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I've been thinking about this because of something that happened a few weeks ago. A somewhat long backstory: my bff got my good church friend a job at the doggie daycare that she was working at at the time. Before that, my bff and gcf had met each other maybe a half dozen times and got along just fine. Bff also got her niece a job at the same daycare. Now both bff and gcf are no longer working at the daycare; bff found something that paid a lot better and gcf quit after a particularly difficult day involving a dog fight, an injured dog and her boss yelling at her for something she didn't do (which was typical, actually).

Anyways...a few weeks ago, I went to a fish fry with bff, gcf, bff's sister, BIL and the niece that is still working at the doggie daycare. Bff and her family came in one car; I drove myself and gcf to the church that was hosting the fish fry. When we got there, gcf immediately hugged both my bff and her niece. When we left, she again hugged both women.

It got me thinking...gcf and I don't hug unless one of us has had a particularly bad experience or an incredibly good one. There's no casual hugs hello and goodbye. Bff and I hug even less. Which made me wonder...do I give off "don't hug me!" vibes? I can honestly go either way with hugs. I hug my siblings, my BIL and my nieces and nephews but I see them in person rarely. Mom was a hugger but after she had surgery for a hiatal hernia, hugs became painful and had to be done carefully. Dad hugged me plenty as a child, and he hugged Mom but otherwise, he's definitely a "no hugs please" guy. I sometimes hug him from behind as a joke; a long while ago, one of my cousin's daughters, who was a toddler at the time, used to come up to my aunt's Great Pyrenees (this was my aunt's granddaughter), throw her arms around the dog and hug her, saying "huggie huggie huggie!" as she did so (which Sierra bore with remarkable composure...which is why my aunt took her for training to be a hospital therapy dog). Now it's common for someone in Dad's family to exuberantly hug someone and say "huggie huggie hugggie" while doing so.

So yeah...are you a hugger? And if so, does it depend on the situation?