This thread reminds me of a very sad conversation I had with my niece last spring when she graduated from high school and I flew in to be there. I’d always encouraged her in her academics and pursuits (she was a nationally-ranked Irish Dancer, the expenses largely funded by me–her mother is not making much).
A few days later she invited me out to lunch, which turned out to be a picnic lunch at a park she liked to go with her friends. She told me she appreciated all I had done for her and that I had always been supportive and encouraging, but…why did I never take her places when she was a kid? Why did I always shake her hand when we met instead of a hug?
I had to explain that when a young girl is a cute as she was (seriously, model-quality looks) it is simply not possible for a single male to be alone with her or physical with her in any way. She had been deeply saddened by the situation and she said she bitterly regrets it, as we got along so well. She joked it was pretty pathetic that some of the best times we’d had were when I was at the kitchen table helping her with her math and physics homework. But after I spent some time explaining it, she reluctantly understood, although she was furious at the system that “robbed her of a relationship with her only uncle.”
And I regretted it, too. She’s a wonderful kid, always has been. Psychopathic fear over the possibility of an event that occurs once in 1000 times at most, denies the proper adult friendships and healthy physical contacts necessary for proper mental and emotional development for the other 999. Anyone think that isolation might have damaging effects as well? No wonder modern kids, raised in a cocoon, are often lacking in common sense. If the world around you as you grow up has been designed to be all but risk-free, when you wander out on your own one can expect disaster…and we get it.
And as has been pointed out above, a lone kid, lost or whatever, is not my problem any more. Maybe if they were in clear and imminent danger of immediate physical harm…but I’d want to make sure there were witnesses. Dial 911? No way. They’ll trace it to your phone.
And I, too, was told to move away from a playground in a park. I was waiting for my wife to finish playing with our dog in the nearby field, and had moved to a bench closer to the playground just to get out of the wind. A cop was called by one of the mothers and informed me that if none of the kids were mine, I was require by law to stay 75 feet away.
And to yank a minor from a airplane seat next to an adult male is insulting and discriminatory in the extreme. I’d have my lawyer on their ass. After all, 30% to 40% of all molesters are women (google it).
A generation of kids are growing up with no father in the house, and carefully isolated from any real male role models. Where do they find them instead? MTV. Rap. Movies. Ideal male role models for your kids, don’t you think?
But hey! We’ve saved them from a 1/1000 chance of meeting the kiddy-diddlers.
