"No, there is nothing wrong with Uncle Randy. I just happen to like tildes, that's all. If those other kids call you names and don't want to play with you because of me, you tell them that I said it's perfectly normal, perfectly natural. Stop crying, stop crying."
Don't be too sure, Randy. Children know intuitively that "uncles" who are fond of tildes are best kept at a distance.
This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at June 15, 2017 1:28 PM MDT
Kids are like pets, they can smell emotions with uncanny accuracy even though they do not understand them at all. A large par of handling this is changing their focus. As long as they stay focused on you they will get buffeted by every emotion you have, so give the kid a fluffy toy, or even just a dime dangling from a string, then they will instantly focus on that and forget all about you for some 5 to 15 minutes (before that happen you should have the next distraction ready ;-))