Why do toddlers always stare at me?

Post Reply New Topic

I don't look at toddlers but when one passes I can see them staring up at me in my periphery and it makes me uncomfortable, because I feel like they are staring because I look like a freak or something. I read somewhere that most toddlers get shy of unfamiliar people and tend not to make eye contact, but that doesn't seem to be the case here.

Does anyone else, even NTs, get stared at by toddlers?

Toddlers and little kids yes. My little cousins did too when I first moved to Washington. But not any longer for a long time now.

Babies, toddlers and kids do stare at me. Whether it's a relative, an acquaintance's child, or a complete stranger.

Babies in general would laugh around me for some reason... Even to a point of making them smile by just looking at them when others are actively trying to and failed.
Toddlers and kids are a mixed bag.


I'm not sure how this work to be honest.

Gained Number Post Count (1).
Lose Time (n).

Lose more time here - Updates at least once a week.

Don't toddlers and babies generally stare?
Everything is new for them. They stare, touch, smell and try to chew anything that catches their attention, don't they?

Kids stare, in general. On a regular basis, I have to tell whatever kid I'm with to stop staring at people and we have a total of 10 grandchildren (though only the oldest one lives with us), so that's a lot of staring. The good thing with kids is it's usually an honest stare. An open appraisal, in an attempt to make out what they see.

I wonder if it seems weird because as autistic children, we didn't stare? I would notice someone who was extremely unusual, but generally was just off in my own world, not paying attention to people. (And maybe because of my own experience, I equate staring with 'wow you are so different that you actually pulled me out of my autistic obliviousness'.)

Maybe children with face blindness tend not to stare, because everyone looks the same anyway.

Not really but when they do I give them a smile, sometimes they smile back, it's very heartwarming.

I had a friend who seemed to always get stared at by small kids, he said it was because he had a big nose and big

sticky-outy ears, i.e. features that kids could recognise easily, all he had to do was pull a silly face and even babies

would grin at him.

Not just toddlers, adults too

"Look at this guy", some idiot had the nerve to tell his friend

The penises acted like I could not hear them

Because they’re curious.

They are not judging you. They are just staring because they are curious about you. The stare is just what little people do, till adults teach them staring at strangers in not polite. Everyone even slightly unusual (for whatever reason - looking like their uncle, having red shirt, having sparkly jewelry, ignoring them, uncommon walking style, a birthmark on forehead) will make them stare due to pure curiosity. It's harmless.
Toddlers stare at me often. No big deal. I smile at them then and they smile back at me.

Children stare at everything, it's not personal.

Imagine if everything you saw, you were seeing for the first time ever. You have no prior idea, perception or frame of reference for what the world, and everything in it, is supposed to look like.

Wouldn't you stare too?

These answers are far too sensible... I'm sure you're all correct. I just assumed they stared at me because they're children of the damned.

Kids will stare at a lot of stuff. I stared constantly as a little guy because we had an ancient flash card about making eye contact to be polite.

And following in the footsteps of SaveFerris' boob joke-- straight from the pages of Captain Billy's Whiz-Bang, 1923 edition--the baby was a very much abused youth; he kept getting a bust in the mouth every two hours.