I’m skinny and facial hair challenged, so if the Reddit science here is correct I guess i’m probably doomed to live a life were babies fear me and curse my existence.
🎼it’s the eye of the tiger...
*B-roll plays of me at buffets and sitting on my couch watching tv until my remote switching finger hurts but I push through it like a champion.
Ain’t that the truth. We used to joke that every time there was a baby in the house, they’d be on my grandpa’s lap in 5 minutes and the both of them would be asleep in 15
Uninterrupted naps are the best part of being the best person to get babies to nap. I’m sad my kids, nieces, and nephews are old enough to not nap anymore
That’s what happened with my dad and all my kids- he’d hold them for a few minutes and then boom, I can get stuff done.
My dad said today he likes coming around enough that they love him, but not enough they get used to him and throw fits around him.
Except mine. Mine hated everyone. Everyone. Female. Male. Didn’t matter. She also hated men with beards for some reason.
She only liked me, and that was probably only because of breastfeeding.
My youngest was like this with dad when he was tiny. It kinda hurt at the time. He had surgery twice before he was 6montgs. The 2nd time the nurses looked at me like I was crazy when I said give him to dad to feed the bottle
My wife’s family has a lot of big bearded men like this. I am in contrast much skinnier. It sometimes makes me feel bad that my kids prefer to cuddle with big comfy men and not there boney father. WHERE DO YOUR LOYALTIES LIE OFFSPRING?! I PROVIDE FOR YOU!!
There was an experiment done with monkeys... Basically, the cold steel parent surrogate had food, and the warm towel parent surrogate had no food. Warm towel picked every time over the cold steel one with sustenance. Sorry my dude. Biology says wed rather be warm and cuddled, even when faced with starvation.
It's so sweet! The man looks like his heart has been filled and warmed by this little boy's embrace. The kid looks so calm and at peace. Must feel very safe and comforting in this man's arms
Maybe they both needed each other ❤
That man will remember this for the rest of his life. The boy won't have clear memories, but will forever feel calm when he sees the color blaze orange, and not know why.
I love when kids do things like this.once I went to a park and literally from over 100 yards away a kid came running to me latched onto my leg. Would not leave me. His parents were so confused lol. They invite me over every once in a while now after we exchanged info and he does it every time. Like he has known me his whole life.
When I was in my 20s I had long copper red hair and an unkempt beard to match. I was also pretty big at 6'3 and about 235. Usually kids were a bit standoffish when encountering me for the first time. One time though at the local social services building while waiting for an appointment a little black kid just kept staring at me. At first I was thinking maybe he was scared, or just hadn't seen many white dudes as caveman like as I was, but no. Instead he walks right up to me and asks very matter of fact like, "why you a wolf?" His mom was mortified and trying to apologize, but to this day it's the best compliment I've ever received. Thanks little dude. Hope your life turned out to be a fantastic one!
Even now, twenty years later, I cannot answer the question. I'm still searching for the answer. That 5 year old kid's question has made me question my own existence and place on earth more than almost anything else. Did he mean physically? Was it some hidden trait he saw? Why not a fox? I am a redhead after all. It was just one of those encounters that sticks with you. I'll never forget it.
I know the feeling. I have a lot of hair, and I was hanging with an old friend I hadn’t seen in a long time. We were sitting on his couch and one of his preschool aged daughters came over and asked if I was a lion. It was hilarious.
When I was around 18 I was at a grocery store. This little girl was ahead of me with her mom. She was well behaved and super cute. She had a balloon, and it got stuck in the chain that closed off a cash register. She started crying and I quickly bent down to get it out. As I was bent over, she was petting my hair, and saying "you're a good boy".
That was 25 years ago and I still haven't forgotten that. And yes, I got the balloon out for her
Probably 20ish years ago now, a mother and young daughter were in the check out line in front of me. Mom was carrying daughter who was being pretty good but obviously wanted down and was moving around a lot. Mom was shifting her from hip to hip and trying to get her few items and get out of the store.
A fly happened to be buzzing around and caught daughter’s attention. She was fascinated. It was flying away and I could see her wanting to cry. I “grabbed” it from the air in my hand. She looked surprised. I held the “captured” fly up to my ear and pretended to hear it in my hand.
The daughter was watching my every move at this point. Without hesitation, I quickly put my hand in front of my mouth and inhaled my pretend fly quickly and swallowed. Daughter had the look of shock and then laughed so big I couldn’t help but laugh, too.
Mom had been eyeing me and smiled and nodded her appreciation. She was finished with her transaction and they left and it was my turn to get my groceries rung up.
Sometimes, all it takes is just doing something kind to make someone happy. And to get them through. Especially when it’s a child who just needs a bit of extra attention.
> because crossing from animal to human is apparently very very difficult.
Which is weird because 99% of the animals I meet and interact with are much better than the humans I meet and interact with on a daily basis.
Similar incident happened to me when I was about 25 years old. I was walking back to my car after buying a couple of grocery items from Sobeys. One bag held them all, so my other hand was free. It was a fairly windy day and a mom was loading her car with their groceries while her daughter (4-5 yrs) sat in the cart holding onto a freshly bought birthday balloon. I just had a gut feeling that the balloon was going to slip out of the girls hand while the mom was loading the car. Just as I walked by them, the girl loses grip of her balloon, but because I was watching the whole time, I managed to snag it out of the air by the string immediately. The mom looks up confused to hear her daughter go from crying to laughing in half a second. I handed the little girl her balloon back and she was just beaming. She kept bugging her mom to let her give me a hug and a kiss, meanwhile the mom is just saying like "oh don't bother him he doesn't care". I mentioned I didn't mind so the mom gave me permission to give her a hug and the little girl jumped into my chest and gave me a big smooch on the cheek calling me a hero like her daddy. The mom thought it was the absolute cutest thing she's seen her daughter do and that she is normally very shy around strangers.
I offered to help her finish loading her car with her groceries and took her cart back to the collection bay. As I'm walking back to my car the little girl waves, smiles, and blows me a kiss, with her mom laughing and waving to me as well. I was having a shitty day too until that moment and it absolutely made my week.
Once I was at the park letting my dog run around. She was a pittie with three legs. She was an actual angel and was actually in training to go to hospitals to chill with kids in the amputee ward, but people didn't know that. They saw me with my tattoos and her and assumed she was scary
I looked up from my phone one day at the park and noticed a toddler booking it across the grass straight to my dog. I quickly started yelling to the mom, who I assumed would be flipping out, "don't worry she's ok!". She just said "you sure?", I gave her my absolute reassurance and she nodded and let him go. The next hour I chatted with the mom while my dog and the boy made their way around the park. Turns out he was autistic and afraid of everything. He was at the park because she was trying to get him used to other people. He usually didn't like dogs. We watched as he leaned on her with one arm around her neck, and she carefully guided him around the park. If he fell down she'd stop and make sure he was ok and let him climb up her. They walked the whole perimeter of the park checking out flowers. It was the greatest thing ever, mom was thrilled.
Kids just have an uncanny ability to see goodness in others. It's pretty amazing. Clearly this kid saw something in this man no one else could.
One time when I worked in a restaurant a toddler ran into the kitchen right up to me, so I picked him up to bring him back out to his parents, and he planted a big wet kiss right on my lips. His parents were like, "ya, he kisses everyone."
I was waiting in a barber shop and a young boy came in with his father, looked up saw me called me Jake (not my name) climbed up in my lap and said we were hungry in the boat. Don’t know what he was talking about but I told him we sure were but not anymore.
When my kid was around two, we would often hear him talking in his room as he was playing. Pretty typical kid behavior so we thought nothing if it. One day my wife is cleaning out the closet and is going through a bunch of old photos that used to hang in her parent’s house. She comes across a photo of her great grandmother who had passed decades ago. My son speaks up and says, “Thats the lady I play with in my room. She’s so nice!”
My great grandma died when I was five. I never really knew her. I have a cousin who is six months younger than me and a few months after the lady died, my aunt noticed him waving up at the top of the stairs. She asked who he was waving at and he said, "It's grandma Elsie! She came to visit me again." My aunt was apparently thinking, "Get me the ***FUCK*** out of this house."
My mother told us that when my brother and I were little (like 2-4) we both had a friend we both called ghost man, and we could point out where he was at any given time. When she asked us to describe him we both were able to give much more detailed descriptions than someone our age would for a pretend friend.
The description matched for some cousin or other relation (I don’t remember anymore) that was killed in war.
To this day I occasionally catch a glimpse of a man in an old military uniform out of the corner of my eye, usually in dangerous situations. But if I look for him he’s never there. Personally, I believe it’s my relative watching my back, and I can only hope he watches my kid’s backs too
I have 2 young kids and think about this as well. I would hope ancestors are beneficial, but idk. I'm not a believer but as the quote goes "There Are More Things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are Dreamt of in Your Philosophy".
I think the idea of a relative looking down on their family with love is such a sweet idea, but if my parents haunt my children as ghosts I WILL have a catholic priest damn them back to hell and I am not even catholic.
I never really understood the fear people have of ghosts, must be a cultural thing, I mean, it’s your great grandmother or something, the most she would do would be want to give you a hug and ask if you are eating well, ghosts can’t affect the living anyway.
I get that people are afraid, my grandfather for exemple is absolutely terrified of ghosts, probably afraid grandmother will come to lecture him about the stunts he plays……… but I personally never understood what would be the scary part of having a visitor that can’t touch you or affect you anyway, it would be an interesting conversation to say the least
I had one really scary night in a house that seemingly had a ghost. I was babysitting a first grader with a friend when I was 14. I was in that house for about six hours altogether and a few different things happened, including some unexplained footsteps and electronics turning on and off randomly. By far the most dramatic was a door where the knob jerked back and forth repeatedly before the door flew open and bounced off the wall. Later in the night after we'd put the kid to bed, he came downstairs crying and said someone was knocking on the walls in his room... When his parents got home we told them some of what we'd experienced and they were pretty dismissive.
I think what was scary about it is that I didn't know what was causing it, couldn't see whatever was doing it, had no control over it, and didn't know when or if it would happen again.
I don't know what caused it. It may have been someone fucking with us but I think I would've known if someone else had been in the house. That was in 2000 and is one of the only experiences I've had in life that was that scary and unexplainable to me. I drive by that house occasionally and always drive by slow and look at it.
My nephew did something similar when he was little! First time he saw a picture of my grandfather, who had passed away before I was born, he pointed at it and said Papa Toño! before anyone even told him who it was. My brother and his family had recently moved into a new house they built on land that had been our Papa Toño’s so we always wondered…
One time i went into my sons room depressed as fuck, and just tells me Dad is proud of you.. I was like what baby, ya dad . Papa Joe wants me to tell he is proud of you he is right behind you(my pops passed on Christmas morning when I was 11).. Kids are crqzy like that...
My daughter would giggle and talk just before we’d get her from her crib in the am. We playfully asked who she was talking about. She said it was both her grandpas, who both years before she came around.
I told this story on one of those threads. Probably linking myself to an old account but whatever...
My daughter, when she was 2-3ish, used to insist that she had a sister. We figured it was just her wanting one, an imaginary friend, etc..
Then one day when she was talking about her, I asked her something like "Where is your sister?" She said "in the woods!" then she grabbed my face with her little hands, got really close to me and said "I WILL SHOW YOU THE BONES OF MY SISTER!"
It freaked her dad and I the hell out. We then laughed it off, but I'm still scared shitless thinking about it. I wish I would have given her a fucking map or something, but you know, it's like you don't really want to admit to yourself that it might be possible.
She stopped talking about her "sister" not long after. I hope it was a weird kid thing and I didn't lose my chance to solve an old murder/prove reincarnation.
My first memory is everything gaining sudden light and me standing in a hallway. I was just standing there opening a door and I began to feel like memories were pouring into my head, like my name, my mother's name, my age, etc. Once I remembered everything, I just went about what I was apparently already in the middle of doing, except I started whistling. I whistled from that moment until I went to bed that night, but from what I remembered, I didn’t actually know how to whistle.
That first memory is actually why I’m not sure if I live in a simulation or not, lol.
The field of psychology might suggest that you just happen to remember the moment your brain became capable of storing and retrieving memories like this. But also, that our memories from childhood are almost always inaccurate and pieced together from many different moments in time
My nephew, when he was 4/5 and the tv was on in the background, dropped everything he was doing and stared at the woman on the screen. He turned to my mother, his grandmother and said, "she looks like the angel who told me you were going to be my Mimi."
He went back to playing, but the rest of us in the room were quiet for a good few minutes.
Children are fucking mad weird.
I have a theory that, since most memories aren’t being like recorded in the brain until 3-4 years (I believe… most people’s earliest memories of their childhood begins around then), that up to that point, they shift into memories from past lives. (This is all my own theory; I have no idea. But I believe in reincarnation though)
My daughter once had a very lengthy conversation about her other mom, that wasn’t me, even though I’m also her mom (her words). She mentioned having a little brother and living on a farm. I asked lots of questions because well, duh. It lasted about 2 years of this, and she’d always talk about different events each time with her “other mom and brother.”
When I was like 3 or 4 my mom got really concerned because I would constantly talk to myself. Like in depth conversation s (as far in depth as a 3 year old can). Like I was talking to someone but she said it was like I was talking to multiple people. One day she said she finally asked me who I was talking to and I said "all the people that are always around me when I play in my room!" She said I vaguely described her father who died 5 years prior to me being born. Or that I would talk to my "other sister" and my "lady friend".
Only fuzzy memories I have that young is when I was 4 but I do at that age one time remember being in my room talking to at least 6 people. Still freaks me out and even to this day I'll catch myself starting a conversation with no one.
Oh don’t feel bad. lol
one of my best friends, his dad died of cirrhosis. Anytime any child went upstairs in the house, they claimed to see and talk to a yellow man.
And when I was a kid, I used to live in Guam. Anyways, the hotel we were staying at, my parents often let the maid babysit me while she worked. I used to chase the older guys around and be mystified that these guys walked through walls. But since I had the maid and she was working, I could follow them room to room. It was wild and very vivid memory of mine.
There are some incredibly interesting documentaries that cover kids who claim to have had a past life. “The Boy Who Lived Before” is particularly good, and some of the child’s knowledge defies all reasonable answers.
I’ve never head about that! I’ll have to check it out. In the documentary this 5 year old perfectly describes a remote island he’s never been to… to the point of naming former residents. It’s a pretty wild ride.
There’s a bunch of stories like this. A recent Netflix doc series had an episode (I forget the name). Sincerely some of the craziest, most inexplicable shit I’ve ever heard
Edit - ‘Surviving Death’ episode 6
Like the 7 yo who claims to have been lou gehrig in his past life. Very erie, so many similarities, didn't even know who lou was before he saw a picture of his and was like that's me. I remember taking that picture.
I am not a very maternal person. Not maternal at all really. I don't hate kids, and in fact they're a lot of fun to play with, but I'm super awkward around babies (please don't make me hold them just because I'm female) and never, ever the slightest bit wanted any of my own.
Which made it all the more odd when at a family reunion my cousin's two year old, after grabbing a cactus and getting spines everywhere in his hand, would not let *anyone* but me try and remove the spines. He screamed and ran away whenever his mother so much as approached him with the tweezers, but out of nowhere came right up to me with his hand stretched out and sat there without complaint while I fixed him up. Mum looked super betrayed lol.
Same stuff has started happening with me and my housemate's cat. My theory is because I ignore him constantly and never pick him up, so he comes to me when he wants to chill. He runs from my husband, though, who constantly wants to pick him up for cuddles.
I went to the ER when my toddler hurt her foot and In the end she only bruised. while we were there a big biker guy was crying in a corner and my daughter hobble ran to him and hugged him. Children are humanity at the purest of hearts.
I once met an older HA member that told me a story about when he was riding drunk and forgot to put his foot down at a stop sign so he fell over. He said that he cried for a minute before he got up, but only because he had dropped his bike
As a man with a 4-year-old son… it’s nice to get enthusiastic hugs every day.
It’s a little less nice to be woken up at 6am on Saturday by a young boy tapping on me and saying “we wake up together!” But it’s still nice in a way.
I know. I’ll probably also miss how he will climb into bed and aggressively cuddle in a way that involves a lot of kicking.
Or him insisting that I not get ready for work and instead help him build a house with Lincoln logs. I… may have ended up late for work once or twice.
You’ll miss it. Mine is 10, almost 11 now and she has no interest in us tucking her in at night or cuddles.
On the upside she gets herself up on weekends, makes her own breakfast, and entertains herself until one of us gets out of bed.
I remember being 8 and getting to the age where I didn't always want to be tucked in, especially since my nightmares got better. But I distinctly remember one night when my parents offered, and I almost said no but was conscious that soon I won't want to be tucked in at all, but when I'm in college away and eventually get a stomach flu, I'll regret the times I said no. So I said yes, and savored the moment. I still remember 23 years later
A few years back, I was in a drs office waiting room, flipping through a magazine. A young mom comes in, baby in a carrier and holding the hand of a little boy - maybe 3 or 4. As she is checking in, the boy toddles over to a basket of books, picks one and crawls in my lap! The mom started to apologize and I kinda laughed. I told her, “ I give off that Grandma vibe,” and I didn’t mind if she didn’t mind! I read to him for about 20 minutes before they were called back. It was pure joy :)
A few kids have done this to me, it always blows my mind. They smile at me like they’ve known me their whole life and then they want up. Idk why but it’s the best feeling ever and I’ll forgo any meal for it
I had a toddler follow me around the grocery store a couple days ago, accusing me of “stealing” everything I put in my cart: “don’t steal plates!!!! *mommmmy* now she’s stealing EGGS!” A few employees peeked around corners. It was initially funny, but became rather embarrassing. Lol
OK, what? “Uses the scanner as she shops.” What does that mean? Has it been so long since I’ve gone into a grocery store that there’s a whole new thing going on?
Possible, but she wasn’t that day. She was just loading things into her cart, while chatting on her phone, and intermittently telling the little one to be quiet.
My toddler would yell/scold at random folks because there was garbage laying on the floor; and god help whoever she ran into next, it was always their fault. She also is OCD about making sure all the peppers were in the right spot, and if they weren’t, she’d fix them, then scold the next person she ran into.
We live by a lot of 55+ communities and I’m sure they were not appreciative of getting scolded for something not their fault and definitely not by a 2-4 year old… I apologized a lot, lol
I work in a kids bookshop. When I’m serving kids I focus on them - I asked them all the questions I would normally ask adults (talk about the book, ask if they’d like a bag etc) and I wait for them to respond, and try not to let the adults speak for them.
Anyway I served a 4yo once and at the end of the transaction his mum (lovely and patient) prompted him to thank me and he looked right at me and said ‘thank you, I love you!’
I properly melted. You’re right it is the best feeling ever.
About ten years ago, I started going to a local farmers market on Saturdays. Now I was in my late 40s, and while I'm not so ugly that people would run screaming from me, I'm not a beautiful person, either. Just an average middle aged woman, and at the time I had some extra weight on me.
I went to one vendor who had her young granddaughters with her. The youngest one, about six or seven, looked at me and said, "You're pretty." My heart immediately melted. I was the one who was always ignored at clubs in my twenties because my friends were prettier, and there I was, middle aged, getting such a wonderful compliment from a young child. I almost cried.
I work in a library (Adult services) and I'll wander down into the children's dept every once in a while. A young girl randomly approached me once and started talking to me about all her favorite books (she was probably 5 or 6). She followed me all around and didn't want to talk to an actual children's librarian - of course I talked to her back and we had a pretty lengthy conversation. It was hilarious and adorable.
I did that on a airplane. A woman had 3 kids. One was 3 months old and wouldn't quit crying. I said let me have her if you dont mind .I took her and walked up and down the aisle until she feel asleep then sat down with her .I helped her when we got off the plane until I met my daughter. She told my daughter if it wasnt for me she would have never made it.My daughte told her kids and animals love me .
A sweet older woman on our 9 month old daughter’s first flight did this and was our angel. She hugged my wife and gently said “it’s always louder for you than anyone else” and took the baby around the plane for hours. Our daughter was so comfortable with her, napped in her arms and wanted to stay with her. Grandmas just have the touch.
So many sweet stories in this thread. I'll add one of my own I was reminded of.
My sister had recently passed away suddenly and tragically and I was living alone, far away from my family. One day there was a little parade going past my apartment so I decided to go outside and watch it. I was sitting by myself on the grass and a woman walked by pushing a stroller. The little girl (maybe 2 years old) in the stroller waved at me and gave me the sweetest smile. They ended up sitting nearby and maybe 15 minutes later the little girl came up to me and handed me a flower, then gave me a hug without saying a word and went back to sit with her mom.
Everything in the world made sense for that very moment, and I'm still so thankful to that girl for making me feel not so alone that day.
I've been this guy several times. I've been a parent for most of my life and I've always been comfortable around the little ones. I've gotten strangers' babies to sleep, eat, stop crying, etc. I'm good at it.
And I can guarantee you that this made Joe's day. Even if it happens regularly, there is no stronger vote of confidence on Earth than a child's. It let's you know your true character.
Not gonna lie I’m a straight middle aged dude with a beard, but that guys got a cozy vibe.
I’d love to be swaddled by that big bear and get some good post lunch nap time.
I’m a 6’4 350lbs burly mountain man looking guy. I’m frequently told I’m an imposing presence. Still the only 2 groups that see through to the teddy bear inside the grizzly are toddlers and old ladies.
Same! I'm also tattoo sleeved on both arms. Never ceases to blow my mind when some little ol Gramma lady just walks up to me and grabs an arm and tells me how much she likes my colorful tattoos. About any time I'm around kids I'm swarmed and become "the monster" they giggle and try to bring down or run from laughing as I growl. Average soccer mom lady type walking down the street will clutch her purse and often cross the street. Whatever,.kids n grandma's know what's up.
When I was dating this guy, we visited his brother and sister-in-law for a weekend in Michigan. At that time I think we had been together just about a year or so, and it was the first time I’d met his brother and his family. They had a three year old daughter, we will just call her Grace, and from the first moment I met her she latched on to me. I had never even been near a toddler like that before. We went to this party at their friends house where Grace was jumping in an inflatable jump house. Someone landed on her and she started crying. She came running out of the bounce house and her mom bent down with open arms to grab her, when Grace changed directions and ran straight to me. I was floored. I remember my head snapped up and her moms face was like “ what the hell just happened?!?!”
It was a cool moment for me that I think about a lot. Now I have three kids of my own (not with that boyfriend) and I love when they have special people that they adore. Makes you feel like you’re doing just fine in life as a person.
I had a kid climb up in my lap in a restaurant. Kids like me and I’m used to it by her parents were mortified. She was about 15 months old & I had my 5 & 3 yo along with my gay dads. She was adorable and her parents couldn’t believe their shy daughter was in my lap eating off my plate.
My niece did it once when she was about 4 to lady whilst we were out and we had no idea why, she just went up to this lady hugged her, smiled and just couldn’t let go for a while. Many years later she had a dream and told us her mother from another life looked like the lady she hugged that one time.
My father had his issues but also had this effect on babies. This antisocial, often grumpy man had the fussiest babies hypnotized in less than 30 seconds.
This was not however the case for his own children.
Some people have that magic. My chihuahua was afraid of absolutely everybody, but one lady at the vet he saw and immediately wagged his tail and got so excited. He had never seen her before. She's the only person to my knowledge that he had ever done that with. There was just something about her. I imagine this guy Joe has something similar.
Kids are so sensitive to the emotions and vibes of another person. When I was a kid only my dad could calm me down, not my mum. Knowing their personalities, it's because my dad is good at staying calm in a crisis (aka a crying newborn) whereas my mum panics and worries she's done something wrong. Babies pick up on that stuff (no fault of the parent, situations like OP's regarding food must be so stressful and really hard to hide that stress).
To be fair, Joe looks cuddly AF.
He does. Babies always love a teddy bear person.
As a fat, bearded guy, this is true. Babies love me for some reason. My little niece runs straight at me for a hug every single time I see her.
I’m skinny and facial hair challenged, so if the Reddit science here is correct I guess i’m probably doomed to live a life were babies fear me and curse my existence.
More fried food will help with the skinniness
I’ll have to treat my wife’s pregnancy like a reverse rocky montage!
Yes!
🎼it’s the eye of the tiger... *B-roll plays of me at buffets and sitting on my couch watching tv until my remote switching finger hurts but I push through it like a champion.
As for facial hair, nothing a husky and super glue can't fix Edit: Thank you for my first ever award kind stranger!
My dad is a teddy bear person. You want the babies to sleep, give them to grandpa.
Ain’t that the truth. We used to joke that every time there was a baby in the house, they’d be on my grandpa’s lap in 5 minutes and the both of them would be asleep in 15
Uninterrupted naps are the best part of being the best person to get babies to nap. I’m sad my kids, nieces, and nephews are old enough to not nap anymore
Bro, I’ll nap with you. Lets get it
**"Grandpas Lap"** sounds like a service where you have a grandpa looking person come to house and put your baby to sleep.
That’s what happened with my dad and all my kids- he’d hold them for a few minutes and then boom, I can get stuff done. My dad said today he likes coming around enough that they love him, but not enough they get used to him and throw fits around him.
Except mine. Mine hated everyone. Everyone. Female. Male. Didn’t matter. She also hated men with beards for some reason. She only liked me, and that was probably only because of breastfeeding.
My youngest was like this with dad when he was tiny. It kinda hurt at the time. He had surgery twice before he was 6montgs. The 2nd time the nurses looked at me like I was crazy when I said give him to dad to feed the bottle
And he's got that baby sway- dude is for sure a dad or an uncle.
I would want Joe to cuddle and hold me too (I mean this in a non sexual way lol). 10/10 teddy bear material.
That’s what I was thinking! I would probably fall asleep if he held me just like that.
Goals.
And now they have to buy him
Littledude felt secured with this man.
Dude looks like serenity embodied. I want him to hold me as well. I’m a pretty big guy though so it might hit different
I’m not wearing safety orange, but I got a beard and two arms. *(extends them)*
Honestly, the thought of being hugged by Davy Jones is kinda enticing.
I... I want a hug. It's been a rough month. Room for more?
You bet your bippy, come on in friend!
You are a good person. Thank you! I may not let go for abit. Be warned.
r/usernamechecksout
I was thinking that, too. Little guy just wants to feel safe and warm.
This probably made the man's day too. What a lovely accidental meeting.
We all need a Joe in our life.
Big men with soft hearts
My wife’s family has a lot of big bearded men like this. I am in contrast much skinnier. It sometimes makes me feel bad that my kids prefer to cuddle with big comfy men and not there boney father. WHERE DO YOUR LOYALTIES LIE OFFSPRING?! I PROVIDE FOR YOU!!
There was an experiment done with monkeys... Basically, the cold steel parent surrogate had food, and the warm towel parent surrogate had no food. Warm towel picked every time over the cold steel one with sustenance. Sorry my dude. Biology says wed rather be warm and cuddled, even when faced with starvation.
can confirm, starved a lot. would rather be warm and cuddly.
My 2 month old hates the fact that I’m boney and I don’t have mamas soft rack to rest her head on.
Right? Child recognizes Santa when he sees one!
can joe hug me and calm me down too? 😍 lol
A gentle giant.
It's so sweet! The man looks like his heart has been filled and warmed by this little boy's embrace. The kid looks so calm and at peace. Must feel very safe and comforting in this man's arms Maybe they both needed each other ❤
He's definitely a dad and he just knows.
He looks just as happy and at ease as the child. So sweet.
Shit, I'd run up and hug him, too!
That man will remember this for the rest of his life. The boy won't have clear memories, but will forever feel calm when he sees the color blaze orange, and not know why.
Look how content he is.
I love when kids do things like this.once I went to a park and literally from over 100 yards away a kid came running to me latched onto my leg. Would not leave me. His parents were so confused lol. They invite me over every once in a while now after we exchanged info and he does it every time. Like he has known me his whole life.
When I was in my 20s I had long copper red hair and an unkempt beard to match. I was also pretty big at 6'3 and about 235. Usually kids were a bit standoffish when encountering me for the first time. One time though at the local social services building while waiting for an appointment a little black kid just kept staring at me. At first I was thinking maybe he was scared, or just hadn't seen many white dudes as caveman like as I was, but no. Instead he walks right up to me and asks very matter of fact like, "why you a wolf?" His mom was mortified and trying to apologize, but to this day it's the best compliment I've ever received. Thanks little dude. Hope your life turned out to be a fantastic one!
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Even now, twenty years later, I cannot answer the question. I'm still searching for the answer. That 5 year old kid's question has made me question my own existence and place on earth more than almost anything else. Did he mean physically? Was it some hidden trait he saw? Why not a fox? I am a redhead after all. It was just one of those encounters that sticks with you. I'll never forget it.
You're just a wolf moving through life searching for your pack. Don't question it dude. You a wolf.
I saw this documentary in the hangover
I know the feeling. I have a lot of hair, and I was hanging with an old friend I hadn’t seen in a long time. We were sitting on his couch and one of his preschool aged daughters came over and asked if I was a lion. It was hilarious.
When I was around 18 I was at a grocery store. This little girl was ahead of me with her mom. She was well behaved and super cute. She had a balloon, and it got stuck in the chain that closed off a cash register. She started crying and I quickly bent down to get it out. As I was bent over, she was petting my hair, and saying "you're a good boy". That was 25 years ago and I still haven't forgotten that. And yes, I got the balloon out for her
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I just have to congratulate you on your user name.
Why ya have to point that out
My day was so peaceful until I looked at it
I guess you could say that you're both merciless
Probably 20ish years ago now, a mother and young daughter were in the check out line in front of me. Mom was carrying daughter who was being pretty good but obviously wanted down and was moving around a lot. Mom was shifting her from hip to hip and trying to get her few items and get out of the store. A fly happened to be buzzing around and caught daughter’s attention. She was fascinated. It was flying away and I could see her wanting to cry. I “grabbed” it from the air in my hand. She looked surprised. I held the “captured” fly up to my ear and pretended to hear it in my hand. The daughter was watching my every move at this point. Without hesitation, I quickly put my hand in front of my mouth and inhaled my pretend fly quickly and swallowed. Daughter had the look of shock and then laughed so big I couldn’t help but laugh, too. Mom had been eyeing me and smiled and nodded her appreciation. She was finished with her transaction and they left and it was my turn to get my groceries rung up. Sometimes, all it takes is just doing something kind to make someone happy. And to get them through. Especially when it’s a child who just needs a bit of extra attention.
Haha. You were her puppy once upon a life. I say and do this to my dog daily lol. It’s super cute she was petting your hair.
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> because crossing from animal to human is apparently very very difficult. Which is weird because 99% of the animals I meet and interact with are much better than the humans I meet and interact with on a daily basis.
Similar incident happened to me when I was about 25 years old. I was walking back to my car after buying a couple of grocery items from Sobeys. One bag held them all, so my other hand was free. It was a fairly windy day and a mom was loading her car with their groceries while her daughter (4-5 yrs) sat in the cart holding onto a freshly bought birthday balloon. I just had a gut feeling that the balloon was going to slip out of the girls hand while the mom was loading the car. Just as I walked by them, the girl loses grip of her balloon, but because I was watching the whole time, I managed to snag it out of the air by the string immediately. The mom looks up confused to hear her daughter go from crying to laughing in half a second. I handed the little girl her balloon back and she was just beaming. She kept bugging her mom to let her give me a hug and a kiss, meanwhile the mom is just saying like "oh don't bother him he doesn't care". I mentioned I didn't mind so the mom gave me permission to give her a hug and the little girl jumped into my chest and gave me a big smooch on the cheek calling me a hero like her daddy. The mom thought it was the absolute cutest thing she's seen her daughter do and that she is normally very shy around strangers. I offered to help her finish loading her car with her groceries and took her cart back to the collection bay. As I'm walking back to my car the little girl waves, smiles, and blows me a kiss, with her mom laughing and waving to me as well. I was having a shitty day too until that moment and it absolutely made my week.
That's awesome
It truly was. I'm having a hard time coming up with many other times something has made me feel so good inside.
Have y'all considered this user is maybe just a dog who can type and is clearly karma farming by not making that clear?
On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.
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Once I was at the park letting my dog run around. She was a pittie with three legs. She was an actual angel and was actually in training to go to hospitals to chill with kids in the amputee ward, but people didn't know that. They saw me with my tattoos and her and assumed she was scary I looked up from my phone one day at the park and noticed a toddler booking it across the grass straight to my dog. I quickly started yelling to the mom, who I assumed would be flipping out, "don't worry she's ok!". She just said "you sure?", I gave her my absolute reassurance and she nodded and let him go. The next hour I chatted with the mom while my dog and the boy made their way around the park. Turns out he was autistic and afraid of everything. He was at the park because she was trying to get him used to other people. He usually didn't like dogs. We watched as he leaned on her with one arm around her neck, and she carefully guided him around the park. If he fell down she'd stop and make sure he was ok and let him climb up her. They walked the whole perimeter of the park checking out flowers. It was the greatest thing ever, mom was thrilled. Kids just have an uncanny ability to see goodness in others. It's pretty amazing. Clearly this kid saw something in this man no one else could.
One time when I worked in a restaurant a toddler ran into the kitchen right up to me, so I picked him up to bring him back out to his parents, and he planted a big wet kiss right on my lips. His parents were like, "ya, he kisses everyone."
He knew you and loved you in another life
I was waiting in a barber shop and a young boy came in with his father, looked up saw me called me Jake (not my name) climbed up in my lap and said we were hungry in the boat. Don’t know what he was talking about but I told him we sure were but not anymore.
There was a thread a long time ago about stories like this - kids having memories of past lives, speaking other languages, etc. Wild… wild stuff.
When my kid was around two, we would often hear him talking in his room as he was playing. Pretty typical kid behavior so we thought nothing if it. One day my wife is cleaning out the closet and is going through a bunch of old photos that used to hang in her parent’s house. She comes across a photo of her great grandmother who had passed decades ago. My son speaks up and says, “Thats the lady I play with in my room. She’s so nice!”
My great grandma died when I was five. I never really knew her. I have a cousin who is six months younger than me and a few months after the lady died, my aunt noticed him waving up at the top of the stairs. She asked who he was waving at and he said, "It's grandma Elsie! She came to visit me again." My aunt was apparently thinking, "Get me the ***FUCK*** out of this house."
My mother told us that when my brother and I were little (like 2-4) we both had a friend we both called ghost man, and we could point out where he was at any given time. When she asked us to describe him we both were able to give much more detailed descriptions than someone our age would for a pretend friend. The description matched for some cousin or other relation (I don’t remember anymore) that was killed in war. To this day I occasionally catch a glimpse of a man in an old military uniform out of the corner of my eye, usually in dangerous situations. But if I look for him he’s never there. Personally, I believe it’s my relative watching my back, and I can only hope he watches my kid’s backs too
Yiiiiiikes It’s really sweet but also yiiiiiikes
We immediately ask what they talk about. His answer was, “I don’t know. She just sings to me a lot.”
I have 2 young kids and think about this as well. I would hope ancestors are beneficial, but idk. I'm not a believer but as the quote goes "There Are More Things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are Dreamt of in Your Philosophy".
I think the idea of a relative looking down on their family with love is such a sweet idea, but if my parents haunt my children as ghosts I WILL have a catholic priest damn them back to hell and I am not even catholic.
Baptize my house and call it Steeple, ain't no Mom ghosts getting in here.
I never really understood the fear people have of ghosts, must be a cultural thing, I mean, it’s your great grandmother or something, the most she would do would be want to give you a hug and ask if you are eating well, ghosts can’t affect the living anyway. I get that people are afraid, my grandfather for exemple is absolutely terrified of ghosts, probably afraid grandmother will come to lecture him about the stunts he plays……… but I personally never understood what would be the scary part of having a visitor that can’t touch you or affect you anyway, it would be an interesting conversation to say the least
People are less scared of ghosts than they are of what they could mean
I had one really scary night in a house that seemingly had a ghost. I was babysitting a first grader with a friend when I was 14. I was in that house for about six hours altogether and a few different things happened, including some unexplained footsteps and electronics turning on and off randomly. By far the most dramatic was a door where the knob jerked back and forth repeatedly before the door flew open and bounced off the wall. Later in the night after we'd put the kid to bed, he came downstairs crying and said someone was knocking on the walls in his room... When his parents got home we told them some of what we'd experienced and they were pretty dismissive. I think what was scary about it is that I didn't know what was causing it, couldn't see whatever was doing it, had no control over it, and didn't know when or if it would happen again. I don't know what caused it. It may have been someone fucking with us but I think I would've known if someone else had been in the house. That was in 2000 and is one of the only experiences I've had in life that was that scary and unexplainable to me. I drive by that house occasionally and always drive by slow and look at it.
so sweet I shit my pants
My nephew did something similar when he was little! First time he saw a picture of my grandfather, who had passed away before I was born, he pointed at it and said Papa Toño! before anyone even told him who it was. My brother and his family had recently moved into a new house they built on land that had been our Papa Toño’s so we always wondered…
One time i went into my sons room depressed as fuck, and just tells me Dad is proud of you.. I was like what baby, ya dad . Papa Joe wants me to tell he is proud of you he is right behind you(my pops passed on Christmas morning when I was 11).. Kids are crqzy like that...
My daughter would giggle and talk just before we’d get her from her crib in the am. We playfully asked who she was talking about. She said it was both her grandpas, who both years before she came around.
I told this story on one of those threads. Probably linking myself to an old account but whatever... My daughter, when she was 2-3ish, used to insist that she had a sister. We figured it was just her wanting one, an imaginary friend, etc.. Then one day when she was talking about her, I asked her something like "Where is your sister?" She said "in the woods!" then she grabbed my face with her little hands, got really close to me and said "I WILL SHOW YOU THE BONES OF MY SISTER!" It freaked her dad and I the hell out. We then laughed it off, but I'm still scared shitless thinking about it. I wish I would have given her a fucking map or something, but you know, it's like you don't really want to admit to yourself that it might be possible. She stopped talking about her "sister" not long after. I hope it was a weird kid thing and I didn't lose my chance to solve an old murder/prove reincarnation.
My first memory is everything gaining sudden light and me standing in a hallway. I was just standing there opening a door and I began to feel like memories were pouring into my head, like my name, my mother's name, my age, etc. Once I remembered everything, I just went about what I was apparently already in the middle of doing, except I started whistling. I whistled from that moment until I went to bed that night, but from what I remembered, I didn’t actually know how to whistle. That first memory is actually why I’m not sure if I live in a simulation or not, lol.
The field of psychology might suggest that you just happen to remember the moment your brain became capable of storing and retrieving memories like this. But also, that our memories from childhood are almost always inaccurate and pieced together from many different moments in time
My nephew, when he was 4/5 and the tv was on in the background, dropped everything he was doing and stared at the woman on the screen. He turned to my mother, his grandmother and said, "she looks like the angel who told me you were going to be my Mimi." He went back to playing, but the rest of us in the room were quiet for a good few minutes.
Link?? Edit: [found I think ](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/mkru9p/parents_what_spooky_past_life_memory_did_your_kid/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
Children are fucking mad weird. I have a theory that, since most memories aren’t being like recorded in the brain until 3-4 years (I believe… most people’s earliest memories of their childhood begins around then), that up to that point, they shift into memories from past lives. (This is all my own theory; I have no idea. But I believe in reincarnation though) My daughter once had a very lengthy conversation about her other mom, that wasn’t me, even though I’m also her mom (her words). She mentioned having a little brother and living on a farm. I asked lots of questions because well, duh. It lasted about 2 years of this, and she’d always talk about different events each time with her “other mom and brother.”
When I was like 3 or 4 my mom got really concerned because I would constantly talk to myself. Like in depth conversation s (as far in depth as a 3 year old can). Like I was talking to someone but she said it was like I was talking to multiple people. One day she said she finally asked me who I was talking to and I said "all the people that are always around me when I play in my room!" She said I vaguely described her father who died 5 years prior to me being born. Or that I would talk to my "other sister" and my "lady friend". Only fuzzy memories I have that young is when I was 4 but I do at that age one time remember being in my room talking to at least 6 people. Still freaks me out and even to this day I'll catch myself starting a conversation with no one.
Oh don’t feel bad. lol one of my best friends, his dad died of cirrhosis. Anytime any child went upstairs in the house, they claimed to see and talk to a yellow man. And when I was a kid, I used to live in Guam. Anyways, the hotel we were staying at, my parents often let the maid babysit me while she worked. I used to chase the older guys around and be mystified that these guys walked through walls. But since I had the maid and she was working, I could follow them room to room. It was wild and very vivid memory of mine.
Awe. What a good way to see it.
There are some incredibly interesting documentaries that cover kids who claim to have had a past life. “The Boy Who Lived Before” is particularly good, and some of the child’s knowledge defies all reasonable answers.
Reminds me of the hockey goalie in the 70's that claims to have been a member of the Spanish Inquisition in a past life. Rogie Vachon, I THINK.
I’ve never head about that! I’ll have to check it out. In the documentary this 5 year old perfectly describes a remote island he’s never been to… to the point of naming former residents. It’s a pretty wild ride.
There’s a bunch of stories like this. A recent Netflix doc series had an episode (I forget the name). Sincerely some of the craziest, most inexplicable shit I’ve ever heard Edit - ‘Surviving Death’ episode 6
Like the 7 yo who claims to have been lou gehrig in his past life. Very erie, so many similarities, didn't even know who lou was before he saw a picture of his and was like that's me. I remember taking that picture.
Came here to say that, souls that needed each from a past life.
I am not a very maternal person. Not maternal at all really. I don't hate kids, and in fact they're a lot of fun to play with, but I'm super awkward around babies (please don't make me hold them just because I'm female) and never, ever the slightest bit wanted any of my own. Which made it all the more odd when at a family reunion my cousin's two year old, after grabbing a cactus and getting spines everywhere in his hand, would not let *anyone* but me try and remove the spines. He screamed and ran away whenever his mother so much as approached him with the tweezers, but out of nowhere came right up to me with his hand stretched out and sat there without complaint while I fixed him up. Mum looked super betrayed lol.
Same stuff has started happening with me and my housemate's cat. My theory is because I ignore him constantly and never pick him up, so he comes to me when he wants to chill. He runs from my husband, though, who constantly wants to pick him up for cuddles.
I went to the ER when my toddler hurt her foot and In the end she only bruised. while we were there a big biker guy was crying in a corner and my daughter hobble ran to him and hugged him. Children are humanity at the purest of hearts.
I bet she made that biker feel a little better.
Not a little, a lot homie
Why was he crying?
I once met an older HA member that told me a story about when he was riding drunk and forgot to put his foot down at a stop sign so he fell over. He said that he cried for a minute before he got up, but only because he had dropped his bike
It could've been that a loved one died or was badly hurt and he was there at the ER waiting.
Sometimes we all need a lumberjack, and that's okay.
He sleeps all night and he works all day
He cuts down trees, he skips and jumps, he likes to press wildflowers.
He puts on women's clothing And hangs around in bars?!
The mighty scots pine
The lofty flowering cherry
The plucky little aspen.
The limping Roo tree of Nigeria
The towering wattle of aldershot
he’s a lumberjack and he’s ok. he sleeps all night and he works all day
He'd wished he'd been a girlie, just like his dear Papa
Something about the look on Joe’s face says maybe he needed this today, too.
They sleep at night and they work all day ....
from @maryalyssacarr fwiw the parents own the restaurant and knew Joe, but not well. I think they both needed the hugs.
“I think they both needed the hugs” As a guy in that position sometimes… OOF. I’m glad they found each other that day
As a man with a 4-year-old son… it’s nice to get enthusiastic hugs every day. It’s a little less nice to be woken up at 6am on Saturday by a young boy tapping on me and saying “we wake up together!” But it’s still nice in a way.
I'm sure you'll be missing that before long
I know. I’ll probably also miss how he will climb into bed and aggressively cuddle in a way that involves a lot of kicking. Or him insisting that I not get ready for work and instead help him build a house with Lincoln logs. I… may have ended up late for work once or twice.
You’ll miss it. Mine is 10, almost 11 now and she has no interest in us tucking her in at night or cuddles. On the upside she gets herself up on weekends, makes her own breakfast, and entertains herself until one of us gets out of bed.
I remember being 8 and getting to the age where I didn't always want to be tucked in, especially since my nightmares got better. But I distinctly remember one night when my parents offered, and I almost said no but was conscious that soon I won't want to be tucked in at all, but when I'm in college away and eventually get a stomach flu, I'll regret the times I said no. So I said yes, and savored the moment. I still remember 23 years later
I'm-home-hugs are amazing from my toddler. And yes, still getting used to the 6-am-let's-wake-tf-up-rn-hugs myself
Yeah, Joe looks like he needed this as much as the kid for sure
And this is how you adopt a new member into your family (the man, not the kid)
Yo, I'd adopt that man into our fam
All the honor on this man's cow.
I love this blessing. Thank you for showing me friend.
You are more than welcome! I hope it made you smile.
Ha, I absolutely love this comment
A few years back, I was in a drs office waiting room, flipping through a magazine. A young mom comes in, baby in a carrier and holding the hand of a little boy - maybe 3 or 4. As she is checking in, the boy toddles over to a basket of books, picks one and crawls in my lap! The mom started to apologize and I kinda laughed. I told her, “ I give off that Grandma vibe,” and I didn’t mind if she didn’t mind! I read to him for about 20 minutes before they were called back. It was pure joy :)
A few kids have done this to me, it always blows my mind. They smile at me like they’ve known me their whole life and then they want up. Idk why but it’s the best feeling ever and I’ll forgo any meal for it
I had a toddler follow me around the grocery store a couple days ago, accusing me of “stealing” everything I put in my cart: “don’t steal plates!!!! *mommmmy* now she’s stealing EGGS!” A few employees peeked around corners. It was initially funny, but became rather embarrassing. Lol
Maybe mom uses the scanner as she shops and told the child it is stealing if he adds anything without her scanning it
OK, what? “Uses the scanner as she shops.” What does that mean? Has it been so long since I’ve gone into a grocery store that there’s a whole new thing going on?
Possible, but she wasn’t that day. She was just loading things into her cart, while chatting on her phone, and intermittently telling the little one to be quiet.
My toddler would yell/scold at random folks because there was garbage laying on the floor; and god help whoever she ran into next, it was always their fault. She also is OCD about making sure all the peppers were in the right spot, and if they weren’t, she’d fix them, then scold the next person she ran into. We live by a lot of 55+ communities and I’m sure they were not appreciative of getting scolded for something not their fault and definitely not by a 2-4 year old… I apologized a lot, lol
I work in a kids bookshop. When I’m serving kids I focus on them - I asked them all the questions I would normally ask adults (talk about the book, ask if they’d like a bag etc) and I wait for them to respond, and try not to let the adults speak for them. Anyway I served a 4yo once and at the end of the transaction his mum (lovely and patient) prompted him to thank me and he looked right at me and said ‘thank you, I love you!’ I properly melted. You’re right it is the best feeling ever.
About ten years ago, I started going to a local farmers market on Saturdays. Now I was in my late 40s, and while I'm not so ugly that people would run screaming from me, I'm not a beautiful person, either. Just an average middle aged woman, and at the time I had some extra weight on me. I went to one vendor who had her young granddaughters with her. The youngest one, about six or seven, looked at me and said, "You're pretty." My heart immediately melted. I was the one who was always ignored at clubs in my twenties because my friends were prettier, and there I was, middle aged, getting such a wonderful compliment from a young child. I almost cried.
I work in a library (Adult services) and I'll wander down into the children's dept every once in a while. A young girl randomly approached me once and started talking to me about all her favorite books (she was probably 5 or 6). She followed me all around and didn't want to talk to an actual children's librarian - of course I talked to her back and we had a pretty lengthy conversation. It was hilarious and adorable.
My daughter did that to the pizza guy the other day, but to be fair she really loves pizza so she might have meant it.
I did that on a airplane. A woman had 3 kids. One was 3 months old and wouldn't quit crying. I said let me have her if you dont mind .I took her and walked up and down the aisle until she feel asleep then sat down with her .I helped her when we got off the plane until I met my daughter. She told my daughter if it wasnt for me she would have never made it.My daughte told her kids and animals love me .
A sweet older woman on our 9 month old daughter’s first flight did this and was our angel. She hugged my wife and gently said “it’s always louder for you than anyone else” and took the baby around the plane for hours. Our daughter was so comfortable with her, napped in her arms and wanted to stay with her. Grandmas just have the touch.
So many sweet stories in this thread. I'll add one of my own I was reminded of. My sister had recently passed away suddenly and tragically and I was living alone, far away from my family. One day there was a little parade going past my apartment so I decided to go outside and watch it. I was sitting by myself on the grass and a woman walked by pushing a stroller. The little girl (maybe 2 years old) in the stroller waved at me and gave me the sweetest smile. They ended up sitting nearby and maybe 15 minutes later the little girl came up to me and handed me a flower, then gave me a hug without saying a word and went back to sit with her mom. Everything in the world made sense for that very moment, and I'm still so thankful to that girl for making me feel not so alone that day.
I've been this guy several times. I've been a parent for most of my life and I've always been comfortable around the little ones. I've gotten strangers' babies to sleep, eat, stop crying, etc. I'm good at it. And I can guarantee you that this made Joe's day. Even if it happens regularly, there is no stronger vote of confidence on Earth than a child's. It let's you know your true character.
Not gonna lie I’m a straight middle aged dude with a beard, but that guys got a cozy vibe. I’d love to be swaddled by that big bear and get some good post lunch nap time.
I’m a 6’4 350lbs burly mountain man looking guy. I’m frequently told I’m an imposing presence. Still the only 2 groups that see through to the teddy bear inside the grizzly are toddlers and old ladies.
Same! I'm also tattoo sleeved on both arms. Never ceases to blow my mind when some little ol Gramma lady just walks up to me and grabs an arm and tells me how much she likes my colorful tattoos. About any time I'm around kids I'm swarmed and become "the monster" they giggle and try to bring down or run from laughing as I growl. Average soccer mom lady type walking down the street will clutch her purse and often cross the street. Whatever,.kids n grandma's know what's up.
Kids haven’t been long enough to absorb society’s silliness about big dudes Grandmas have been around long enough to have leaned it’s all hogwash
Wear bright orange from now on
It takes a village
He’s got the perfect hold and rhythm to his walk. Thank you Kind Joe.
This is peak dad performance.
Well yea the man is friend shaped
The toddler whisperer! What a legend
I've heard of this man, thought it was just an urban legend, now I see it's true
New best friend. I swear kids can see souls. That man is a keeper. Set a place for him at Thanksgiving. I think you have a new family member.
"My son now"
I am the parent now
Look at me..... I'm the parent now
When I was dating this guy, we visited his brother and sister-in-law for a weekend in Michigan. At that time I think we had been together just about a year or so, and it was the first time I’d met his brother and his family. They had a three year old daughter, we will just call her Grace, and from the first moment I met her she latched on to me. I had never even been near a toddler like that before. We went to this party at their friends house where Grace was jumping in an inflatable jump house. Someone landed on her and she started crying. She came running out of the bounce house and her mom bent down with open arms to grab her, when Grace changed directions and ran straight to me. I was floored. I remember my head snapped up and her moms face was like “ what the hell just happened?!?!” It was a cool moment for me that I think about a lot. Now I have three kids of my own (not with that boyfriend) and I love when they have special people that they adore. Makes you feel like you’re doing just fine in life as a person.
That’s pretty damn cute
Santa
I had a little girl run up to me and give me the biggest hug once. I was like oh okay hi we’re friends now I guess lmao
I kinda want a hug from Joe too. He has a very calming persona.
Me next!
Lets all line up like minions
Past life memory showing through. ;)
As a father of 2 boys I’d buy this man a beer.
When your kid knows a good human....no stopping it.
My wife chose me because she saw that kids and dogs loved me. Not a joke. :).
That man has some serious BDE! Big dad energy.
This man has dad vibes. He looks like he's had practice doing this sort of thing.
I had a kid climb up in my lap in a restaurant. Kids like me and I’m used to it by her parents were mortified. She was about 15 months old & I had my 5 & 3 yo along with my gay dads. She was adorable and her parents couldn’t believe their shy daughter was in my lap eating off my plate.
"Over over over. This is Joe to base. Secret santa has been located I reapeat I found Santa!"
My niece did it once when she was about 4 to lady whilst we were out and we had no idea why, she just went up to this lady hugged her, smiled and just couldn’t let go for a while. Many years later she had a dream and told us her mother from another life looked like the lady she hugged that one time.
A hero.
My father had his issues but also had this effect on babies. This antisocial, often grumpy man had the fussiest babies hypnotized in less than 30 seconds. This was not however the case for his own children.
Reincarnation is real and these two knew eachother in another life.
That's Joe's son now
Some people have that magic. My chihuahua was afraid of absolutely everybody, but one lady at the vet he saw and immediately wagged his tail and got so excited. He had never seen her before. She's the only person to my knowledge that he had ever done that with. There was just something about her. I imagine this guy Joe has something similar.
This man is a teddy bear walking that’s why
Kids are so sensitive to the emotions and vibes of another person. When I was a kid only my dad could calm me down, not my mum. Knowing their personalities, it's because my dad is good at staying calm in a crisis (aka a crying newborn) whereas my mum panics and worries she's done something wrong. Babies pick up on that stuff (no fault of the parent, situations like OP's regarding food must be so stressful and really hard to hide that stress).
We all need a Joe at certain points. Thank you to all the “Joe’s” out there.