Unexpected things await us around every corner. New acquaintances, relationships, business opportunities, treasures, and all of the losses that come with them.

A lot of people have crazy stories of how they met their friends and loved ones because of random coincidences or chance circumstances.

In today’s story, we’ve got the same motif. A dad just wanted to get a kid off his lawn and started hosing him down with water, but made an unexpected friend in the process.

More info: Reddit

It just goes to show that you can become friends with people in the most unexpected of ways

Image credits: Ryan Scott (not the actual photo)

The poster wanted to know if he’s a jerk for spraying down a neighbors’ kid for trampling his lawn with soccer cleats

Image credits: tway23421

Image credits: Brooke Raymond (not the actual photo)

The kid, undeterred by the water, began coming over daily and even chatting with the dad

Image credits: tway23421

The kid decreased his stomping across the lawn and the dad started to enjoy his company, talking for 15-20 minutes at a time

After some peeps suggested that perhaps the original poster’s (OP) kids and the neighbor could hang out, OP amusingly said “he’s my friend, my kids have enough of their own,” with another commenter jokingly saying: “Dad called dibs hahaha.”

In this wholesome story something like out of a ’90s sitcom, we’ve got a kid and a dad. He’d trespass in the dad’s yard with soccer cleats or on his bike, which would annoy the dad.

Whenever this happened, the dad started spraying him down with the water hose, but the kid just enjoyed it, washing his hair or whatever he had with him. Eventually they started chatting for 15-20 minutes every day, having a seemingly wholesome and fun relationship.

His wife said it’s making him look foolish and silly, but OP disagreed and took online to get some second opinions.

Some people in the comments also thought that the neighbors’ kid is lacking attention and just looking for someone to connect with in some meaningful (if very unconventional) way.

You see a lot of people trying to force relationships when they’re feeling lonely and hoping they can aggressively “friend” someone, but the truth is that it happens when you don’t want it to happen, in an ironic twist of fate.

And although OP’s story is unconventional, if you’re looking for friends, your best bet is work, studies, hobbies, things where you’re not actively meeting people, but rather doing things that are interesting to both of you.

Of course, that’s often not enough, and you’ve got to put in some effort to present yourself and be nice to others if you want to get anywhere in this entire “friends” business, but if you put the work in and know a couple of tips, you’re certain to find your tribe.

Image credits: onnola (not the actual photo)

According to the Training magazine, there are certain things that you should do if you want to build positive relationships.

A big thing is that you should accept and celebrate differences. It’s going to be difficult if you look for people who think exactly the same way as you do, hold all the same beliefs, and like the things as you do. For a start, you’re likely to not find identical people like that, and another thing is that you’ll be in a sort of echo chamber, exposed to the same ideas and experiences all the time.

If you open yourself to new experiences, you’re much more likely to find new things you like and people who you’ll get along with over those experiences.

Another key skill is listening to people. In an age where you’re bombarded with audio ads whenever you’re watching something or are out in the mall, you learn to shut all of it off.

But listening to people isn’t just a passive activity; you need to concentrate and actually hang on to every word the other person is saying to be a truly active listener.

According to Co-Active, there are specific stages of listening and you should strive to achieve the higher ones.

At the highest level, you’re not only listening to their voice, but also to their body language, inflection, and gestures. You’re taking it all in, to better understand them and what they want you to know. Truly active listening is a huge part of befriending anyone and everyone.

The story collected nearly a whopping 21k upvotes in a matter of 3 days and almost 1.7k comments. When one commenter called him out for having too much time on his hands, OP replied with “true bros find a way to make the time,” cementing himself as a really cool guy.

Commenters shared the same sentiment, saying how wholesome and cute the whole thing is.

The comments agreed that the poster wasn’t a jerk for spraying the kid, but that their relationship was cool and wholesome

Image credits: Seika (not the actual photo)

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