Skip to main content

I must be scary-looking

I have a problem: Moms don't like me. Actually, they are downright petrified of me.
Let me set a scene, from today no less: Willow and I were at Kroger. Willow was snug in her car seat in the grocery cart. We were in the produce section looking for peppers when I encountered a young woman. I nodded in greeting then pushed my cart around her and headed toward the back of the store. The woman zipped past me and ran to the cart that carried her two young daughters, an infant and a 3-year-old. She then looked back at me and pushed the cart hurriedly away.
I'm used to this, having women scurry away or rein in their children whenever I approach. It's happened for years, and I acknowledge their fear in this dangerous world. Strange men are not to be trusted.
But I certainly didn't expect this to continue after Willow arrived.
I figured a father and his infant daughter might be less threatening.
Nope.
More examples:
  • A mother walking at the park in front of me with her two children let them roam freely as many as 25 yards away. As I approached, she called for the kids to come to her, held their hands, reversed direction then abandoned the path altogether, cutting across a field to the parking lot.
  • A pair of mothers at a playground repeatedly called for their children to "stay away from that man." I was "that man" pushing Willow in a baby swing.
  • A woman at a playground sees me approaching with Willow, rises from the bench and runs (yes, runs) to the slide, scoops up her two boys and heads to the car.
I've shared these stories with my wife, and she finds them odd. She has no theories (except that I match the typical vanilla description of serial killers and abductors: middle-aged, nondescript white man who stays to himself, anyone?).
My theories: I've encountered a string of coincidental exoduses or I'm sending out a nervous vibe (I'm shy talking to new people).
I must note that all the fleeing women were young mothers. I haven't had the problem with older women, grandmothers and grandfathers; they've even approached me on occasion (I've encountered only one man with a kid; he neither left nor approached me).
I'm disheartened, but I'll keep going out with Willow, to the park, to the playground and to the grocery store.
My only hope is as Willow gets older, some of these moms stick around at the playgrounds so my little girl will have some kids to play with.
I think they will, because I know Willow's charms will push her daddy's scariness, and awkwardness, into the shadows.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Willow's morning of play, play, play exhausts poor, old Dad

Willow's playtime universe continues to grow. Rapidly. Witness. In the midsummer heat, I take Willow out to our shaded backyard in the morning to play. And play she does. She climbed into her swing first. After I pushed her for a while, I got her out of the swing and put her in her wagon so she could help me convey bags of sand from the garage to the backyard to fill her sandbox (part of her new swing set) and her water table sandbox. She took rake and shovel and played in the sandbox for a bit. Then she waddled over to the deck and started to climb the steps to get to the water table. She played in the sand a bit, but most of her time was used dipping water up and out of the water part of the water table. Most the water ended up all over her. After that she wanted off the deck to go back to swinging. Instead I retrieved the new tricycle Cherish procured from a Franklin recycle center and cleaned it up. Willow loved the trike, holding on to the handle bars while I pushed her...
Post a Comment
Read more

Willow hones her friend-making skills

Up until now Willow has enjoyed the company of other tots her age only in the sense that where they are is where the fun and the toys are. That is to say she likes the toys and the gyms and the swings and if she has to be around these other toddlers, so be it. That's with kids her own age. She LOVES older kids, but they don't care much for her (other than "she's a baby," and Willow can't keep up with them, though she tries). Her older cousin, Rett, for example, hung the stars and moon in her opinion, so she'll just about do anything he does, including cozying up with him on the chair to watch a movie. And he does like her more than the typical older kid does. But as far as all the toddlers and babies roughly in Willow's age range, she doesn't have much use for them. She's not mean to them. She'll let them take a ball from her hand, for example (as some say, she plays well with others). But I can tell you, most definitely, she just doesn...
Post a Comment
Read more

Willow's tooth-brushing goes from rocky to rocking

Willow has been giving us fits for months now about brushing her teeth before bed. She's usually better brushing her teeth in the morning, meaning it's less like wrestling an alligator for me, but at night before bed, she turns into the Tasmanian Devil. We've tried making the tooth-brushing as fun as possible for her, but I usually end up holding her against her will while I try, mostly in vain, to pry the toothbrush into her clamped-shut mouth. Sometimes we give up. We've tried singing to her. Dancing. Story-telling. Tickling. Nothing has really worked. But Mommy might have hit on the solution. A singing toothbrush. Yesterday Mommy brought home a toothbrush that belts out Queen singing "We Will Rock You." This toothbrush ROCKS! And Willow loves it. We tried it out last night, and on the inaugural brushing, Willow brushed her teeth successfully all by herself. She danced the whole time too. And I stayed bruise free (I also, surprisingly, had more energ...
Post a Comment
Read more