TIFU but looking like a paedo

Submitted by thegasman2000 t3_11d6e9s in tifu

Obligatory this happened a couple of days ago…

So I was walking through my little town the other day with a friend. I saw a little girl and remarked to him how I knew the little person. I did this slightly too loud and the mother looked around and me with a face to stop my heart. I mumbled, while continuing to walk as I was dying inside, that I knew her from when busking. She shook her head and just said ‘no’. I made a quick exit as a few others were around and I genuinely wanted to die.

My friend looked at me in horror, he is a 65 year old man and I’m a 30 something year old man for reference. I explained I knew the child as when I was playing a week or so before she was dancing away to my music, had a toy phone and was using to ‘record’ me and generally have a whale of a time. I am in actuality not a creepy paedo who has a photographic memory of toddlers.

I then realised the child was with her grandmother when our busking and this was clearly a younger woman, I presume mother, so I can only hope she recalls the creepy man in town story to her mother/mother-in-law and she notifies her of the circumstances.

I told me friend, she was also a witness to the dancing girl, and she said it did stand out as to how cute she was and how into the music she was. Her grandmother tried for about half and hour to get moving with the child but she was enthralled.

As a parent I can only imaging my response to a strange man telling me he ‘knows’ my toddler aged child…. So yeah I done fucked up.

TLDR: told a friend I knew a little girl in the street a little to loud and the mother heard, now thinks I’m a creepy paedo.

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Comments

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AllanfromWales1 t1_ja6zo0t wrote

> I am in actuality not a creepy paedo who has a photographic memory of toddlers.

You keep telling yourself that..

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flohhhh t1_ja70l2s wrote

Replying to AllanfromWales1 (#2,050,151)

What did make you think that this is an appropriate response?

Aside: When I'm with my daughter, I also greet kids we met on the playground or ask my daughter for their names. If the person accompanying them is a different one than before it might get me some weird looks but honestly I don't care.

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speculatrix t1_ja7hb7c wrote

It's sad that a man of men by themselves who do more than glance at a child are automatically assumed to be paedophiles or kidnappers. Statistically, children are safer more than ever, because children are more likely to be listened to, and, paedos are more likely to be arrested and dealt with rather than moved on.

I think this can put women and children at greater risk.. for example during the height of the metoo movement, I would be careful not to travel in a lift/elevator alone with a woman I didn't know fairly well, to prevent her having any anxiety, or me being accused of anything. If I was leaving the office, I'd hang back if needed to avoid that situation. That meant the woman wouldn't have someone around who might deter a random outside stranger from attacking her, when she left the office to walk through the car park.

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ArkLaTexBob t1_ja7wf8h wrote

Don't sweat it. It's not like you said she was "hot" or something.

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Squigglepig52 t1_ja86k9r wrote

People worry too much about this sort of thing.

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No_Love_1353 t1_ja93yhj wrote

And meanwhile I had no idea what “busking” was…

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