Ice cream brings people together

I don't call myself a child psychologist, but I do know that something's wrong when a child thinks that he's a dog.

This particular family yielded a  3 year old child who came in on his hands and knees. He was jumping around on the floor, barking, while his parents ordered. Another woman, perhaps his aunt, stood off to the side with a look of exasperation.

His mother turned around to yell at him after every few words, with the words "Get up, you are not a dog!"

The aunt stepped forward to explain, "He's an only child with three pet dogs at home. He expects to be pet when we get home, and has trouble walking like a normal person."

I nodded with understanding, and continued with the order.

Little more than 10 minutes later, the family was sitting at a table in the corner of the shop.

Another family, made up of a thin British man, sitting with his wife and sister, was also entertaining a boy about the same age as dog-child. He threw his soother up to the ceiling and back again, and rubbed his grimy hands on the already dirty door.

Once he had grown tired of throwing his soother, he ran forward to the other end of the shop. His eyes settled on the boy about his same age, sitting on the chair alone. The boy had been yelled at for acting like a dog to such a degree that he was sitting quietly (like a human) with tears running down his cheeks. Seeing his distress, the second little boy approached with caution. With an adorable awkwardness, he placed his chubby arms around the shoulder vicinity of the dog child, and walked his body closer. They hugged for several seconds before the British man called his child back (as if he wanted both children to be dogs). The little boy ran toward his father, and the 5 of them leaving together.

I stood at the counter for a time after he was gone, coming to the simple conclusion that ice cream brings people together. It warms my heart.