calmed a screaming child
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-eight years and a million words
Kokubunji, 2025.03.02
Today, again, I calmed a screaming child. She was about 18 months to two years, and overwrought. She was with her mum in a child's seat in the back of a bike, but bawling away so much that the mum couldn't get going. Dad cleared out, being on a separate bike.
I told the mum, "Sometimes if I show my foreign face, kids get quiet," and tried it, poking my face around and saying, "hello, hello." Sure enough, she quietened.
Her mum told me, "thank you!" in English.
I've done this a few times, even kids in the eight-to-ten range will put off a tantrum about something they want in the store if I do this.