She Doesnt Owe Anyone a Hug. Not Even at the Holidays

[MineralMan]

29. I'll give you another example. The daughter of one of my wife's cousins

was an eager hugger as a young girl. When she entered puberty, that ended. She wanted nothing to do with hugging men. Her body language was clear, so I listened to it and just said "Hi" and "Bye" to her That went on for about four years.

Then, at about 16, she returned to her hugging character. When she felt comfortable with hugging me, she started initiating hugs again. All of that made perfect sense to me. At no time in her childhood, teen years, or even now, have I every initiated a hug with her, nor would I ever, despite having shared hugs with her dozens of times. When she feels like hugging me, she hugs me.

Lately, she's very comfortable about hugging me. She's 25 years old now. We're friends. I'm not really related to her, except by marriage. She was a hugger, then stopped being a hugger, and is not back to being a hugger. She's herself, so I see no reason to expect anything but her to be herself.