Posted by Dinah on April 27, 2003, at 15:44:27
In reply to Re: ... and another story (long) » leeran, posted by wendy b. on April 26, 2003, at 13:42:32
Wendy,
I'm so sorry those things happened to you.
I'm always so torn with my son. I wish he could have the freedom I had as a child. I was given a geographical area that I was free to roam for as long as I can remember. On the farm it was near the house and in the dairy area. When we moved to the suburbs, it was one or more blocks, depending on my age. And now... Well my neighbor never let his now grown daughter even play in his front yard without him being there, and I tend to go in that direction. I worry that I'm overprotective. My husband doesn't want to let him go on Boy Scout or church camps because of the things he's heard.
And yet I also remember the reality of the good old days. Things weren't really safer then. I think everyone just pretended they were. A little girl was snatched from her front yard in one of the houses directly behind mine and thrown in a trunk. Fortunately she was blessed with impressive lungs, and her captor with a less than airtight trunk, so she was released a couple of miles away, unharmed. I remember the two men that drove their car slowly beside me as I walked the dog. When one came out and approached me I yelled "sic em" as loud as I could. My dog amiably loped towards me while the guy jumped back in the car and they sped away. An old instructor of mine was recently arrested for a string of molestations of children that began well before my several years with him. He never bothered me. He gave me a bearhug once, I calmly informed him that I didn't like to be touched, and he became one of a suprisingly long line of full grown men who told my mother that they felt sorry for my future boyfriends. Then there was the pervert who liked to follow kids around at the public library and ummm.... rub himself enthusiastically.
I don't want to give my son the impression that the world is a dangerous place. And yet it is. Or at least that's my possibly warped perception.
poster:Dinah
thread:221860
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20030426/msgs/222759.html