You probably remember my post about being some kid’s carnival/festival and needing to go to the bathroom. The bathrooms were packed and so I snagged a teenaged girl and her friend coming out of the women’s restroom and asked them if they would watch Seporah and Felicity for a few minutes while I went to the bathroom for $5. And then I was given a stern talking to by a police officer, first for “loitering” outside the women’s restroom in search of teenaged girls to give money to, and then for allowing strangers to watch my children for any amount of time.
I have also written about the major difference between how women (especially those with children) looked at me back when it was just me, and now that I have children. Before there was generally fear in their eyes, and they would move their children so that they were between me and them. Now they see me with two little girls and smile, allowing our kids to play and even for me to play with their kids.
It really is insane how our society has come to view men, based on an incredibly small minority of heinous crimes.
Yesterday Märia and I took the kiddos to the local bouncy house, where there were probably over 100 kids and 5 bouncy houses. There was a man, did you hear me? A MAN, in one of the houses and HE WAS PLAYING WITH CHILDREN!!!!
It totally freaked Märia out “he gives me the heeby jeebies!” and she told me I had to go check him out to make sure he was a “nice guy”. I asked her if it would bug her if he was a woman and she said of course not. I initially refused to go over and check him out, but she insisted, and so I went over. He was just your average dad, rough housing in the same way that I do, or Matt (old neighbor from church) did or Adam (new neighbor from church) does. Throwing kids around, pushing them, playing and such. I honestly don’t know what the big deal was. It was a well lit area with parents all around, watching their kids, and lots of kids old enough to know if “bad” playing occurred.
Did you know that in England an adult man cannot sit next to a juvenile on a plane unless they are related?
We as a society have got to quit seeing all dads as pedophiles. The insanity has to stop.