It's sort of mind-blowing how people can overly sexualize children and even a child-parent relationship. Most parents couldn't count on both hands the number of times they've gotten changed in front of their kids, let alone climbed in the bath with them.
Being naked with young kids is relatively natural thing — especially for us moms, who grew those kids inside of our own bodies — but to non-parents it can evidently sound kind of … creepy.
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One mom explained what happened when she casually mentioned bathing with her son.
"I was having a conversation with a friend and mentioned that my son doesn't really like to shower, but loves baths, so when I do prepare a bath for him we usually bathe together," she wrote on Reddit. "I bring all kinds of toys and cups, because he loves to spill water on himself and even more when he splashes it at my face. If you ask me it's a win-win situation. I can wash my hair and his at the same time, and he loves the play time with me in there."
But her friend thought this cute anecdote was apparently anything but cute.
"The response I got was not what I expected," the mom wrote. "She looked actually disgusted. She said what I was doing is very inappropriate especially because he is a boy and that I'm emotionally and possibly sexually abusing my son. I disagreed and we had a huge fight. When I told my other friend what happened she said she sees her point and maybe I shouldn't do this anymore."
Now the mom is torn: Is she really harming her boy by bathing with him?
People assured the mom that she was far from wrong for bathing with her boy.
"You are bathing your two year old child," reiterated one user. "In other countries, it's not considered sexual to be naked or even bathe together. It's unusual in America, but that doesn't mean it's inappropriate."
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Others noted that the mom might want to be concerned about her friend.
"I'd be worried more about your friends assuming a sexual element to it," one user candidly wrote.
"Definitely more worried about the friend," agreed another. "Some people still nurse at 2 and some go all the way up to 3! Does the friend find that sexual too?"
Users also comforted the mom by saying that some of their happiest memories were tender moments like this.
"I think that's a really sweet way to bond with your son!" wrote one reader. "I used to bathe with my dad and my sister all the time. I've seen pictures and kinda remember it. Your friend needs to mind her own business."
In general, people also noted that it's not weird so long as all parties remain comfortable with the situation. A day will come when the son doesn't want to bathe with her, and as long as she respects that, there's nothing wrong with enjoying this time.
These stories are based on posts found on Reddit. Reddit is a user-generated social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website where registered members submit content to the site and can up- or down-vote the content. The accuracy and authenticity of each story cannot be confirmed by our staff.
