Parents, what’s the most absurd thing you’ve found on your kid’s social media?
My step son is 7. Found a bunch of searches for:
Dominicans with no hands and feet.
Dominicans with no heads.
Dominican chests.
Dominican torsos.
Dominican legs.
Dominicans in stores.
Dominicans for sale.
Silver Dominicans.
Black Dominicans.
White Dominicans.
I was at a loss of how to bring it up to him. Thankfully, the next day we were in a clothing store and he asked me why Dominicans don’t have hands or heads, then why there are so many different colored Dominicans. I remembered the internet searches and became a little upset. I told him to be quiet because what he was saying could be taken offensively by Dominican people. He then got frustrated and loudly said “Dominicans aren’t people” as he pointed to a statue next to us.
I breathed a sigh of relief and said “Mannequins”.
If you have a child and they are creeped out by a nephew or older brother touching them or looking at them a certain way, you need to have a serious talk with that person and keep them the hell away from your child. Don’t minimize it or tell your kid to hug them anyway, that kid is picking up danger signals they don’t even understand yet. But so many families will tell that kid they are being a brat.
thankyou
A quick note- this applies to female relatives as well. One of my aunts ignores my little brother’s requests not to hug or kiss him (he has aspergers and doesn’t like physical contact with people he is not very close with). I have repeatedly placed myself between the two of them and had to tell her to back off and stop trying to “desensitize” him. Whether or not there are “danger signals,” it is not okay for adults to invalidate a child or teen’s request for boundaries. We need to teach children now, when they are young, that they can say no to these things and that other people can too.
Also you need to let your kid know they can count on you to defend them, believe them, and stick up for them when it comes to things like that. Be it a family member, a teacher, a priest, whatever, they need to know you are on THEIR side, not the creepy adult’s side.