The people you briefly love when you have children.

[Psammead]

Because they make your or your children's day.

I was thinking about this today when DD was waving madly at a bus driving by, and a woman waved back. Thank-you, woman. DD was very happy.

So.

1. People who wave from busses/trains etc
   
2. People in shops who give your children something free (balloons, slice of luncheon meat, bit of deformed criossant etc)
   
3. People who smile/wave/make funny faces/chat to your child in a queue, or on a bus, train, plane etc.
   

You are all brilliant human beings. Add to the list!

[BarmeeMarmee]

Another one with a tear in her eye (blaming the fact I'm pregnant and hormonal!). Thank you for this thread OP - sometimes it's nice to be reminded that not everyone in the world is judgy or mean and that there are some lovely people out there.

I second what lots of you have already said and would add the manager in our local House of Fraser cafe who every time we go in there finds a little freebie for my DS (23 months) and makes a point of squatting down to give it to him in his buggy, rather than handing it to me - it makes his day that you talk to him, thank you.

Also the one midwife who, when DS was readmitted to hospital at less than 2 days old, floppy, unresponsive and not having had any milk off me since birth (defective mummy alert!) was the one person who told me not to worry about breast feeding and said that if I wanted to keep trying she would come and help me, every three hours through the night and then we would give him some formula as a top up. No judgement, no criticism, just pure support and understanding. For a very scared, emotional and out of her depth new first time mummy it meant the world. I wish I had told her.

[BebeAurelie]

When DD was still little and breastfeeding we had a nasty incident where I was made to leave somewhere because I was breastfeeding her, it was unpleasant for all concerned.

The next time out after that I was feeding discretely in the corner of a cafe, with my back turned to all the other customers, just hoping no one would notice what I was doing, feeling ready to cry if anyone said anything to me.

Then I heard 'are you breastfeeding your baby?' and my heart sank. I turned around and it was a man in his 70s beaming from ear to ear, he said he fondly remembers his late wife feeding their 3 babies and how proud he had been of his wife because he knew it can be hard work breastfeeding. He gave me a cheerful 'well done and carry on' and left the cafe muttering to himself about the wonders of breastfeeding and it really is a miracle.

All the others in the cafe thought he was a nutter but he gave me my confidence back when I really needed it. I loved that man that day!

[Taffeta]

BebeAurelie - I had managed to hold off the tears until I read your post. How very lovely.

[PeppermintPasty]

Here's one from left field...ME! For helping the mother with her endlessly vomiting child in Longleat's toilets while everyone else made the old cat's bum mouth and wrinkled their noses while rushing for the door. Poor little girl couldn't stop spewing over the floor, Dad was standing fairly gormlessly by the door to the loos afraid to go in so I mopped them both up using all the wipes we had left, called for a member of staff with a bucket and mop and carried the little girl over her own piles of vom to pass her to her Dad outside. The woman cried.

I am fab

[spooktrain]

Akelas everywhere :)
All our cub leaders are students in their early 20s and they do a FANTASTIC job, I really take my hat off to them. They put so much time into planning everything and making sure everyone is ok.
That goes for Brown Owls too

[spooktrain]

You are fab, Peppermint, I quite agree :)

[PeppermintPasty]

. Bit too at the violent self promotion

[BebeAurelie]

He really was lovely, I was fully expecting it to be someone being nasty, he was a lovely surprise.

The really wonderful thing is that it gave me that boost to carry on breastfeeding when I was ready to give up. Also when we were next at the hospital for DD to have her check up (she had some problems in the early days) they asked if I would donate milk to the baby intensive care unit. So without knowing it that man helped me to keep breastfeeding my baby but he also helped me to go on to donate milk to the really, really sick and prem babies in intensive care.

I reckon his wife would be pretty proud of him too!

[WheresMyCow]

Your post made me cry too BebeAurelie How lovely

[Poulay]

When I was 9, going home on the bus, my mum had bought me one of those balloons with seeds in that makes a noise when you pump it. An oik put his lit cigarette end (smoking allowed on those days) to make it burst.

An old lady in purple gave me a pound, that made me feel much better.

[BebeAurelie]

[WheresMyCow]

I've always been a waver...kids in cars, coaches on trains, I just love the smile that you get back from them. I just never realised how good it made parents/children feel until I had DS.

[Psammead]

It's lovely reading these replies

[leaving68]

My son will be doing that in his 70's - not just the muttering to himself - but also complimentaing women on BF ! He was BF-ed until he was 3.5 years old and still remembers it well (nearly 8 years old now).

I love it when boys and men (no matter how old) see the beauty of BF as much as BF mums.

[ollywollydoodle]

The lovely, lovely lady who befriended my five year old DD when we were staying in a small hotel in Cornwall. It was my first holiday as a young widow with two children. My DD was missing her daddy and she went out of her way to entertain and talk to her. They exchanged addresses and wrote to each other; this continued until she died a couple years ago. My daughter is now 28 with DC of her own. Janet we will never forget your love and kindness.

[BebeAurelie]

leaving Yes, somehow it almost meant more that it was a man telling me what I good thing I was doing, not sure why though. When I started feeding my second one and had that first bfeed out in public again I was a little nervous and thought of him and smiled.
It was just a throw away conversation for him on his way out of a cafe one day, but to me that day it meant the world.

[MyNameIsInigoMontoya]

People who bring things across the road to you when DCs drop them in the middle of the crossing and you can't easily get all of you back there to retrieve them (most recently, DD's comforter but it's happened more than once!)...

The security guard who suddenly appeared looming at my shoulder in the supermarket after following us all round Smiths next door - I thought he was going to accuse me of shoplifting but actually he had brought DD's comforter which she had dropped (again - see a theme here?)

And all the people at a Meccano exhibition recently who didn't mind making their machines move again and again and again for DS and DD who were standing there with their mouths hanging open in fascination!

[BarmeeMarmee]

Ollywollydoodle - I have officially now failed at keeping the tears in my eyes and I'm hiding as I'm at my desk at work. The kindness of strangers huh? And so lovely that she continued to be a part of your daughter's life.

[NorbertDentressangle]

The waving stories remind me of 2 lovely policemen who were stopped in their car at red traffic lights with their window open.

DD, who was about 1 at the time, used to get excited if she ever saw a police car, fire engine or ambulance so when she saw the car she was bouncing in her seat in the pushchair shouting "nee-naw, nee-naw" and pointing at the them, beyond excited.

They both waved and said hello to her and the one gave me a cheeky wink. It really made my DDs day .

[leaving68]

Waiters and hotel workers, etc. abroad usually (in the UK we have lost the art of appreciating children) who hug my son, say how beautiful he is and give him gifts.

Like the waiter who once went back into the restaurant, brought back a little yellow school bus toy (it was tiny and very very old !!!) which entertained our son for the entire meal. We were on a Mediterrenean holiday of course.

This kind of thing usually happens when we are on Mediterrenean visits, it hardly ever happens here in Cambridge.

I think it's very sad that children often get igonred in public places here in the UK if not actually get treated as though they are in the way, i.e. silly couple looking annoyed and staring at us in a Chinese restaurant in Cambridge a few weeks ago when we were out celebrating a very special event (Oh my goodness they seemed to be saying, WHY do you have your 7.5 year old out dining at 9 pm ?).

There were no other children in the resatuarnt of course. We often take our son out for dinners past bed time, shock horror !!!!! We prefer being with him than leaving him at home with a babysitter.

[leaving68]

Bebe - I know exactly what you mean. I LOVE it when my son (and men) talk about BF with some experience/knowledge.

[racingheart]

The dentist who let them operate the chair to make it tip back, calling it a Dr Who chair, and then insisted that they squirt me with the water spray before having it put into their mouths. They've never been scared of going to the dentist which I'm so thankful for as I was so scared by the vicious nutter in charge of my teeth as a kid that I used to shake for days beforehand.

[EMS23]

The receptionist at Audi Bridgend who held my 18mo DD for half an hour, letting her draw all over her paperwork and still managed to answer the phones etc.
My car had been crashed into in their carpark and the other driver shouted at my DH and I for an hour!

The lady on Tesco checkout who noticed my distress when I was buying all the bottle feeding stuff with 6 day old DD and told me all about how she'd struggled to BF. I was really distraught about how I'd failed at that point.

The older boy in our village who takes DSS under his wing at village events, including him in all their games. All the other kids know each other but as DSS is only with us half the time he doesn't know them.

[CinnabarRed]

Please, please can this go into Classics? Pretty please?

[PrematurelyAirconditioned]

Every dog owner in South London who stands patiently while my dog-mad DCs make a fuss of their dogs and answer endless questions about them. Including the ones who, when asked "can I pat your dog" explain nicely and apologetically that no, sorry, doggy is a bit grumpy so you can't touch.

I will graciously accept thanks on behalf of all buggy-luggers, since I seem to help so many mums carry them up and down Tube stairs that by the law of averages I've probably assisted most London buggy users by now . But that's because I accepted help from so many kind people in my buggy-pushing days.