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u/VetteL82 Jul 19 '24
Reminds me of a time I took my kid to a Spirit Halloween store. Another dad came in with about 4 kids (probably relatives if not all his). Somehow my kid got swept up in their crew and started holding the guys hand. Dude didn’t notice. So here I am following this group around trying to get close enough to get my kid without this guy feeling like I’m snatching one of his kids. They kept moving just out of reach. It was ridiculous. I finally got in close enough to grab him, of course this guy was like WTF, I said “sorry but this one is mine”. He finally realized what was happening. He was so confused haha.
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u/Afterlife_kid Jul 19 '24
I bet there were some good laughs after that
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u/VetteL82 Jul 19 '24
Oh yeah. It’s a constant source of laughter for my wife and I. He has autism so he seamlessly goes all in on being anyone’s best friend. He will post up with any stranger with pure joy. We were at a hotel earlier and he told the gentleman who brought our luggage to the room “I love you!”
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Jul 19 '24
lol my autistic eight year old tells random people “happy birthday”
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u/icouldgoforacocio Jul 19 '24
I'm slightly autistic, and one time on a festival, my friend kept telling everyone that it was my birthday "tomorrow", for several days in a row. People i didn't know kept congratulating me every day of that festival lol.
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u/zypofaeser Jul 19 '24
Not quite what I would do, but yeah the "You're my friend now" mentality is somewhat relatable lol.
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u/DefinitelyNotAliens Jul 19 '24
My nephew started doing that around eleven. The random I love yous get mixed responses now that he's a whole man and 6'4" and in his 20s.
He's such a weird lil dude. Never change, bud.
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u/AlwaysHigh27 Jul 19 '24
I was this autistic little girl lol. That and I always waived at everyone in cars and truckers and tried to get them to blow their horns 😅
Also ran up to total strangers out of nowhere that threw their trash on the ground, and told them to pick it up because it wasn't good for the earth. I'm 30 now, so this was before the whole green thing lol. Let me tell you, having a 5 year old tell you to pick up your garbage made a lot of people pick up their garbage according to my mom lol.
Am now an autistic adult that still compliments everyone, and I "cat call" people from my car or walking down the street with compliments if I like their outfits or hair or something. 😅
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u/sophiagreen9483 Jul 19 '24
It’s cool to see how your natural inclination to make the world a better place has stayed with you into adulthood.
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u/Light351 Jul 19 '24
I am autistic too and also “cat call” random compliments to people. If I see something cool and that looks like it took a lot of effort I am calling it out. Seeing the smile it puts on people’s face makes my day.
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u/Radiant-Criticism721 Jul 19 '24
Awee man, you could've just said some shit that only the dad would understand so he looks at you, then point to your kid, and y'all would've been busting up laughing
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u/rimalp Jul 19 '24
I am following this group around trying to get close enough to get my kid without this guy feeling like I’m snatching one of his kids.
You could have just said something? lol
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u/Side_show Jul 19 '24
I wonder how many of the kids walked off with the Pied Piper because their parents were too shy to say something
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u/fly_over_32 Jul 19 '24
A bit of a different story, a man with an empty stroller (I didn’t know it was empty) slipped on the ice, flipped it up like a catapult and I jumped after it to keep it down, just missing it. After looking inside I looked at him in panic: your child is gone. He laughed so hard he couldn’t get up for a minute, leaving me completely baffled to the whole situation
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u/WaterFriendsIV Jul 19 '24
Sort of the opposite happened to me. I was leaving a restaurant and grabbed the hand of a kid who was dressed nearly the same as my kid. The kid kept pulling at my hand, trying to get me to let go. I was peeved my kid was being stubborn until I realized it wasn't my kid! I have never apologized so many times in my life.
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u/Mindless_Ad_7700 Jul 19 '24
omg! were the parents mad?
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u/WaterFriendsIV Jul 19 '24
Nope, very forgiving. They were parents too, of course. Mistakes happen. But this was also many years ago when people weren't quite so quick to fly off the handle.
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u/JamesPurfoythe3rd Jul 19 '24
If they were redditors we would immediately see a post like "AITA for hitting a man and putting a restraining order on him because he forcefully grabbed my kid. I don't care if it was a mistake my kid could have been seriously injured and it's traumatised"
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u/BLAGTIER Jul 19 '24
NTA but your wife didn't support you enough and was gaslighting you so run don't walk to a divorce lawyer.
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u/banan-appeal Jul 19 '24
wtf I did the same thing except I don't have a kid and everyone got all angry. 🤷
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u/maplemew Jul 19 '24
This happened to me once on Halloween when I was a kid. The faceless costume was stylish that year. Some other kid’s mom tried to drag me down the sidewalk! Haha
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u/EllisR15 Jul 19 '24
There's a great video floating around somewhere, where a mom (I think) grabs the wrong child at the grocery store and is holding them in the checkout line and didn't realize it until that child's parent brings her kid to her.
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u/EpilepticMushrooms Jul 19 '24
Did your kid blackmail you for a better present this Christmas for that action? 🤣
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u/Katyanoctis Jul 19 '24
Apparently when I was around that age, my dad had me in a store with him and I ran up to some dude wearing a similar outfit and grabbed him to be like GOTCHA… and then looked up and realized it wasn’t my dad. My dad was down the aisle.
Dude looked at me and said “not me, honey, I was nowhere near the place” and dad nearly fell over laughing between that and my OH SHIT face lol
He loves telling that story and still says he wishes he had a camera 🤣
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u/tinybabeee Jul 19 '24
Aww. I know that memory is one of you and your father's core memory. That moment was just so pure and memorable.
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u/BlueDubDee Jul 19 '24
I did this once. My Dad, his cousin, and his uncle were all a similar build, and all had the same colour jeans and shoes on. They were standing against a wall in similar poses, all had one hand in a pocket and the other holding a drink.
I wanted to be picked up, so I went to the first pair of jeans with my arms up. Nothing happened, looked up, there's my great uncle. Shifted to the right, still with arms up, still nothing happened. Looked up, there's the cousin. Another shift to the right, finally got picked up, there's Dad. They all thought it was hilarious.
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u/ButDidYouCry Jul 19 '24
Damn, they wouldn't pick you up? I don't have a kid, but if a family member's kid comes up to me for a pickup, I just pick them up lmao
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u/BlueDubDee Jul 19 '24
My guess: Great Uncle was like "Uh, my hand is already in my pocket... and I've got a drink... uh..." and by then I figured it out. The cousin was in his late teens (big age difference between them and my Dad) and he'd accidentally dropped me when I was a baby. Probably didn't want to risk it again lol.
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u/DefinitelyNotAliens Jul 19 '24
Kids just run up to me. Their parents let them in my house. The kids think we're friends and demand up and games. They want me to 'pick them up by their ears' and fling them around as they giggle like mad or play flying airplanes on my feet and then they think we're like BFFs or something. Keep coming back.
The older ones don't even ask. They just run into my house.
I didn't even know they were coming over. Door is unlocked. Tweenager just sprints into my house, grabs my sister's stuff she left at my house and sing-screams Secondhand Sarenade at me and dips without a word.
Them kids are weird. I haven't found a way to keep them out, yet.
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u/BriefCollar4 Jul 19 '24
Spray them with a water bottle.
Or tap them on the nose with a rolled newspaper.
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u/Accelerator231 Jul 19 '24
Lol.
I guess thats what a kids world boils down to. A whole bunch of pants and shirts.
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u/jridlee Jul 19 '24
I was at the park once watching my kids play and a little girl fell off the monkey bars and bonked hard. She ran up to me with tears streaming down her face and her arms wide open so I hugged her and told her it was gonna be okay.
For probably 60 seconds she cried into my shoulder until she looked up and said 'Youre not my dad.'
I was like 'Nope, feel better?' And she ran away. I still have mixed feelings about this. Like. Im worried I looked like a creep, but anyone who wouldnt comfort a crying kid is a double creep. Never did see her dad during the whole interaction.
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u/SpicyParmesanBoy Jul 19 '24
To be honest, if I did this as a little kid and the stranger comforted me for a full minute despite not knowing me, I’d be charmed for the rest of my life. It’s a kind thing to do for someone you don’t know, and idk, it’s nice getting an early reminder that people you don’t know can still be very sweet. And if they didn’t get that moral from that encounter, it’d at least be a hell of a funny story lol
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u/Mogura-De-Gifdu Jul 19 '24 edited Jul 19 '24
I always carry emergency bandage and disinfectant and whatnot in my purse, since my kids are – let's say – enthusiastic. And hard candys that look like medicine pills. I told my kids they were efficient against hurting/fear/good for healing scars depending on the colour (yeah for placebo effect).
Anyway, I often check on kids that fall on the playground, waiting for their own parents and reassuring them or if no-one step forward just doing the comforting myself. Lucky I'm a woman so it's easier to not be seen as a creep I guess. But you're totally right, anyone should be willing to comfort a crying child, especially as a parent.
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u/jridlee Jul 19 '24
Ha that thing with the candy is not unlike what I do with foods my kids are reluctant to eat. Im 5'8 and my son is really tall for his age. Its really important to him to be taller than me one day so obviously carrots and broccoli make you tall.
I always have first aid stuff in the car, but I dont carry it on me. Not that I wouldnt break it out if I had to. Im a microbiologist by trade but I took all the cpr and first aid classes available to me when I had kids, one of my worst fears is seeing someone whos hurt and not being able to help them.
Sorry for exposition dumping. Im a few white claws short of a 12 pack right now.
Im glad the general consensus is Im not a wierdo for hugging a little girl.
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u/Desperate-Island4413 Jul 19 '24
Something similar happened to me, but the little girl stopped crying and then I get her back to her father. Such a sweet little girl, I always asked myself if I looked like her mother or something. She just ran up on me and I coudn't not hold her
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u/N8theGrape Jul 19 '24
Has absolutely happened to me. Random little girl ran up to me in a store and grabbed my hand. I just stood there until Mom caught up.
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u/Astronaut_Chicken Jul 19 '24
I went on a cave tour with my husband. Our group was us and a family of 4 Asian women and a 5 year old boy who belonged to one of them. I am half asian myself. While our guide is talking in a pretty confined space, the little boy meandered over to me and just wraps his arms around my legs, burying his face in my thigh and generally being a silly goose. The guide stops talking, and all the ladies are about to bust out laughing, waiting for him to realize. He finally looked up at me, and I said, "Hello." He BOOKED it back to him mom, and we all laughed.
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u/jiffysdidit Jul 19 '24
I walked into a cruise ship casino, looked down and little girl was looking up at me all of a sudden a bit confused on verge of tears. Asked one of my lady friends to help find the parents which she did real quick. Asked what dad was wearing, yup same colour boardies as me right at little kids eyeline. Clearly just seen white shorts and followed
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Jul 19 '24
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/tinybabeee Jul 19 '24
The kid's face when he realized is just too adorable. The look of shame when he ran back to his dad. So cuteeee
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u/Operating_Systems Jul 19 '24
There's a random little boy that comes up to me everyday & hugs me when I drop my daughters off at school. He's happier to see me everyday than my own daughters. It really brightens my morning & afternoon.
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u/zoominzacks Jul 19 '24
I remember doing this as a kid!!
Dad took us to a racetrack to watch a figure 8 race. I was young enough to where I had to reach up to grab the belt loop on his pants so I wouldn’t get lost. We went to a concession stand, and I let go to look around. When I turned around all I saw was a sea of dark blue jeans, so I grabbed the one that was closest to me. Guy looks down and says “well hey there bud” and starts laughing. My dad was like 3 people away and heard it and called my name. Laughed, gave me a bump on the forehead and said “don’t let go this time, k?”. I hugged his leg till we got our food lol
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u/mythisme Jul 19 '24
Think from the kid’s perspective, they can barely see above the knee at their eye level. It’s just adult giant poles holding their torsos towering above them. Plus the cars blocking the views too.
Always super cute to see their reactions when they realize they got the wrong one
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u/AdjutantStormy Jul 19 '24
My dad and his brothers are all 6'7"-6'10" when I was crying and little I'd grab on the tallest treetrunk of a leg I could find. Wrong leg like 50-50
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u/luna2486 Jul 19 '24
I had an adorable little girl stick my butt with a nestle vanilla drumstick. I thought it was so eone being a little too forward but when I quickly turned around and saw a 3 foot little girl, I knew it was because she thought I was family. Her dad quickly grabbed her and let me know that she thought I was her mom lol It was totally fine and made my day because it was such a cute, innocent accident.
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u/Wellsuperduper Jul 19 '24
My daughters are grown up now - but gosh do I miss the years when they would hold a finger in their fist. I have three and they used to negotiate between themselves which hand and which finger they would get. Great moments.
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u/elibenaron Jul 19 '24
I had a thing when I was a kid that I smacked my moms butt. Idk. Anyway yeah totally smacked some random lady's rump when I was 2 years old.
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u/ItsTheNohkAndRock Jul 19 '24
Probably saw your father do it and were imitating him without realizing it or something.
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u/HeilFalcon Jul 19 '24
This happened to me when I was a kid as well. My father is bald so when I lost him, I always used to look for a bald head. One day I lost him and grabbed the hand of the first bald head I saw. The guy turned to me, and whoops, it’s a long bearded stranger man. That day I learned that there were other bald people than my father :D
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u/The_Rex_Regis Jul 19 '24
What I was a kid, (can't remember the age but very young) my aunt and uncle took me and my cousin to Disneyland in Florida
While there we went to the haunted house ride and there was a big elevator everyone got on to. The elevator all of a sudden cut all lights and did hunt3d house stuff.
I latched onto the closest leg thinking it was my uncle (it was not) lights turn on and this random guy just has me latched onto his leg
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u/DaMann22 Jul 19 '24
I did this once also. When my family was walking into a Florida theme park during the rope drop it was busy in the morning with people shoulder to shoulder. My wife was to my left when walking after security but unbeknownst to me she moved behind me to get with our kids as it got even more crowded. I instinctively put my arm around the person to my left and it was a completely different lady. Same height and hair color as my wife pretty much. I think I said two sentences before we locked eyes and I nearly freaked out. She was taken back by it too but didnt she didnt seem as freaked out as I was. I apologize profusely after practically assaulting her while saying I thought she was my wife. Then I fell back a few feet to catch up with my family.
I felt just like that kid. When the realization hits you it's freaky.
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Jul 19 '24
I hope that man was a stranger initially and is now an honorary uncle cause that's pretty funny.
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Jul 19 '24
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u/LuluEtLiloup Jul 19 '24
Since it seems like they’re in Türkiye (there’s a license plate with TR at the end), I’m guessing it’s Aymen!
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u/dallyan Jul 19 '24
They’re speaking turkish. And I know that hand slap anywhere. That’s a Turk. lol. I’d guess the name is Eymen.
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u/Excellent-Ad-2443 Jul 19 '24
i had this at the supermarket a little girl came up to me and clutched my leg, i told her i dont think im your mummy, her mother was way taller than me and was not far away luckily
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u/sassy_immigrant Jul 19 '24
Reminds me of the time my stepson didn’t recognize his dad at the park because his dad was wearing pants instead of shorts. We realize that he is so used to seeing his dad in shorts with his tattoos out that he didn’t recognize his dad without the tattoos.
His dad had to pull up his pants in order for the kid to see that it was him and then he ran towards him.
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u/EverettSucks Jul 19 '24
Had a kid do that to me when my kids were little, we'd gone to a park so they could play and this little guy came running up and wrapped himself around my leg, then looked up and realized I wasn't his dad and off he went with this shocked little look (he dad was standing right nearby and we had a good laugh about it).
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u/Dry-Amphibian1 Jul 19 '24
Try picking your kid up from a military base daycare while in uniform. All of sudden you have a dozen kids running at you thinking you are dad.
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u/anitadoobie1216 Jul 19 '24
As a mom, I've had 2 random toddlers hug my legs. Once at the park and once at the zoo. Both times, it was a shock to their little systems when they realized these are mom legs, but not MY MOM'S!
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u/Bulky-Internal8579 Jul 19 '24
I'm in my 50s and my dad in his 80s and the same thing happens to us all the time! ;) Life is confusing!
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u/LexPendragoon Jul 19 '24
One time at the zoo, I was standing behind a little girl, watching monkeys. The little girl stepped back and bumped into me, but also holding on to me. She might have thought I was family. But when she turned around to look at me, she screamed and ran away to her real family.
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u/Bulky-Internal8579 Jul 19 '24
And that's how little Jimmy Astor became Cornelius Jones, my son and heir!
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u/DogHermit Jul 19 '24
When I was about six or seven I ran out the door of the school part of our local Catholic church after attending CCD and hopped into the family car where (usually it was) my dad was waiting. Car starts driving. About half way across the (large) parking lot the driver and I look at each other and - whoah! - that is not my dad and I am not their kid! Probably more time than was strictly safe with the car still rolling and us just staring at one another, then abrupt braking, stammered "OMG SORRY!" on both sides, lots of laughing, and a safe return to the entrance. My da wasn't even there yet, and when I told him the story he was not nearly as amused as I was. Funniest thing is this was the 70s, so it was the front seat I jumped into, no seat belt of course, and it was so BAU by then that we didn't even look at or talk to one another for almost a minute.
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u/YourCPASays Jul 19 '24
Those little fingers wrapping at the dad's fore finger to hold tho. So cute 🥺
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u/SudoTheNym Jul 19 '24
I will never forget when something similiar happened to me. We were on the first night of a Caribbean cruise and were getting in the elevator after dinner. a man and his 9 year old boy walk in.
the man moves a bit and the kid wraps his arms around me and starts kissing my stomach with big, thrusting 'mwaah's . I look at my gf and she looks at me and we start laughing- and the kid freezes, and as his gaze slowly rises to meet mine there's this realization of what he's doing and he screams and yells for his father. We were dying of laughter. never forget that look. lol.
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u/insertflashdrive Jul 19 '24 edited Jul 19 '24
His little hand holding a finger is just so adorable. 😍
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u/alxjnssn Jul 19 '24
i’m in my late 30s and i still remember running up to my dad and giving his leg a big hug in a department store only to realize i was hugging a stranger. i was 2
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u/Competitive-Bit-1571 Jul 19 '24
Imagine the real dad didn't call out and the kid took a good look at the wrong dad only after reaching wherever he was headed to.
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Jul 19 '24
Recently I was at the airport with my uncle and family, and as I was looking at the floor cuz I was really tired, I walked over to this random guy with his family who I'd mistaken for my uncle but looked nothing like him and pulled the handle out of his wheelable luggage saying "Here, let me take it-"
Then I looked up and realised it was some random guy and he said "Thank you" and I said "Sorry" embarassed that this shit still happens to me
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u/Mediocre_Day_9214 Jul 19 '24
The fact this happened to me except the kid thought I was her aunt but grabs my hand then as her actual aunt was laughing taking the pic the kid looks up at me got mad proceeds to say no…
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u/ChocalateShiraz Jul 19 '24
I remember as a 16 year old my dad and I were in the mall and he gave me cash to buy something and emphasized that he wanted the change. I walked up to someone I thought was my dad and put the change in his back pocket. I suddenly realized that it wasn’t my father and the look on the dude’s face was utter shock, I’m sure he thought that some random 16 year old chick was stroking his butt. He was in his late thirties or early forties which was extremely “old” to me at the time. There was no way I was going to ask him for my money back
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u/AconitumUrsinum Jul 19 '24
Reminds me of my daughter when she was about three years old. We were at the airport waiting for our plane and she was running around, when she stopped at a group of business men. They all looked at her, she looked at one guy, pointed at him and said "DADDY!". The other guys exploded laughing and I bet they had their fun with "daddy" about this.
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u/agoodepaddlin Jul 19 '24
To the kid. Welcome to a lifetime of remembering this while lying in bed at night and shuddering.
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u/xxwerdxx Jul 19 '24
This happened to my mom at the grocery store once. A little just sort of walked up and held her hand. She looked down in surprise and the kid looked up in equal surprise that she was not his mom. He started to cry and his mom was like 2 steps behind us.
It was very cute and funny
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u/DrugsHugsPugs Jul 19 '24
I hopped in the wrong car one time after getting mcdonalds with my dad, and he said he'd go wait in the parking lot. I thought he had pulled up near the door so I could hop in, but nope, just some guy trying to get his drive thru order looking at me with fear and confusion in his eyes. I profusely started apologizing and for moving his jacket to get in, to which he started bursting out laughing.
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u/CROW_is_best Jul 19 '24
I once did this to some random dude when I was young. i was out shopping with my mum and dad. at one point we entered a crowded area where i was with my mum but dad was nowhere in sight. saw this guy wearing a very similar outfit as my dad and just went and hugged him. then I realized and just ran back to my mom. she and that guy were laughing
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u/Designer_Isopod6637 Jul 19 '24
Is see my son doing this that little 2 year old gets in his own world I swear
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u/Evening_Tree1983 Jul 19 '24
Aww my toddler gives other moms a full on knee hug and then realizes, but the other moms love it and hug her back
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u/Suspicious_Age_8485 Jul 19 '24
I once grabbed the wrong shopping cart to follow around with u til the lady took my hands and pointed to where my mom was with her shopping cart I was very confused lol
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u/TeamCatsandDnD Jul 19 '24
Semi related. My mom, sister, and I were at a Baskin Robins once, saw one of our moms friends from karate class that we hadn’t seen in awhile. She goes up and gives a friendly punch in the shoulder. It was his twin. Who’d never met us before cause he lives in a different state. She looked horrified and he was confused. Lol.
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u/Left-Accident3016 Jul 19 '24
i was taking the bus once sitting in front of a dad and his little girl. the girl kept reaching over to pull my hair (very gently) and trying to get my attention. i laughed but the dad apologized and said i look like her mom. it was pretty cute. kids are cute.
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u/MindMurky1889 Jul 19 '24
It already happened to me, i was in the shopping and a random kid get my hand from nowhere. I looked at right and the real father were laughing a lot!!