Here’s just a little postscript to my post from a while ago, about outgoing kids and their non-outgoing parents in Sweden. I just had the following exchange with a little blond kid, probably about four or five years old, and his mom, when I was coming down the stairs in my apartment building and they were coming up:
Kid: Hej!
Me: Hej!
[Kid looks to his mother, who is carrying groceries and not paying attention.]
Kid: MAMMA!
[Kid points to me, waits. Mother looks at the kid, then at me.]
Mother: Hej!
Me: Hej!
[Kid smiles and nods, and then runs up the stairs after his mom.]