I don ' t envy that a single man is automatically a target of suspicious glances if he is good with kids , or if kids really like him . A couple of times in my life I have encountered lost children in stores . Both times I pleasantly asked if they needed help finding their mom , and walked with them up to the end of the aisle to stand so their parent could find them easily . Both times the mothers appeared as the kid and I were just coming to the end of the aisle , and both times the moms gasped with relief and thanked me profusely it was automatically assumed that because I ' m a woman , I was obviously helping the kid . If they had come upon a male by himself chatting with a lost child and leading them somewhere , even to customer service , the first instinct a parent feels is not relief , but more fear .