Sunday, 24 July 2016

Daughter Changed in Private by Male Acquaintance


Hi all,Not sure if I'm asking this in the right place, or if this is even a question worth asking, but it's sort of stuck in my craw.My daughter Cassie is almost five, starting kindergarten in September.She was a nightmare to potty train. Frequent accidents of both variety, a lot of tears and struggles. She's also very modest, hated being changed in front of anyone else, hates dressing around people, etc.She's basically been fine for the last six months until last weekend when she messed her pants on a playdate. The playdate was with a boy a few streets over. When the boy's dad walked her home, I saw immediately that she was wearing different pants than she'd worn out. When she got close I could see that her face was red and puffy from a tantrum.I asked what happened, and the boy's dad (we'll call him Mike) said that "well, she had a little potty accident and I think she was a bit embarrassed about it, but we took care of it."I replied, "oh, I'm sorry for that, thank you so much. Did Liz's mom change her?" "No, I did he replied."For some reason, this makes me very uncomfortable. I don't know Mike or his family all that well. Well enough to send my daughter over there for an afternoon playdate, but they aren't people we'd ask to look after Cassie overnight, because we've only met them a couple of times.The thought of this relative stranger pulling my daughter's pants down and cleaning her privates, probably while she was crying and throwing a tantrum, makes me nauseated. I asked Cassie what happened, but it was hard to get an answer out of her because she hates the shame of potty accidents and doesn't like to revisit them.I have zero evidence or reason to believe that he did anything inappropriate, but she's not a baby, she's a little girl who should be learning that she has body autonomy and that she gets to decide who touches her there. The last thing I want her thinking is that when she makes a mistake (like pooping her pants) that she loses that right, and that a relative stranger has the right to pull her pants down and do all the touching that it takes to clean up a poopy five year old.Am I being crazy? I can't really think of what he should have done instead, but it makes me sick to think about.-Kyle via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2aiHmPP

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