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People on social media have come to the defense of a woman who taught her son not to touch girls without their consent in a recent viral post.
On Reddit's "AmITheA**hole" forum, u/Signal_Guidance_7956 explained her story. The post has 9,100 upvotes and over 1,000 comments with a 96 percent upvote rate.
The Redditor described her day at the playground where she spotted her 9-year-old son with his arm wrapped around a girl he knew from school. When she asked him about it, he told her that she was his "girlfriend." She questioned if her son asked permission if he could put his arm around her. He said no.
Though the topic of consent is evergreen, it's been more prevalent in the news as of late. In recent statistics done by the CDC, 1 in 5 women and 1 in 38 men have been involved in an act of sexual violence or harassment so education about consent is more important than ever.
"I gently explained to him that he shouldn't ever touch girls like that without getting their consent first," she said. "He didn't know what consent meant so I had a mini discussion with him about how it's not nice to touch people without permission and asking first means that you know the other person doesn't mind."
Her son agreed but she explained that he didn't seem into the conversation. The user's husband remained silent until they arrived home and their son went to play video games.
"After he left the room my husband went off on me, saying that I'm making my son sound like a predator in the making, that it's just innocent playground fun, and that I'm blowing it way out of proportion," she wrote.
She claimed that she only wanted him to understand what consent means and to keep him from doing predatory actions.
Some followers of the "AmITheA**hole" forum took to the comment section to chime in.
"You're doing the exact opposite. Absolutely NTA. I'm sorry that your husband has insecurities about this, that's red flag territory for me," u/JeMappelleJoeDeLait wrote, receiving 12,400 upvotes on their comment. "I would ask him point blank: how exactly does he think telling your son this could harm him? Because there is no rational answer to this. I hope you can work this out and set him straight. Good luck."
"NTA. I genuinely don't understand why people think it's weird to teach consent," u/Delicious-Carpet-3 wrote.
u/Fe3nchee agreed saying, "NTA - I think kids are innocent and so it would be wrong to tell him off but if it's more of, as you said, a mini discussion, then why not learn about it. It's good that kids know how to behave as they grow up."
"NTA," u/RaggieSoft said. "Thank you for teaching him at a young age that No Means No. Your husband is TA for going off on you and insisting Boys Will Be Boys."
About the writer
Ashley Gale is a Newsweek reporter based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her focus is reporting on trends. She has covered trends, ... Read more