Please acknowledge my existence…

When you see a kid in the store, at the bank, at an event, or ANYWHERE… please acknowledge their existence. PLEASE. I don’t like having to scream HI to get your attention and I don’t like it when you can’t even turn to smile when you hear me. It makes me sad.

That’s how I believe my daughter feels many times when we’re around other people. She has her shy times and then there are times when she says hi to every person to come near our house or near us in the store, or anywhere in public. Unfortunately, when it’s one of HER friendly times, not many other people are having their friendly times.

Ever since she learned the word, Grace has said hi to everyone that catches her eye. It wasn’t long before she realized some people weren’t hearing her or were ignoring her. So she got creative. She knew she could change the sound of her voice and she altered it in multiple ways trying to get people to look at her, to say hi, or even give a smile or a wave. That still didn’t help.

There are those rare occasions when a person will say hi to Grace first. She usually stops and stares in amazement that someone would give her the time of day without her doing something for it. Sometimes she gets over the shock and carries on a conversation about whatever she can think of and she loves that.

I don’t understand why adults (actually, some older children as well) can’t give a child a bit of happiness by saying hi back. They don’t have to stop what they’re doing to carry on a long conversation with a two-year old. Heck, they can even make eye contact and send a smile or a wave in response.

I’ve always loved kids so maybe I’m alone in my feelings about this. What do you think? Should adults acknowledge the existence of a child that says hi to them? Or are children not important enough or deserving enough?