Recently DH & I were in a shop with Kynan and when the lady said hello to him he ducked his head and burrowed into my shoulder. It led to a conversation about kids and shyness and the lady mentioned that there was a little 5yo girl who came into the shop with her father and the girl would hide behind her dad's legs every time, wouldn't make eye contact, say hello or smile. The lady seemed really kind of negative about it, saying that at Kynan's age it was okay but that at 5 years it was wrong and that kids should have grown out of it by then and the parents should be making her say hello etc.

What are other peoples opinions on it? Is shyness a really bad thing? I ended up feeling a tad defensive after she went on about it for a while, probably because I was really shy when I was little and even now I'm still pretty quiet and reserved IRL.