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The original was posted on /r/tifu by /u/Ok_Morning7934 on 2025-07-05 01:00:21+00:00.
So today I was out shopping in a Walmart for general necessities when out of the corner of my eye I see a smart watch with a cute design for kids age 4+. It didn’t cost much and I was thinking about getting my niece a present. I’m looking at this watch and it seems like a normal smart watch but with a lot less functionality. As a near 30 year old single guy with a terrible track records for gifts, I wasn’t too confident in how much she would like it. When shopping around a see a dad with a girl that looked around the same age as my niece. I walk up keeping my space and ask him if a girl around 9 would like this type of gift. He says they would and I walk away with a bit more confidence in my gift. But, after a bit more I feel I should’ve asked maybe a mom. So I approach a young lady with a kid. Her back is turned to me so I don’t really approach close to her. I softly say excuse me ma’am until they turn around. I ask if I can get their opinion on something. The young lady let out an “ok” and I asked them both would this watch be a good gift. I make eye contact with the younger girl and she reels back and looks absolutely horrified. I can see it on her face. She lets out a really soft “yea”. At this point I feel horrible and realize the young lady wasn’t a young lady and is also a young girl. She also looks terrified. I quickly take a few steps back from them, say thank you very much, and walk away as fast as possible. When checking out I see the two young girls also checking out and we made eye contact and I felt horrible. I told my best friend about it. He then proceeded to break down how I actually look. When I was younger I was a very skinny and short guy. I was very non threatening to anybody. I was very muscular but my weight really hid my muscles. As I’ve grown older I felt like a became a bit chubbier but this isn’t the case. My friend told me that I have gained a good amount of weight and my weight has really made me look very muscular. Also, where I live is going through a heat wave so my clothes were really light and made me look even bigger. Let’s not even talk about my resting bitch face. Just a very jarring and embarrassing experience.
TL;DR- I approached two strangers without much thought and scared the crap out of them.
TLTL;DR- Stranger Danger