Re: scared of being nice to kids -
 

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sounds like everyone else is letting the media control their lives. al quaeda, bird flu, killer bees, the big one, west nile virus, etc.

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OP is just reacting to it. It's everyone else that has bought into this "everyone is a child molestor crap". I lol at people that freak out about predators but still feed their kid Mcd's, food with added sugar and are in the 40% or so of people that can't put car seats in correctly. lol indeed.

Re: scared of being nice to kids -
 

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It struck me as very odd, especially because generally I dress like I'm on a tennis court or golf course, and not creepyish in any way.

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Sounds creepy to me.

http://www.umlytennis.net/pages/paum...nnis_nerds.jpg

Re: scared of being nice to kids -
 

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I'm a mid-twenties, married guy, living in a nice neighborhood with a lot of kids and about two blocks from an elementary school. Our mailbox is a little bit down the street from our house and I like to take my dogs for a little walk to get the mail.

One day, I was walking my dog, he was still a little puppy, and a little girl was playing in her front yard with her dog. I was walking by with my puppy, she was all "puppy!" so I stopped to let her pet my dog. Her mom came running out and brought her inside like I was a child molester, didn't say a word to me, just came out and got her daughter and rushed back inside. We're practically neighbors. I was walking back to my house with my mail in my hand.

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Okay, you felt offended. Understandable. The mom's reaction is also 100% understandable and fine. DUCY?

Re: scared of being nice to kids -
 

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Okay, you felt offended. Understandable. The mom's reaction is also 100% understandable and fine. DUCY?

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No its not understandable, or fine. Its ridiculous. I'm the father of 3 small children btw, so I do understand a parent's need to protect their children, but common sense must prevail. If the mother was close enough to rush out and grab them, then she was close enough to stand back at a safe distance and monitor the situation. Only if there was any evidence of inappropriate behaviour does she need to intervene.

How are her kids going to grow up into sensible normal human being if they have been denied the opportunity to even interact with a neighbour collecting his post?

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I'm a parent. I live in a highrise. Every morning I ride the elevator with elementary aged children. It makes me uncomfortable when they talk/touch me. I don't know why I just feel weird.

Re: scared of being nice to kids -
 

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I'm a parent. I live in a highrise. Every morning I ride the elevator with elementary aged children. It makes me uncomfortable when they talk/touch me. I don't know why I just feel weird.

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This is great coming from someone with your schoolgirl avatar.

Re: scared of being nice to kids -
 

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I'm a parent. I live in a highrise. Every morning I ride the elevator with elementary aged children. It makes me uncomfortable when they talk/touch me. I don't know why I just feel weird.

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This is great coming from someone with your schoolgirl avatar.

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You can talk. Your avatars stuck in pre-school.

Re: scared of being nice to kids -
 

David Sedaris wrote of this same fear, which is presumably more pronounced as he is gay, in one of his books (I think it was the Dress Your Kids book). The story he tells is completely mundane but through our fear goggles it could easily be seen as really shady.

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we have problems with child abuse in Ireland too, but this reaction really seems like a uniquely American thing. My aunt and her family (Irish/German) moved to New Haven for a semester and I think they were a little surprised. She sent me this

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[our 12 year old daughter], who had only been in school one week and had not as yet made any friends, was completely dependent on me, even to go outside the house (Americans don't let their children roam on their own).

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I don't know why this is an American thing and not European.

Another example: I used to quite regularly take high school students aged 11-18 on chess trips, with and without teachers, as a voluntary leader. I got on well with the kids (I wouldn't have done it otherwise). There were often hugs all round after a good result. We played football, rugby, piggyback races, all kinds of messing around. I can't imagine doing the same in America.

Re: scared of being nice to kids -
 

You think the kid grabbing your leg was bad...

I was recently camping for a few weeks outside the town of Hope British Columbia. I went to Hope because there is a large community recreation facility, to which you can buy a month-long membership. Huge pool, hot tub, sauna, showers. Ah, the showers.

They have separate family shower rooms that are very much like single-occupant restrooms, in addition to the male and female locker rooms with the open shower rooms. So I'm taking a shower in the open locker room and three five year old boys come in. My first thought was that Jesus, I've just exposed myself to a bunch of little kids, and I'm in here alonewith them. They are all giggling and I wonder what the [censored] is up and then a [censored] 6-year old girl comes in to join them. They were laughing because they knew their sister/cousin/future-bride was going to see my peepee. Great. My clothes are in the locker on the far side of the locker room, with that gaggle of potential accusers directly in between me and my clothes. So then as I'm facing the shower wall and trying my best not to spontaneously think of something that might raise the dead, the gaurdian of these runts comes in. He sees me showering naked and says something like "oh, cover your eyes lisa." So this little girl is standing there with her hands over her eyes while I march my dick past the [censored] kids.

The whole experience left me with vertigo and I didn't know whether my feelings and fears were out of line or not. Since this was another country (technically) I figured maybe I've just absorbed too much American paranoia and let it go (instead of asking this guy wtf he is thinking to bring a little girl to an adult male locker room). In any case I left that po-dunk redneck cowtown shortly thereafter.