Am I the only one disturbed by this???

[Jade]

Okay, maybe this makes me a prude but today something happened, it wasn't THAT big of a deal but I still found it to be a little disturbing....

I was out running and I got the usual "woo hoos" and whistles and stuff (which, this is NOT a bragging thing, there is just something about running that makes people whistle) so I ignored most of them until one in particular sounded a little different b/c following it was a "hey baby" or something like that and out of the cornor of my eye I see .... LITTLE BOYS.

They had to be maybe 11 at the oldest!!! They had a pair of binoculars and kept passing them to each other and looking at me through them!!
I kept running but that didn't stop them....
I have worked with kids a lot but never have I gone through this. And sure, I don't mind being hit on or flirted with by younger guys.... but I was talking younger as in 19?

So... is this normal... should 10 year old boys behave this way??
Women... tell me of your similar experiences puleeez!

(Totally disturbed)

[Edited by Jade on 07-09-2000 at 10:17 AM]

 

[Gingersnap]

I don't know what the age is these little guys start the old testosterone enginge kicking. It has to be young cause I had a 10 year old tell me I was hot. His mother and I sometimes run together. Personally I think they are doing the ape thing and a bad Wayne's World imitation. I agree that it is a little unnerving to have someone who still wears power ranger underwear shout "hey baby gotta get me some". Well guys let us know are these little guys really doing the swinggggg thing?

 

[Dreamer1]

Ok, maybe it was the fact that I was raised by a single feminist mother and live with my wife and two daughters but I am 34 years old and have never done the "catcall" thing! Don't get me wrong, I am perhaps one of the world's biggest flirts but I believe in a more subtle approach involving more eye contact and little or no use of the vocal chords.

BTW Jade and Ms. Snappy, I would definately attempt eye contact with you two.

[Edited by Dreamer1 on 07-09-2000 at 12:51 PM]

 

[Triatic]

I'm with Dreamer...'course, I was also raised by a single mom, and that'll really shape the way you look at things...and people. I think it's a simple case of copycatting. They see behavior like that everywhere, on the streets, on TV and in movies...well, what are they supposed to think? I remember when I was a child, I unthinkingly used the word 'faggot' as an insult in front of my mom... I didn't even know what it meant, but I picked it up at school. She sat me down, told me what it meant, why that's not a shameful thing, and why I should never say something just 'cause everyone else is. I owe her big time.

 

[Siren]

 

[Thumper]

Yep...

They do if they have idiots for fathers...I doubt if any woman has ever taken a man seriously that behaved in such a way...loutish behavior.

 

[CreamyLady]

I don't know if this helps, but in a pagan chat room we were plagued by a fifteen-year-old boy with a very foul mind. I had to sort him out one evening.

He is now my youngest online friend, far more respectful, and a real genius with cobbled together computers. He even thanked me for telling him how obnoxious he was being.

Hopefully, someone will tell the little twerps that their behavior was awful. Preferably before puberty.

 

[StarryEyz]

It is such a rough time that our children are growing up in! If my boys ever "cat-called" anyone, or used slurs...They would not be ready for the fire that would rain down upon them from me!

But my husband and I both have made sure to START discussions about these type of subjects. Not just talk about it when they make a mistake, but to keep an open dialogue going about right and wrong. My 6 year old is at that "If I took a bomb to school, that would be wrong, right? But you would still love me right?" That repeat and repeat stage.

But the problem with the "times" they are growing up in is this: over half the kids in thier classes have parents that have both have full-time+ jobs, so these kids have been in day care and after-school cae most of thier short lives. And I am sure any parent out there can tell you, coming home at the end of a long day and having to play the heavy with your kid is no fun. (I understand the financial need..please don't misunderstand) I find that too many people are taking the easy way out of parenting, and the rest of the world is paying for it, as well as the kids. The easy way is to tell yourself "They are only kids. They don't mean anything by it. It is societys/the schools/other kids fault they know this behavior. Yelling at them won't solve anything. I'll just ignore the small wrongs and they will go away." But they don't. Small wrongs overlooked turn into bigger risks taken and bigger wrongs. And if you aren't used to questioning your own behavior for the right/wrong of it, taught to reflect on the consequences of your actions and words not only on yourself but on others......well, if you aren't taught that by the time you are 10, it sure is a hard lesson to learn later.

I go to school with each of my sons 1 day a week. I have seen how the bully kids and name-callers back other parents down. We are all so scared of being "accused" of wrong-doing to a child, that we look away instead of correcting them. "They aren't my kid" Easy. But over the last year I have become fed up with that attitude, both in myself and others. I have had to learn a new kind of tact, and new type of hardness. I correct kids I see out in the world now. As kindly and firmly as I can manage. I hope that if a few other people out there also point out rudeness or vulgarity or unkindness, maybe one kid will start to think past the end of their nose.

Sorry I rambled on so long. Guess I needed to vent on this more than I thought.

Thanks.

StarryEyz

 

[Oliver Clozoff]

Let me join everyone in expressing my outrage with this situation.

Even after I offered these kids candy, ice cream, and a trip to the movies, they STILL wouldn't share their binoculars with me.

Kids these days...

 

[Flagg]

This reminds me of a story that has been in the british press for a while now. Basically, scientists have discovered that the average age of puberty (among brit kids anyway) is ever decreasing. At the moment it lies at about 8-10 years old. This means that technically an 8 year old couple could be physically capabale of reproducing. If this is the case then it seems obvious that sexual awareness would occur earlier. Therefore there is nothing disturbing about a ten year old telling you are hot. Both mentally and physically, kids are growing up faster than we did.

 

[SweetNick]

YUCK

Ok, I'm relatively young (22 in a ew days), but even I'm a bit taken back by the incident. I mean i think my first crush was Hannah Gonzalez when I was in 7th grade (sighhh, now there was a gal!) but even I was too stupid to know what to do or for that matter say stuff like that. Then of course I look at my 14 year old cousin and see what his older borhters have tught him, and he was thinking sex and getting laid at that age. I think its all in how you're brought up, unfortunately for some, it was wrong.

 

[RoseofBlue]

Unfortunately children are maturing physically at earlier ages these days, but in their mental capacity most are not. Sexual awareness is coming at earlier ages, along with reproductive abilities, but mentally they are still just little children. In Las Vegas, teen pregnancy is the highest of anywhere else. Most of these children are not capable of being parents, but they were capable of having children.
Those little boys were behaving in a fashion that little boys have behaved for generations. Guys, don't you remember stealing your dad's playboy magazines and hiding them under your mattresses? That doesn't mean that behavior is right. The earlier sexual awareness requires more attention from parents and community. Parents need to take a firm hand in their children's lives. Those boys need to be taken firmly by the ear and told how to respectfully admire a beautiful woman. Children are maturing earlier physically, but unfortunately their education is lagging behind.

 

[walter]

Dear Jade, it seems that the boys in question were behaving in a manner familiar to them. The sad truth is that many young boys don't have a strong man to look up to. Any man can be a father, the hard part for many men is to be a man.
To teach and guide young men in the ways of manners and courtesy towards women is a task overlooked my many. In part because of the feminizing of men over the last couple of decades. Men don't know how to be Manley anymore.

To comment on RoseofBlue's comment that children are maturing physically at earlier ages is crap. Unless you know something about biology and evolution that others don't. I will agree that sexual awareness is coming at an earlier age, thanks to the media.

 

[Silverlily]

Jade, I feel the same outrage.

School started Monday and already some little boy told my six year old she "has a sweet ass". SHE IS SIX! Sweet tooth maybe, but sweet ass? How on earth does this child know anything about this?

I'll tell you how, his father. The bastard told me it must run in the family when I tried to discuss the problem with him. I stopped talking to him and went to the office and informed them this was a warning, next time there would be a formal complaint, this child is to be nowhere near mine. (I also pointed the embecile out for my husband to deal with.)

Apparently, sexual predators are started young. http://smilecwm.tripod.com/cwm/angryfire.gif
Karate lessons start Friday.

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

Re: RE: Am I the only one disturbed by this???

To comment on RoseofBlue's comment that children are maturing physically at earlier ages is crap.

No it isn't. Flagg was commenting on an actual observation about girls and boys by the medical community in several countries. Girls are menstruating sooner, getting boobs sooner, boys are getting hair earlier, and both are starting the physical process of puberty sooner. It's not happening to every kid, but it is happening to a lot of kids, and the trend is increasing. It isn't neccessarily due to evolution (which, by the way, can effect changes in as short a time as a generation). No one knows why it's happening, exactly, but it is -- so hold off on that there "crap".

 

[Ticklish Girl]

Apparently, sexual predators are started young

One of the most frightening stories I've read recently involved a seven year old girl who was sexually assaulted in her NYC school by a gang of ten year old boys. They cornered her and forced her to perform oral sex on them.

And as if that weren't nauseating enough, the attitudes of other mothers interviewed in the piece made me want to scream. They weren't at all upset with these little monsters. At least two of them said things like, "So what did she do to lead them on?" Ugh!