Pointing. This should be an easy one.

[flower01]

So my almost 3 year old DD is very shy with people she doesn't know. But, she has just started pointing and talking to me about people that she finds interesting. I always try to encourage her to say hi. Today I told her that she shouldn't point at the boy, but she should try talking to him. She said, "But, I want to point." So I dont know what to say. I guess this is a more general Q related to respecting people's wishes...people don't like being pointed at, people don't like to be stared at, etc. I'm not sure what to say or do to help her respect people's space, wishes, etc.

[sapphire_chan]

Well, if you can encourage her to at least stop pointing when you acknowledge that you see the person she's talking about, that'd be something.

I think the "don't point at people" rule is because people don't like being talked about when they don't know what's being said (or when what's being said is mean, obviously). But I don't know that a gently raised child of 3 will have that worry so it might be harder for her to grasp the idea that the other person might think she's making fun of them.

[Shami]

Mine points AND says 'I don't like that boy'.

I thought maybe she meant I don't KNOW that boy, but she clarified that she didn't like him. She did this several times in one day to different children while out shopping.

I don't know what to do. I just apologized to the other child. I tried to encourage her to say Hi, my name is E. She was adamant about not liking them. So, I finally said, that it's ok to not like a person, but you can't say it out loud because it's mean to tell a person that.

Maybe you could try some pointing games. Have her point to something blue and you have to guess what it is. Or maybe point to body parts or different color cars.