We moved into our home about 3 years ago and befriended our neighbors quickly. We are both stay at home mothers and have children close in age so we spend a lot of time together and the kids go back and forth in between our houses daily with lots of sleepovers and trips to the water parks, museums, etc. Last year, while my kids were over at my neighbor's house, her little girl was overheard telling my daughter about a family member making her take his pants off and perform sexual acts. My two oldest boys were the ones to hear this conversation and ran straight home to tell me. I called the little girl over to my house and asked her to repeat what she told my daughter and it was probably the most horrific thing I have ever heard in my life(shes 5 btw). I walked her back to her house to tell her mother. My neighbor called her husband and they filed a report immediately and within days had started the little girl in therapy. I had to sit my children down for a long conversation about what they had experienced and answered any questions they had. My oldest boys had already known that that behavior was wrong which was why they came to me in such a hurry to begin with but my daughter, who is the same age as the little girl who was abused, did not quite get the severity of the situation. I found out that the little neighbor girl had told my daughter about the abuse months before it came to light. Fast forward a few months and my neighbor starts letting her daughter come back over to play. She has been very hesitant to let her out of her sight which is understandable. The kids resume playing with each other like nothing happened and I asked my children not to discuss the abuse with their friends. I started paying a lot more attention to the behavior and interactions of the kids after this incident and I became alarmed again when I heard the neighbor girl telling my daughter that boys like kisses and touches. I interrupted that conversation and sent the girl home, sat my daughter back down to correct what she had been told. I started to get worried about what was being said when I was not around and thinking that maybe this girl had not been attending the therapy sessions like I was told. I asked my daughter to tell me if the little girl ever exhibited any inappropriate behavior again and she did....and it was a lot. I alerted her parents about everything. Most of it happened while playing with dolls but the most alarming incident happened with a camera. We have a couple old phones the kids play with that no longer have service. The girls had taken one of phones upstairs to take pictures and videos of our new kitten. My daughter brought the phone back downstairs to show me the pictures and while I was swiping through, I came across a few blurry ones that did not look like the cat. I asked my daughter what they were and she said that the neighbor girl had asked to take pictures of each other's private parts for fun. I lost it for a moment before I could address anything but when I finally went up to talk to the girls, the neighbor girl completely closed herself off and sat in the corner of the room away from everyone. I told her mother and haven't let her play with my kids in a few days. Im afraid that having a peer tell my daughter that this is ok is doing too much harm. As much as I try to explain why this is bad, having her best friend say it's fun, is cancelling me out. I do not know how this is being handled at my neighbor's. It isn't being discussed with me so I thought the best place to start is not allowing them to play unsupervised. I don't know where to go from here. Should I seek therapy for my daughter? She seems to be a completely normal 5 year old except when shes around the neighbor girl. My husband has already told the neighbors that our daughter will not be able to go over to their house without us anymore. They seem to be upset over this but I cannot have my kid subjected to that behavior from a peer. I don't know if maybe I am not talking to my daughter correctly about the abuse as well. She reported the incidents like I asked but she participated in the picture taking which means she doesn't fully understand what I've been talking to her about. If there are any resources you can recommend, it would be very much appreciated. via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2twn3th
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