Just a little shy guy

We were out for brunch over the weekend and there was this playground area for the kids to run around so they were having fun at one of those metallic old school swing sets.

Along came this cute little French girl who was probably 4 or 5 years old. I say French but she could have been Austrian or Croatian or from one of those Baltic States – I’m not very good with identifying European accents. She climbed in onto the swing next to Truett and after several minutes, she got up and took his hand, gesturing for him to follow her. Truett, being the shy little Chinese boy, looked completely befuddled and he just sat there not knowing how to react.

The husband, in his typical guy response, leaned in to me and said “Is this a sign of things to come?”

After the girl walked off, I whispered to Tru. “Son, when a pretty girl propositions you, there’s only one appropriate response. You look at her and say “Why certainly, I would like nothing more.” You can’t just ignore her.”

He was like “But I just want to sit here on the swing with mei mei.”

“Ok, how about you and mei mei go make friends with her together? I think she wants to play with you guys.” I suggested.

“Never mind, we can just play here,” he said.

Not long after, the little girl came back, looked at him and said, “You come sit here.” She pointed at a kiddy ride bus nearby and told him to follow her.

Again, he looked overwhelmed and pretty much ignored her until she went away.

I thought that maybe I should come up with ways to help him overcome his shyness but then I realized that it probably runs in the family. When I first met the husband, he was the sort who was all macho in a big group but he’d glance at his feet nervously when he was talking to a girl one on one. But then he still got the girl in the end so maybe being shy is not that bad after all.