Why !!

[Scrumpy]

Is it that men are (usually) looked on as being suspicious should they talk to a child..

 Sam has been gone for many years .. I remember that even back then he was very wary to talk to a child..
Yet a woman can.. I chat to children.. In the park.. passing the gate.. even in the doctors surgery ..
Their mothers never appear suspicious in any way.. 
I child will tell me about her new shoes or dress.. the colour of her umbrella and wellie boots..
Without any problem..
A child on a train came up to me with her story book.. She wanted to show it to me..
The mother turned around in her seat .. looked at me.. and nodded.. The child sat with me looking at the pictures in her book, chatting away .. She was as happy as Larry

Yet.. had the child done this to a man.. Would her mother have nodded in agreement.. ?
Or perhaps the child would not have approached a man..

[klondike]

Paedo men outnumber paedo women by an awful lot. Women aren't necessarily risk free but they are a lot less risk than some random man. Especially a man who is showing an interest in a child. I'll pull funny faces at basically babies when they are with their parents but wouldn't normally speak. I may say something or other to a parent if their child is obviously happy or maybe doing something I remember my own doing like splashing in puddles. That's about it. I think women are wired to find children more interesting than most men are too.

[Mups]

Yes, alas its true what you say about strange men and small children, Scrumpy.

Furthermore,  if I had small children or grandchildren, I reckon I would observe closely if a man I didn't know started taking notice of them.     
Perhaps its just something to do with our guarding or maternal instinct? 

Made me wonder whether a young woman alone on a train journey,  would also rather start a conversation with another woman than a lone man?

[Scrumpy]

That could be true Mups.. A lone woman on a journey would probably think nothing to chatting to another woman ..but probably not a man..
I have spoken to some interesting people when travelling... Male and female.. 
However I prefer to be travelling with one woman in a train compartment rather than one man... especially at night..
I've never really thought about that up until now..

Do you think our parents when saying to us as children 
 ' Don't talk to any strange men'  put this problem out there?
I wonder if their parents said it to them.. !!