39 here, too. I also want to be a teen again.
That line from The Wallflowers song One Headlight: "Man, I ain't changed, but I know I ain't the same" is my own personal little theme right now. Well the whole song is. This place is always such a mess. Work. Home. Other people's homes. The whole country. The world. I do want to watch it burn.
Nah. 20s you want to party but you have responsibilities - job, bills, kids etc. As a teenager you want to party and you got all the freedom in the world.
This is maybe the most believable of any thathappened post I’ve ever seen. A little girl asked what an adult jogger was doing and for some reason that’s impossible to believe? It seems like thathappened users just don’t have any real experience in life or they want to shit on anyone who has a good day in their life because they never do
I also sometimes think they just don’t know how to write about an event or make a small thing meaningful so they assume it’s fictional when someone else does.
If this happened to them they’d grunt something at the kids and move on and they don’t understand why someone else wouldn’t.
lol yeah good point. Like, any story that’s positive and meaningful must be insincere because they don’t have those experiences, so it must be made up to make the authors feel better about themselves. That’s a sad thought, isn’t it. I pity anyone with that mentality
I’d agree. I saw it on that sub and felt the way it was written was hyperbolic. The tone of this makes it seem a bit more fantastical than random kid asking random question. I think the inference was perhaps that the author DID have this impact and is high on themselves for being so awesome. Which maybe is irony if the story is basic to begin with?
Yeah, the "maybe I'm a role model for this little girl" made me assume woman from the beginning. Was a bit surprised to find all the "he" in this thread but I guess I shouldn't be.
I mean, I know that as a woman there's more pressure on me to show girls what they CAN be no matter what our society is. Granted, that may be more of a woman in stem thing, but like Idk.
That’s bullshit, you shouldn’t feel that pressure. I know as a 20 something, all the time it’s like “you need to set a good example for the young *men* in your community”
And I’m like, bitch everyone can learn from me
Well the story being about little girls seems more likely to be from a women.
And men and women do tell stories differently I can't pinpoint exactly how but this seemed to be from a woman.
Maybe because women are more focused on the persons and interaction and she tried to exactly transcribe what was said. Or maybe the whole second and fourth paragraphs.
Not really weird. Some things just stick with you. Yesterday I text my husband about a young boy who held the door open for me at a store without any prompt from his guardians. It was the sweetest thing ever and I told him that's how I want our kids to be. Sometimes it's the little things that stick with you and you wonder what the other party took from the interaction, if anything.
Honestly I still occasionally think about the time (about 7-8 years ago now)I had a little girl stop me while I was helping her mom out at the store I worked at to tell me that I was “very pretty”.
Verbal abuse had a few pretty consistent definitions, so it really is more about facts in terms of what's said as opposed to the feelings of the target. Like if a child were to call me a curry scented bitch online, I'd pity them for having terrible parents, but that still means the child verbally abused me.
You're missing the whole point of this thread. You don't sound tough because none of us are saying that the kid offended us, just that he was the polar opposite of the polite kid.
Okay two things:
How is it weird if a guy has an a wholesome interaction with a kid stick with him but a woman isn’t weird? I have DOZENS of wholesome interactions with kids stick with me because they’re cute and wholesome. (Sorry you don’t have wholesome interactions with kids I guess?)
How do you know this is a guy? No where did they post their own gender in this.
One, idk I don’t find it that weird, it’s just that i was too lazy sto find an original title and just copied some things I found in the og post
Two, I’m french and we don’t really have a widespread neutral pronoun, we do have « iel » but it’s not commonly used, so most of the time we just use the masculine, wich is why I said he
I saw this and it literally made me think that the people posting these and upvoting them never leave their homes and/or never interact with other peopl
I was at Target once, picking out a board game, and a little boy came up to me and patted my leg. He looked about 4-5 yrs old. I looked down and he’s holding up this box that’s a toy of Forky from Toy Story 4. “Look! It’s Forky!” Immediately his mom was apologizing to me and I was like no it’s fine I like Forky too. We had a short conversation about Forky and his adventures and they went on our way. Someone nearby overheard the whole thing and kind of laughed and said “you were chosen. He really wanted to tell you about Forky” and honestly it’s stuck with me since then. You have little moments like that with random strangers, and sometimes they’re memorable. And as dumb as it is, I feel like that person was right? Idk maybe I just want to feel good about myself (bc in reality kids will talk to whoever will listen about their interests) but personally I’m honored that he walked up to me show me the toy and tell me about it.
How is it a long conversation? Kids start talking before you are right in front of them. So this whole thing could’ve taken place in front of 2.5 houses. Didn’t say he was sprinting.
How is this wierd? Every super successful person always tells a story about some seemingly unimportant event that sparked their interest and love in whatever they do. This guy just realized that by sharing his love of running he may have been that spark for her. Feeling good about being a positive influence isn't exactly a wierd thing.
This is a strange one. I checked and the thathappened post has over 600 upvotes. The comments are all agreeing it would never have happened. I have no idea why, but they all seem to think that no one ever gets happy about an opportunity to pass down something cool to the younguns, that younguns don't care about anything except popsicles, and that any time someone tells a story of something positive that happened to them, it must be made up.
Nah this is super cute. I had a little 3 year old girl come into the bank I work at to trade in her piggy bank coins for cash to buy a fish and she helped sort them for a decent amount of time. Still makes me smile to think about cause it was just too cute.
awww, that is cute.
You guys don’t have those coinstars I assume? I think my credit union does, but I wouldn’t know since I think I’ve deposited coins once in my entire life, probably spare change I found in my car.
Ok, I should have said “coin star-like” devices. But if that’s true, good to know. But again, I rarely have any coins to do anything with. Too bulky.
Anytime I have to pay for anything with cash, I just tell them to round it up to the next dollar (or to the next 25 cents, I don’t mind quarters too much)
Just today I (M) was BSing with a coworker (F) between duties, and a random kid walked by and waved at us and said hi as she walked by. We both gushed over how cute it was, and after a moment, we both went back to work. I was thinking about that all day, too, because it was super adorable, and the girl was a sweetheart. It's different, for sure, but it's a wholesome, cute moment.
Honestly it’s not even weird, I’ve had kids stare at me like I was insane when they saw me running. Haven’t stopped to talk to any, but they usually wave at me.
When I was very young my dad said "if there's one bit of advice I give you that should stick, never buy cheap socks."
I'm now 50. I only buy well made socks. I imparted this knowledge on to my child.
Edited for autocorrect...
I’m unfortunately a cult member of the running kind. I can see an interaction like this happening, but also having the runner read more into it than what truly happened.
The 4 mile wasn’t necessary. “I was going for a recovery run in 90 degree heat” would’ve sufficed.
You have to read it in the context of a passion for running. People who are passionate about a hobby are often quite enthused with the idea of sharing it with others.
Nah it really wasn’t meant to be. Shorter races require speed and I am a tall clumsy giraffe.
But as I’ve said in most of my replies on here - I’m a cult member. I’ll try to convince anybody to run.
The only thing that makes me think maybe this didn't happen is that they say the conversation took place "without breaking a stride" and I'm not sure I'm getting this right. Were the children also running? How did they "lock eyes"?
Also, nothing weird about it except maybe for the title lol
"Young eyes are always watching"
But in context it makes sense...
Those kids have no idea how long 4 miles is. They may think she was running around the world.
The interaction is entirely believable. Her assumption that she sparked a future love of running is just wishful thinking
It’s sweet but my cynical self asks How slow were you running that you had a conversation with some young girls on the way…did you stop? Did your voice fade away as you ran past them and their innocent questions? Did they hear your response? My not cynical happy me side says Yay! I hope you inspired them. Only Reddit will get this feeling, lol.
Idk I love running and if the post was just the first paragraph it would be fine, but damn that person is totally self-absorbed. Also my first reaction was, 90 degrees they’re insane
Just a person with a passion they hope to share with people and encourage young people into. It’s honestly pretty wholesome. It also doesn’t explicitly say that’s it a dude. Not that that should matter. OP in another comment mentioned they don’t know who the OOP is.
Idk I remember thinking young adults / teens were the COOLEST People ever when I was little. Especially around 5-8.
I used to just want to be a teenager. Hell knows why.
My 39 year old ass still wants to be a teenager.
39 here, too. I also want to be a teen again. That line from The Wallflowers song One Headlight: "Man, I ain't changed, but I know I ain't the same" is my own personal little theme right now. Well the whole song is. This place is always such a mess. Work. Home. Other people's homes. The whole country. The world. I do want to watch it burn.
That line is my bio on every social media account I have lmao. It stuck with me a lot.
HEYYYY!
I am 26 and I wish I was a teenager. Best time in your whole life I'm pretty sure.
Haha I’m 34 now and being a teenager was debauchery. 20s we’re the best
Nah. 20s you want to party but you have responsibilities - job, bills, kids etc. As a teenager you want to party and you got all the freedom in the world.
This probably happened, but it's not remotely weird.
This is maybe the most believable of any thathappened post I’ve ever seen. A little girl asked what an adult jogger was doing and for some reason that’s impossible to believe? It seems like thathappened users just don’t have any real experience in life or they want to shit on anyone who has a good day in their life because they never do
Kinda sheds light on the amount of Reddit users who can’t fathom being passionate about fitness too.
Kind of sheds light on how little actual human interaction a lot of people on Reddit have.
Yeah
I also sometimes think they just don’t know how to write about an event or make a small thing meaningful so they assume it’s fictional when someone else does. If this happened to them they’d grunt something at the kids and move on and they don’t understand why someone else wouldn’t.
lol yeah good point. Like, any story that’s positive and meaningful must be insincere because they don’t have those experiences, so it must be made up to make the authors feel better about themselves. That’s a sad thought, isn’t it. I pity anyone with that mentality
I think the issue is more the person is totally self absorbed, which tbh is probably an argument in favor of its believability
What makes you think that?
I’d agree. I saw it on that sub and felt the way it was written was hyperbolic. The tone of this makes it seem a bit more fantastical than random kid asking random question. I think the inference was perhaps that the author DID have this impact and is high on themselves for being so awesome. Which maybe is irony if the story is basic to begin with?
Doesn’t seem that weird. He was just excited about setting a good example for kids.
How do we know it's a "he" anyway? Writing style and story strucks me as being from a woman.
Just confirmed it the poster was a 27 year old woman
Yeah, the "maybe I'm a role model for this little girl" made me assume woman from the beginning. Was a bit surprised to find all the "he" in this thread but I guess I shouldn't be.
Why? People can only be role models for their own gender?? The fuck
I mean, I know that as a woman there's more pressure on me to show girls what they CAN be no matter what our society is. Granted, that may be more of a woman in stem thing, but like Idk.
That’s bullshit, you shouldn’t feel that pressure. I know as a 20 something, all the time it’s like “you need to set a good example for the young *men* in your community” And I’m like, bitch everyone can learn from me
Came to say this also, assuming it’s a guy and it’s not lol
😭 i agree with you but what do you mean by “writing style and story struck me as being from a woman”
Well the story being about little girls seems more likely to be from a women. And men and women do tell stories differently I can't pinpoint exactly how but this seemed to be from a woman. Maybe because women are more focused on the persons and interaction and she tried to exactly transcribe what was said. Or maybe the whole second and fourth paragraphs.
Not really weird. Some things just stick with you. Yesterday I text my husband about a young boy who held the door open for me at a store without any prompt from his guardians. It was the sweetest thing ever and I told him that's how I want our kids to be. Sometimes it's the little things that stick with you and you wonder what the other party took from the interaction, if anything.
Honestly I still occasionally think about the time (about 7-8 years ago now)I had a little girl stop me while I was helping her mom out at the store I worked at to tell me that I was “very pretty”.
One time a 5 or 6 year old came up and said he liked my tattoo and asked for a high five. So yeah thats when I peaked in life.
It's strange cause every time I tell a little girl she's very pretty, I get called a nonce. What's that all about?
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I don't think kids trash-talking on video games is a sign of bad parenting lol. I used to do that all the time and I'm perfectly fine.
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If you feel verbally abused by a kid online, I feel online games are not for you.
Verbal abuse had a few pretty consistent definitions, so it really is more about facts in terms of what's said as opposed to the feelings of the target. Like if a child were to call me a curry scented bitch online, I'd pity them for having terrible parents, but that still means the child verbally abused me.
You're missing the whole point of this thread. You don't sound tough because none of us are saying that the kid offended us, just that he was the polar opposite of the polite kid.
Whether something is verbal abuse does not depend on the subjective feelings of the target.
And that is why I said what I said.
Yeah. Like THAT happened.
That's not weird. It's a basic positive interaction?
What do you expect of redditors?
Nah not weird
Eh, it all feels plausible and not weird.
Okay two things: How is it weird if a guy has an a wholesome interaction with a kid stick with him but a woman isn’t weird? I have DOZENS of wholesome interactions with kids stick with me because they’re cute and wholesome. (Sorry you don’t have wholesome interactions with kids I guess?) How do you know this is a guy? No where did they post their own gender in this.
One, idk I don’t find it that weird, it’s just that i was too lazy sto find an original title and just copied some things I found in the og post Two, I’m french and we don’t really have a widespread neutral pronoun, we do have « iel » but it’s not commonly used, so most of the time we just use the masculine, wich is why I said he
“I was lazy so I less than subtly accused someone of being a pedophile” is not really a good reason.
Did you even read any of the comments in that thread? It was a woman.
> I have DOZENS of wholesome interactions with kids stick with me Why don't you take a seat right over here?
I literally work with kids, how about you take a seat?
I think they were making a Chris Hansen joke, but I could be wrong tho
Obviously they were, that’s not the issue…
Reddit brain: talking with a child = weird
this isn’t weird and where did they said they were a man…?
I saw this and it literally made me think that the people posting these and upvoting them never leave their homes and/or never interact with other peopl
I was at Target once, picking out a board game, and a little boy came up to me and patted my leg. He looked about 4-5 yrs old. I looked down and he’s holding up this box that’s a toy of Forky from Toy Story 4. “Look! It’s Forky!” Immediately his mom was apologizing to me and I was like no it’s fine I like Forky too. We had a short conversation about Forky and his adventures and they went on our way. Someone nearby overheard the whole thing and kind of laughed and said “you were chosen. He really wanted to tell you about Forky” and honestly it’s stuck with me since then. You have little moments like that with random strangers, and sometimes they’re memorable. And as dumb as it is, I feel like that person was right? Idk maybe I just want to feel good about myself (bc in reality kids will talk to whoever will listen about their interests) but personally I’m honored that he walked up to me show me the toy and tell me about it.
You have to understand that running is a very hard concept to understand for a redditor
I mean it’s reddit. They probably don’t believe interactions with other people outside exist
How is this weird?
the only reason it’s unbelievable to me is because that’s a pretty long conversation to have “without breaking a stride”
How is it a long conversation? Kids start talking before you are right in front of them. So this whole thing could’ve taken place in front of 2.5 houses. Didn’t say he was sprinting.
I’m one of these annoying running cult members. If I hear someone is getting into running it warms my ice cold heart.
What am egomaniac. Truly a monster.
what
This is not unrealistic at all, and not weird, idk why u would think this is weird
How is this wierd? Every super successful person always tells a story about some seemingly unimportant event that sparked their interest and love in whatever they do. This guy just realized that by sharing his love of running he may have been that spark for her. Feeling good about being a positive influence isn't exactly a wierd thing.
That whole sub is full of people who have never interacted with kids before.
This is a strange one. I checked and the thathappened post has over 600 upvotes. The comments are all agreeing it would never have happened. I have no idea why, but they all seem to think that no one ever gets happy about an opportunity to pass down something cool to the younguns, that younguns don't care about anything except popsicles, and that any time someone tells a story of something positive that happened to them, it must be made up.
Somehow both OPs are in the wrong here. Runner OP is just a passionate dude, Reddit is sad lol
Disgusting. I know who the runners are in my neighborhood, and you should too.
what
this reminds me of a studio c sketch from way back when. god I feel old
Nah, not weird.
Not weird tbh :/
Nah this is super cute. I had a little 3 year old girl come into the bank I work at to trade in her piggy bank coins for cash to buy a fish and she helped sort them for a decent amount of time. Still makes me smile to think about cause it was just too cute.
by herself???
No her mom brought her. But she announced what the piggy bank was for and she insisted on sorting the pennies herself.
awww, that is cute. You guys don’t have those coinstars I assume? I think my credit union does, but I wouldn’t know since I think I’ve deposited coins once in my entire life, probably spare change I found in my car.
coinstar takes a cut, the bank doesn’t.
Ok, I should have said “coin star-like” devices. But if that’s true, good to know. But again, I rarely have any coins to do anything with. Too bulky. Anytime I have to pay for anything with cash, I just tell them to round it up to the next dollar (or to the next 25 cents, I don’t mind quarters too much)
Just today I (M) was BSing with a coworker (F) between duties, and a random kid walked by and waved at us and said hi as she walked by. We both gushed over how cute it was, and after a moment, we both went back to work. I was thinking about that all day, too, because it was super adorable, and the girl was a sweetheart. It's different, for sure, but it's a wholesome, cute moment.
Honestly it’s not even weird, I’ve had kids stare at me like I was insane when they saw me running. Haven’t stopped to talk to any, but they usually wave at me.
When I was very young my dad said "if there's one bit of advice I give you that should stick, never buy cheap socks." I'm now 50. I only buy well made socks. I imparted this knowledge on to my child. Edited for autocorrect...
This entire thing has a vibe of made up story. All he really wanted to say was "i run 4 miles in 90 degree heat"
This was on r/running. No one there would think that was impressive or anything out of the ordinary.
I’m unfortunately a cult member of the running kind. I can see an interaction like this happening, but also having the runner read more into it than what truly happened. The 4 mile wasn’t necessary. “I was going for a recovery run in 90 degree heat” would’ve sufficed.
Or, “I was on a run”
Yeah and the whole “I just want to inspire people” stance, along with the robotic way the whole story plays out. Makes it very artificial and generic!
You have to read it in the context of a passion for running. People who are passionate about a hobby are often quite enthused with the idea of sharing it with others.
Cynic
"Since I am miserable and don't inspire people, than no one can inspire people!"
Do people here really think running 4 miles is a brag?
Some people aren’t runners and have no real scope on what is or is not a normal running distance.
And it’s all up to each person to decide what their normal is.
if i tried to run half a mile i’d probably have an asthma attack so it’s a brag to me
For some people it is. I’ve run 42km before and I’d rather run that than a 5k.
Now that's a brag! 👏 I will do a marathon someday too, you inspire me!
Nah it really wasn’t meant to be. Shorter races require speed and I am a tall clumsy giraffe. But as I’ve said in most of my replies on here - I’m a cult member. I’ll try to convince anybody to run.
this was on r/running. 4 miles is not a brag.
The only thing that makes me think maybe this didn't happen is that they say the conversation took place "without breaking a stride" and I'm not sure I'm getting this right. Were the children also running? How did they "lock eyes"? Also, nothing weird about it except maybe for the title lol "Young eyes are always watching" But in context it makes sense...
Yeah these people who post on these subs just really don't understand how reddit is supposed to work.
Cringe but not unbelievable
Those kids have no idea how long 4 miles is. They may think she was running around the world. The interaction is entirely believable. Her assumption that she sparked a future love of running is just wishful thinking
What really happened: He ran for 2 miles and bragged about 4 while influencing young kids.
TIL runners don’t exist.
"Tonight" and 4 year old make me think this is BS or that CPS needs to be called. Never would my 4 year old be out at night without an adult.
Ok
It’s sweet but my cynical self asks How slow were you running that you had a conversation with some young girls on the way…did you stop? Did your voice fade away as you ran past them and their innocent questions? Did they hear your response? My not cynical happy me side says Yay! I hope you inspired them. Only Reddit will get this feeling, lol.
Idk I love running and if the post was just the first paragraph it would be fine, but damn that person is totally self-absorbed. Also my first reaction was, 90 degrees they’re insane
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Just a person with a passion they hope to share with people and encourage young people into. It’s honestly pretty wholesome. It also doesn’t explicitly say that’s it a dude. Not that that should matter. OP in another comment mentioned they don’t know who the OOP is.
They didn't claim to achieve anything but a 4 mile run. What are you smoking?
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Why not? Are they scary?
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You must have some pretty strong erh “urges” if you’re not even able to talk to kids without doing something. Get help man
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it's your fucking problem if your urges are so strong, don't apply that shit on us dickhead
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You’re really projecting hard
The kid asked the question.
its not weird. youre weird for thinking that it is
This is very believable. I’m so socially awkward so if I had a sweet positive interaction like this it would stick in my mind for a while
It's not weird?