Category : Articles

Sub Category : Motivation

    A year ago, I was at the grocery store when a nine year old boy hugged me randomly. I was caught off guard by this, because generally kids don't directly approach people they don't know. The mother came running up to me a little awhile later with a look of shock on her face. I suppose you would expect such a response when you see your child responding so oddly to a stranger. I went ahead and knelt down to respond the same way and asked the boy why he had hugged me. He looked up happily and told me I reminded him of his late father.
   I was surprised to here this, but wondered if I really did resemble his father. After the boy had settled down, I asked the boy's mother about the incident. She told me in a short summary his father that his dad had been in the military overseas during a bungled operation a few years prior, but he hadn't seen his father in several years. She told me, I did hold a similar reappearance in the face and eyes. However, she was more overwhelmed with the thought he had hugged a stranger in public. She later apologized chased her son who was running off another direction.
   It's difficult for children to be separated from their parent's, when they know their lives are on the line everyday. It is important to recognize the emotional needs of such children who are in immediate need of a male figure. Most people would be skeptical if I told them how the incident didn't bother me afterwards, but children will catch us off guard at the most unexpected times. However, you do learn to expect the unexpected from children when you've worked around them for a few years. Children tend to be a mysterious anomaly while they are that young.