A couple of weeks ago The Robinator was out at the park for one of his long runs. He noticed a boy with an adult man and got a weird something kinda other feeling about them. There was a weird hug going on. He kept looking at them to see if anything else jumped out at him but nothing did. He kept running thinking that yeah...nothing was wrong with the kid and it was probably a son and his father hanging out.
Then he started wondering...what if something else HAD jumped out at him. What would he have done? I mean...even if it's something weird it could still very well be the kid's father or relative right? What do you do?
When he told me this I remembered a week or so earlier when I dropped E off to his Boy Scout meeting. I felt weird leaving him there with men and other boys. Not that anything weird popped off via my spidey senses mind you...just knowing what I know about the world made me feel some kinda way. His mother would never have told me to leave him someplace unsafe so yeah...I left.
Then I came back early. Hey...it's E. My dude. I don't play with his safety.
Every now and then we randomly ask him questions out the blue.
Me: Hey...nobody has tried to do anything inappropriate with you right? Touch you in any way that creeps you out?
Him: (Looking at me like where did that come from????????) Um...nooooooo.
Me: Aiight. You know you can tell me anything no matter what anybody has told you. If they tell you some stupid ish like they'll hurt your mommy or something like that...you need to tell me because we will handle it. You know this right?
Him: Yeah.
Me: And you don't touch nobody inappropriately either. It goes both ways.
Him: I know.
And I know for a fact his mother has the same conversations with him all out the blue so yeah...the kid thinks we're all crazy but I figure I could pick up on an untruth if it's out the blue and he hasn't had an opportunity to prepare an answer.
I only recently (within the year) started saying the part about him not touching anybody after listening to a mother say that's what she used to always tell her son. That made perfect sense to me. Kids don't know until they're told and you want to make sure the right person is telling them the right thing. If they don't know any better they could mess around and do something that would end up ruining their lives and the lives of others. You know how it goes. We've all heard a story or two.
I said that to say I didn't know what to tell Robby about how he should have reacted had he felt something else weird from that kid and the man in the park. You don't want to stir a pot that doesn't have anyting in it but surely you should do something right?
Or it will haunt you if you see that baby's face on the news smiling from one of his school pictures when he was alive.
Heavy, heavy.
What say YOU?
