My 3.5 year old always says hello to any passing by stranger and recently she’s also started going up to random people especially adults who happen to have kids with them and she goes and hugs their legs. I felt really embarrassed today as a man was with his 2 children in a coffee shop and she went over and started hugging his legs but he was very friendly and told me not to worry but how do I communicate with my child? Should I tell them not to hug strangers? Probably seems like such a dumb question but want to deal with it best I can without affecting her friendliness towards people as it’s obviously good she’s friendly.
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My 4 yr hugs everyone. I explained to her everyone may not want a hug. So now she'll ask "Wanna hug?"

Maybe do something called a circle of trust with photos of people. People she can hug inside the circle ie you, your oh, family, friends from nursery, teachers with permission and outside the circle people she can’t hug. I think it’s something that will take a lot of repetitive reinforcement ie we don’t hug strangers but we smile and say hi instead.
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