I guess I’m depressingly average or something, but this stuff never happens to me. I am completely horrified by these stories though! What the hell! Just… grabbing you and poking at your head/arm/wheelchair/etc. ? How can anyone think that’s ok??
I would just like to gloat that my husband has thick curly hair and the ability to freely pet and paw and snuffle through it is pretty much amazing. 
One of the women that was petting my son yesterday kept touching my tattoos, too, but I didn’t get into that in my OP. Tattoo talk derails stuff a lot. But at the earlier mention of keloid scars… Yup! People grab me, too! But yanking my arm back and glaring usually helps that not happen often.
One of the worst things I’ve had happen with my son was during a day at a theme park. He wears a lion backpack with a “leash” on it. (I’d rather leash than lose my child.) While standing around discussing what to do next with my family, some kid, around 12 years old, snuck up behind me and tried to take the leash out of my hand. Luckily, it was around my wrist as well.
I yelled (loudly and rudely) at the kid, who ran to his mom, who grabbed the kid and kinda looked at me… Then my own mother and others kinda dragged me away before I lit into this 12 year old’s mom about the kidnapping pedophile-in-training that she was clearly raising.
It was a woman, probably in her late 20s. Can’t really blame her, the Shibblet was particularly adorable.
I can comiserate with your friend. I am a 38DDD (not fake, though).
Hasn’t happened in years thank Og, but I cannot tell you how many times total strangers have thought it ok to reach out, honk one, and ask if they are real.
Very tempting to carry a squirt gun and shout, “Bobo, NO!!!” to help straighten those people out.
Holy crap.
I thought the other story was awful too, but those were acknowledged “fakes” and maybe in that person’s mind they weren’t REALLY her boobs. I don’t know. But WOW.
I grew up with a best friend who had HUGE boobs, from like 6th grade on, just crazy big. People used to give her SUCH grief about them. I was always appalled and glad with my smaller handfuls.
“Just for fun”!!! Are you fucking kidding me??? WOW! :mad: What if someone came from behind him when he was walking down the hall and stuck their foot out and tripped him, you know, “just for fun”? Too bad that is your boss, otherwise you should have ripped him a new one. :dubious:
That’s exactly the parallel I thought of. I can’t imagine thinking it’s ever okay to interfere with somebody’s ambulation for a chuckle, and it makes it even more mindboggling that he does this at work. I’m afraid to think of how he amuses himself during his off hours.
When I was 15, I put a lot of effort into growing, shaping and polishing my nails. I was at a family gathering, sitting with my chin propped on my hand, when a shirttail relative grabbed my wrist and pulled it towards her. No “Can I see?” or anything to acknowledge me, just “Gimme”. Naturally, I yelped, and when everything settled down, she said she’d just wanted to know if my nails were real. My mom and I said, almost in unison, “All you had to do was ask!”
I mean, I didn’t even see her approach; she was slightly behind me and to one side when she swooped in. And as I said, my chin was on my hand, so when she pulled my hand away, I fell forward in addition to being startled. Grrrr.
My daughter, who has light hazel eyes with extremly dark and full eyelashes, is constantly complimented by strangers who say, “Wow, you have such beautiful eyes.”
I’ve started adding, “And she’s smart to!”
Servers will actually call over other servers to view the freak with the beautiful eyes. Then they look at me, sadly shake their heads and say, “She’s going to be a heart breaker!”
What a hairshirt to put on a kid! Why do people think it’s okay to walk up to a stranger and pay them compliments? There’s a person behind those peepers.
Oh! People tell me how beautiful my son is in one breath, then in the next will tell me what a pain he is going to be, what a jerk and a handful he will be, because he will have a red-headed temper. I HATE this!!!
I correct them by telling them he is every bit as smart and sweet as he is beautiful.
Also, I have been inspired by this thread to teach him to yell “Don’t touch my hair!” when strangers touch him. We’ve been practicing all morning. He’s kinda brilliant, so he’s already good at it. Can’t wait to take him out in public to get some real world experience! I’m such a proud mommy!
Celtling has lovely little blonde curls that folks have trouble resisting. I’m pretty good at spotting it, and have perfected a certain cold flick of the chin and eyebrows that backs them down swiftly. The hair is moving from blonde to light brown and from Shirley Temple curls to waves, so hopefully this will stop before she’s old enough to go out alone.
One person tried to pinch her cheeks but I grabbed her hand in time. I remember that. That hurts.
There was a period during the late 80’s when I had elbow-length blonde hair and a disturbing number of people tried to find ways to unobtrusively sniff it. Offering hugs, and then I’d catch them at it - that sort of thing. I blame the shampoo commercials of the time.
I hated folks touching my belly while I was pregnant, but I also have the same urge - I have just always stifled it.
I’d say it might be a generational thing - it would never OCCUR to me (as an adult, anyway… when I was a kid who knows what I’d have done) to do this.
But people MY age did it when my kids were young. WTF???
Moon Unit was a preemie, and had been on a ventilator - so I was pretty vigilant about her catching stuff. Yet people would come up and try to grab her hands or whatever. I snapped at them.
Once - when I was in public and carrying her in a sling, a woman came up BEHIND ME and reached for the baby’s hand. Without a word to me - literally she came out of nowhere and tried to touch the baby. As in - I couldn’t see well, wasn’t sure what was going on, saw SOMETHING going for the baby… and nearly ripped the woman’s arm off. I mean, I SHRIEKED at her.
What I regret was that I would typically say “sorry - she’s fragile, preemie, can’t be touched” - where a more appropriate response would be to look at her in shock and ask, loudly, “Why on EARTH would you do that? WHY WOULD YOU TOUCH A STRANGER’S BABY WITHOUT EVEN SPEAKING TO THE PARENTS FIRST???”.
I would rather have people grab my boob than grab my eyelashes, seriously. Not to say I like it (yes, it has happened), but the eye thing is just scary. If my friend had had hard contacts rather that soft ones, for example, it probably would have popped out rather than just moved around. I don’t want some waitress whose fingers have been god knows where anywhere NEAR my eyes; my boobs are covered.
Also, that thing about rubbing pregnant women’s bellies “for luck.” At a certain point I decided that the next person who did it, it was going to be their BAD luck as they were going to lose their hand!
I’d rather be assaulted then sexually assaulted. I have a high physical pain tolerance. Emotional/mental hurt lasts a lot longer, for me at least. But I do have esteem issues to start with, it might be different for you.
Even into adulthood, I’ve had people, total strangers, who thought it was perfectly OK to touch my hair or even run their fingers through it, totally without asking permission. Sometimes from behind, so I wasn’t even aware they were there until there was a hand raking through my hair.
Wait, what?
Everybody’s been in agreement about people touching uninvited, but what’s the problem with talking to people?
I have very long hair, which I normally wear loose, I’ve had the hair feeling thing a lot, in a lot of different places, normally old ladies, and I don’t really mind. I’ve never had the boob grab sucessfully completed on me, as you need to be in front for it to really work, and I have this look… I’ve had a few guys cut off mid pissed grab and just weakly mime it instead though.
I’d suggest practicing the look on a cat. Or Wednesday Adams, if available.
Well, they are trying to be kind. I don’t think people should be petting kids, but I don’t understand why you are doing a slow burn with people trying to say something positive and complimentary toward your child.
But if being on SD has taught me anything, it’s that people are vastly different in what they consider appropriate interaction with others. Personally, I frequently talk to complete strangers when I’m out and about, and that includes complimenting parents on the various levels of adorableness of their children. I certainly don’t mean to imply a child with beautiful eyes is devoid of all other attributes, only that her eyes are pretty. It’s sort of depressing to learn that my attempts at being friendly and nice could be met with resentment.
I myself am pleased when people tell me my children are pretty, or cute.
Just my humble opinion.
I wouldn’t consider a boob-grab a sexual assault if a waitress did it wondering if they were real. Note that I wouldn’t LIKE it, but my breasts are protected by a lot of clothing, whereas my eyes are not.
Also my vision is quite important to my life.