Kids and smiles

It’s Kids’ Day today 🙂

And I happened to have a few small, unexpected encounters with children that brought a smile to my face and quietly made my day happier.

The first one was at the park.

After my jog, I sat on a swing, enjoying the pleasant weather and the warm sunlight filtering through the trees ahead. As I was getting up, I noticed an elderly couple with their grandson — barely a year old, maybe even less.

He was adorable.

Instinctively, I felt like playing with him. I spoke to him; he didn’t react much but held out his hand. Encouraged, I said, “Let’s go for a round,” stretching my hands toward him.

And suddenly — he started crying.

Crying as if I had done something terribly wrong.

He still looked cute, of course, but the last thing I wanted was to scare him.

What struck me was this: such a tiny toddler could clearly understand what I was saying and expressing — and was equally clear about what he was not comfortable with. His grandparents later smiled and explained that he doesn’t like going to unfamiliar people.

Later in the day, at a mall, I sat on a bench for a bit. A three-year-old girl — with a fountain-style ponytail and a bright red dress — sat nearby, eating a brownie. She kept carefully touching the spoon to the hot chocolate and declaring, “It’s hot.”

Her mother explained that the child had insisted on ice cream, so they got her a brownie with hot chocolate instead. It looked like ice cream — but it was hot, and the child was clearly confused.

Still, the way she slowly ate it, relishing each bite, her expressions shifting between caution and delight — it was pure joy to watch.

At a coffee shop later, two little girls came in with their grandparents to order a strawberry milkshake.

The conversation went something like this:

“My name also should be written.”

“Yes, please write her name too.” Said the elder one

The staff member wrote the names — one of them misspelt.

“It’s not the right spelling,” younger one pointed out.

“It’s okay, let it be. It won’t matter,” elder one said 

Then came another request:

“Can they make it one-by-two so we can both have it?”

They said yes.

When the milkshake arrived, the girls were excited — but also visibly disturbed. One had a lid on her glass; the other didn’t.

Both looked upset.

I couldn’t help asking what was wrong. The younger one explained, very seriously, that her sister had a lid and she didn’t.

I asked for another lid and gave it to her.

Their reaction was priceless — as if I had ordered them an entirely new milkshake. Big smiles, sincere thanks, instant happiness.

Three different encounters.

Three different age groups.

And one striking similarity.

Children are incredibly sensitive — to people, to information, to fairness, to comfort. They express exactly what they feel, with clarity and honesty. No filters, no diplomacy.

And yes — they are unbearably cute while doing it.

I have always loved being around kids (except the dangerously mischievous ones 😄). Observing them, playing when I get the chance, listening to their conversations — it genuinely gives me joy.

And it leaves me with one quiet thought every time:

So many things we understood naturally as children —

clarity, honesty, fairness, presence —

somehow become difficult to practice as adults.