Incidentally, my aspie tip of the whenever.

[conuly]

If you're out and about and don't feel like making eye contact?

Kids are great for this. Just stare vaguely in their direction and, after a few minutes, comment that you "have to keep an eye on them". It doesn't have to be true. Heck, with sufficiently distracted parents you don't even have to know the kids in question (although it certainly helps if occasionally you can dash off because one of them is Doing Something Dangerous)! Just kinda act as though you know the children and people will assume.

For those of you who really dislike children, or who are wary of making this sort of commitment for paltry 5 minute excuses, I suggest you get yourself a series of badly behaved puppies. Or perhaps a mischievous pig? A ferret is always a winner in the "Can't look you in the eye" game, though they may not be legal where you live.

Comments

[conuly]

people are often talking to him about her, so it's expected that he'll look at her.

My father once got pickpocketed for this exact reason - he was so involved in talking about the couple's cute ferret that he didn't realize... and... oh, was he ever angry...!

It does relate.

But having a dog has its own set of problems, because they read your body language, so if your body language isn't sending the right message, the dog will act up.

I never thought of that.

[sparkofcreation.livejournal.com]

Well, our dog does seem to be particularly sensitive to it (she's got all sorts of issues), but when we first got her, we spent a lot of time with me saying (and demonstrating) "Okay, now you need to hold your shoulders like this, and your chin at this angle..." and she still responds a bit better to me than to him.