Still puzzling over…

A few things I’m still puzzling over. I vaguely understand them in theory, but not so well that they deeply make sense to me.

Why do girls think a guy is cuter if he’s holding/watching a child? Several times when I’ve been watching a friend’s 3 year-old Annev–either taking her to a park, or to get ice cream–I notice that all sorts of girls start smiling and lightly flirting at me. In fact, when Annev was a baby one of her mom’s other friends liked to carry her around at social events to help him hit on girls. “It totally worked,” or so I’ve been told. Which surprised the mom, since she thought girls would assume the kid was his and decide they weren’t interested in someone that tied down. Anyways, I don’t really understand this whole phenomenon.

Another friend once explained she had a male friend that she was attracted to, but only when he was in a relationship. This apparently drove the male friend crazy, and I think he’s since stopped talking to her. I don’t really understand this either, at least since for this particular guy the “he’s wanted by someone else” effect was much larger than with other guys. (I’m aware that girls are usually more attracted and more flirty with guys already in a relationship. I realized that, much to my annoyance, after I broke up with a girlfriend in college.)

Yet another female friend explained that she’s really attracted to smart, driven nerds/geeks with a touch of condescending asshole to anyone that disagrees with them. I just plain don’t get this. What’s more, it kinda offends me. Being attracted to slightly asshole nerds just encourages more of them to exist, which I do not want!

Anyways, things I’m confused by…