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Under Parenting

Today I overheard one parent tell another that they allow their seven year old play Grand Theft Auto. There was an audible gasp from the other parent. The guilty party said "He's too young to understand what's going on. I'll make him stop when he turns ten". Now was my turn to gasp. Later in the day I read the news about an eight year old girl being sexually assaulted by 1st and 2nd grade boys. I am still trying to recover from the numbness that the news brought on me - that could have been my little girl.

You prepare your children for pedophiles and other perverts - you assume they (the perpetrators) would be much older and stronger than your child. I thought I was being irrationally paranoid when I told J she may not kiss, hug or be kissed, hugged by any other kid at daycare- no exceptions. I made this rule for J the day she mimicked a coital "Oh Yeah" moan over and over again like she had learnt to from her buddy Billy. Nothing J has brought back from daycare has stunned me more than that.

Now, little Billy is a good kid with criminally negligent parents who are well on their way to making a train wreck of his life. The same is perhaps true of the parents of these underage molesters of the eight year old girl. As long as there are those among us who have orgasms loud enough for their children to hear and let them play AO video games, the rest of us who allow sanity to prevail over their primal instincts will have plenty to worry about.

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