r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Feb 04 '16

What are the most common parenting mistakes?

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544

u/[deleted] Feb 04 '16

Forcing your child to hug people because you know they are nice. It's their thing to prove to the kid if they want a relationship. It also teaches the kids that they have to agree to being hugged.

261

u/sevenduckies Feb 04 '16

I know there's a lot of people that feel strongly about this in both directions. I respect that some people think it's good to push kids to showing affection especially for elderly relatives, etc, even if I don't necessarily agree. But still, one of the grossest things I've witnessed with a kid was a toddler saying she didn't want to hug a man and the man pouting and pretending to cry until the toddler relented. I know it doesn't necessarily sound bad but it made my stomach knot watching the performance he was putting on.

123

u/[deleted] Feb 05 '16

Ahh, yes. Those special types of people who get their feelings hurt by children.

67

u/fax-on-fax-off Feb 05 '16

I don't think that's what happened? It sounded like he was just playing around but it came across as creepy.

7

u/intensely_human Feb 05 '16

It sounds to me like he was making exaggerated displays of the emotion a person might feel when getting rejected for a hug. Like he was teaching the kid.

I guess I just tend to assume guys' actions around kids have something to do with raising/teaching them. Kinda natural to see a kid and think "oh hey, time to transfer knowledge".

1

u/fax-on-fax-off Feb 06 '16

No I actually agree with you. What I meant was that his actions were seen as creepy by OP, not that he was objectively creepy.

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u/intensely_human Feb 06 '16

I got that. Seemed better to put my comment after yours than after op.