the woman who stopped walking through the courtyard I was in with my one-year-old to take an interest in his stick. She was gonna steal it! But he pulled it away just in time! And then it happened again! Can you imagine!!!

It was perfect, she confirmed the value of his object but he got to keep playing with it, a win-win.
posted by Emmy Rae at 3:46 PM on May 9, 2022 [12 favorites]

Without false modesty I ride a very good looking motorbike. One of the best things about it is that it attracts the attention of a) middle aged men who used to own motorbikes, and b) the toddlers they tend to push around in strollers as granddads. Last time I went for a ride one dad pointed me out to the kid. 'Motorbike!' The kid waved at me with both hands and both feet.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 3:48 PM on May 9, 2022 [9 favorites]

I used to be one of those “I don’t like kids” people. Getting over that has made my life immensely better. Kids are just out there experiencing joy all over the place, and sharing that joy with others doubles their own joy. It’s great!
posted by obfuscation at 4:07 PM on May 9, 2022 [9 favorites]

My rule for babies is they have to be looking at me first. But then it's Surprised Face, Peekaboo, Waggle the Glasses, and Stick out the Tongue time.

Glasses are a great help, especially if you wear bright colored or cat eye glasses. Big earrings also good.
posted by emjaybee at 4:08 PM on May 9, 2022 [1 favorite]

I absolutely love silently interacting with strange children in public. I will make eye contact, and then give a little eyebrow waggle and see how they respond. I often end up hiding behind something in my cart which I hold up to my face and then peek out from all sides of the object.
posted by sleeping bear at 4:10 PM on May 9, 2022 [4 favorites]

Who are these monsters who don't say hi back to a little kid!?!!?!??!??!?!?

Sadly, we live in a world where an adult interacting with a little kid can sometimes rub other adults the very wrong way. Often, it’s a better choice to simply ignore the kid, lest someone wildly misinterpret your intent.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:23 PM on May 9, 2022 [4 favorites]

My pup loves kids. Somehow she knows to be gentle, although I would never be irresponsible about relying on this, especially since she's so young herself. But not long ago she was allowed to meet a toddler whose parent explained that he loved dogs, and she gave him the gentlest little kiss on the hand -- not climbing up or pawing at him or anything. I was so proud.
posted by Countess Elena at 4:42 PM on May 9, 2022 [4 favorites]

My superpower is that when I encounter a crying baby or toddler in public, I can say “aw, man, buddy, sounds like you’re having a rough day, huh? It’s okay, it happens to everyone sometimes,” and they stop crying. Even if they’re too small to understand the actual words. Sometimes they start crying again after a minute but they stop when I pass them again in the next aisle of the grocery store. No idea why this works.
posted by nonasuch at 5:00 PM on May 9, 2022 [13 favorites]

I am reminded of this birth-18 guide to how to talk with kids, as a nurse, with special attention to the age groups that you can distract by offering stickers.
posted by brainwane at 5:23 PM on May 9, 2022 [19 favorites]

Oops, wrong thread!
posted by Green Winnebago at 5:51 PM on May 9, 2022

But much to their horror I also am known to try to teach toddlers subversive words or phrases like "anarchy" and "smash the patriarchy!" because watching a 3-4 year old running around screaming "aaaanarchy!" is fucking hilarious.

To this day, the best purchase I've ever made was a size 2T beige onesie with "Anarchy in the Pre-K" scrawled across it in the appropriate font. I stuffed my daughter into that thing long after I stopped being able to buckle it closed, and then subjected my son to it four years later.

In conclusion, all toddlers are chaotic good, and we should be reminded of that fact from time to time.
posted by Mayor West at 6:04 PM on May 9, 2022 [13 favorites]

brainwane, I especially like the last line of that guide. It doesn’t necessarily apply to me, as I don’t want a sticker per se, but I definitely want to be offered a sticker in recognition of doing the thing.
posted by Night_owl at 7:42 PM on May 9, 2022 [5 favorites]

This is wonderful. Thank you for sharing it. There's something so compelling about wordless communication. And the nurse's list is genuinely useful!

Mr Zumbador teaches design at a school for the Deaf. He teaches high school, but his classroom is right next to the pre school. Those kids are the best. They gate crash his class and get to draw self portraits etc.
It's a pity schools are usually so seperated by age. The interactions between 12th graders and pre school kids is fabulous.
posted by Zumbador at 9:09 PM on May 9, 2022 [10 favorites]

But much to their horror I also am known to try to teach toddlers subversive words or phrases like "anarchy" and "smash the patriarchy!"

I love the idea of a real ABCs of anarchism meant for kids. (I spend most of my interactions with friends' children encouraging them to try to answer questions themselves. I'm not nearly as charismatic as Mr. Wizard, but I aspire to be.)
posted by eotvos at 6:29 AM on May 10, 2022

Aw, I love toddlers and I love cute stories about toddlers. Thanks for the post!
posted by aka burlap at 6:37 AM on May 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

Night_owl: "I especially like the last line of that guide. It doesn’t necessarily apply to me, as I don’t want a sticker per se, but I definitely want to be offered a sticker in recognition of doing the thing."

I LOVE getting my "I Voted" stickers.

brainwane, now I want to go waggle mushrooms at infants in the grocery store. This is thoroughly delightful. Thank you for posting this!
posted by kristi at 8:06 AM on May 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

I pride myself on being a Mary Poppins type with kids, and this weekend I get to graduate with a Master of Jurisprudence in Children's Law and Policy, and ALL I want to do with it is go work with kids in need during the day, and theater kids at night. I'm DONE with adults unless they know how to act. BEHAVE YA'LLS SELFS!!!!!
posted by lextex at 9:52 AM on May 10, 2022 [9 favorites]

I don't have kids. I have step-kids though, who I've known since they were very small! That said, prior to my entering the relationship with said step-kids' father, I found babies and small children baffling. I didn't dislike them, I just didn't know what to do with them, how to engage or communicate with them properly. (I am the youngest cousin in a large generation of cousins and I am an only child, which is probably why this was the case. I also never babysat anyone.)

But for some reason kids always seemed drawn to me. In my early 20s I was spending a miserable afternoon at the laundromat doing two weeks' worth of laundry and was sitting at a table exhausted, reading a magazine. This random kid, maybe about four years old, wandered over to me and sat down and asked if he could look through the magazine with me. I said sure, and we went through it page by page. He mostly was interested in the ads, and asked me lots of questions, so I explained what perfume was and how perfume samples sometimes are in magazines, I explained how ads in magazines are mostly related to the kinds of people who buy that particular magazine (in this case, fashion magazines mostly advertise to young women), and I delicately explained a lingerie ad that he was very curious about (internally cringing hoping that I wasn't doing something inappropriate). Then we came to an ad for Lunchables.

This kid knew what Lunchables were.

He looked at me square in the eye and said, "Do you have kids?"

"No."

"Okay. When you do, you should DEFINITELY buy them Lunchables."

I nodded, trying not to laugh.

Then he started telling me about school and his little sister and I just nodded a lot, trying to show I was interested, and asked him some follow up questions. Basically I tried to engage him in small talk the way I would with an adult, but about kid-interest topics.

30 minutes later a women wearing a baby girl in one of those baby carriers wheeling a cart of clean laundry came over to collect her son and thanked me for keeping him occupied so she could do laundry without having to entertain him or keep him from interfering. I felt really happy that I had been helpful to her and told her it was no trouble. The little boy waved goodbye as they left.

Kids in laundromats, man. A few months later I ended up in a long conversation with a ten year old girl who saw me doing my laundry while wearing my iPod and asked me what music I was listening to. I gave her a crash course in the Beatles and the Stones. She hadn't heard either of them. Mind blown. She asked me to write down songs for her to download. I got another thank you that day from her mom.

Two years later, when I was in the relationship and had finally been introduced to the stepkids, I brought them Lunchables, and copies of the entire Beatles catalog on CDs. Coolest stepmom ever, I was declared.

My stepdaughter is now in college and my stepson is in high school and I'm pretty sure I'm now in the category of "uncool grownup" for them, but still: thank you, random laundromat kids, for teaching me that kids aren't THAT hard to entertain as long as you show them genuine interest in what they have to say. My relationship would have failed if I had remained as intimidated by children as I was for most of my young adult life.
posted by nayantara at 8:21 AM on May 11, 2022 [13 favorites]

nayantara, I loved those stories, and I full-on cried with happiness for your family in the last few paragraphs. How wonderful.
posted by brainwane at 8:43 AM on May 11, 2022 [4 favorites]

I am a circus performer, and while I'm mostly an acrobat and aerialist performing on a stage, I also sometimes do jobs where I am walking through crowds in costumes or on stilts, interacting with kids. It's a funny feeling to spend several hours in that mode, and then change clothes and become just another person, for whom it would be strange to run up to every group of kids I pass and play games with them.
posted by Nothing at 10:31 AM on May 12, 2022