Humor will not be tolerated!! -Portia

How can you gracefully reject an offered hug in a social situation? Assume that there's a good reason not to hug, and that it's best not to talk about that reason with the hugger.

Begin coughing. Or sneeze. Nothing like hugging a super germy person.

You know, I can't think of what a good reason would be (at least one that couldn't be shared with the person trying to do the hugging.)

I like Tally's idea. You could hurriedly say "I'm sick!" when they come in for a hug. You could also say that you got a bad sunburn- I know it sounds silly, but my housing complex has a year-round hot tub, and with the warmer weather, sunbathers are coming out..... ?

you can always pull an awkward hug! (it involves sticking your arms straight out like a robot.)

when I'm sick I ask people to touch elbows with me instead of shaking my hand (ever since I saw it in an Ebola documentary). Maybe you can think of a similar substitute for a hug?

Whistler wrote:you can always pull an awkward hug! (it involves sticking your arms straight out like a robot.)

Please, this. Robot hugs and high fives are the way to go.

If you're into doing awkward hugs, and that solves the problem, you could always just hug with the shoulder forward, instead of the chest. That's always super awkward.

Marduk wrote:you could always just hug with the shoulder forward, instead of the chest. That's always super awkward.

I can verify that (1) this is awkward, (2) it makes people wary of hugging you. Source: I do it often.

Ever since my mom had a kidney transplant she tries to not touch people. It oftens involves her waving her hand at people at church instead of shaking hands with them.

You can do a temporary fix by saying "oh, not today, thanks. I'm just not feeling too huggy."

I find that the easiest thing is to avoid it by giving potentially huggy types a wide berth. You can still be friendly, but most people won't try to hug you if you're holding a conversation from two feet away, with a table in between you, etc.

I generally just give them a strange look and stick out my hand. I'm not a big touchy person at all. It's going to be very hard for both of us if my future wife has touch as her main love language.

I have such a hard time not giving people hugs. I have a friend that i've known since third grade- we hung out together a lot, but I never really felt that close to her. I never put it together until now, but do you guys think that it might be because she actively avoids hugs? At least we both are quality time-ers, I think, but....... Any thoughts?

This'll do the trick:

Squirrel wrote:I have such a hard time not giving people hugs. I have a friend that i've known since third grade- we hung out together a lot, but I never really felt that close to her. I never put it together until now, but do you guys think that it might be because she actively avoids hugs? At least we both are quality time-ers, I think, but....... Any thoughts?

Well, knowing someone for a long period of time isn't a guarantee that you'll become close friends, regardless of your individual hugging preferences. But next time you two hang out, you might try taking your hugging cues from her.

My friend had a guy try to kiss her and she didn't know how to handle it, so she put her two pointer fingers up like horns, said, "I'm a bull!" and rammed her "horned" head into his chest. That's one way to discourage touching.

chillygator wrote:My friend had a guy try to kiss her and she didn't know how to handle it, so she put her two pointer fingers up like horns, said, "I'm a bull!" and rammed her "horned" head into his chest. That's one way to discourage touching.

That's probably my favorite method so far.

chillygator wrote:My friend had a guy try to kiss her and she didn't know how to handle it, so she put her two pointer fingers up like horns, said, "I'm a bull!" and rammed her "horned" head into his chest. That's one way to discourage touching.

Unless of course the person you're interacting with likes silly gestures of affection.

chillygator wrote:My friend had a guy try to kiss her and she didn't know how to handle it, so she put her two pointer fingers up like horns, said, "I'm a bull!" and rammed her "horned" head into his chest. That's one way to discourage touching.

NO TOUCHING

MORE TOUCHING!