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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to feel that my neighbour's comments re. my son's future sex life were a little crass

79 replies

sotiredofthis1 · 14/12/2015 10:08

Hi

One of my good friends lives in the street opposite ours and we have known each other for about 13 years now. She was over the other evening and as she was leaving the conversation for some reason turned to the fact that my ds (just turned 14 in November) has the smallest room in the house (he was the first of our 3 dc to get his own bedroom and got the smallest room). I said I had offered him the attic (where dh and I sleep) but that he had said no. My neighbour and dh joked about how he would need the attic when he starts bringing girls home.

I should have left it at that but I said that I didn't think that was going to happen for a while. Though he is very tall and very mature in lots of ways, he really is still a child - if a gangly and tall one. He spends quite a lot of his time at home annoying his younger sisters and has all the body language and posture of a child. Basically at 14 I think he is a child still.

My neighbour then starts contesting this so I asked her and dh when they had their first girlfriend/boyfriend. Dh of course did not answer as he is very secretive and always has been but my neighbour admitted she was a lot older than 14. She then said that my son might get an older girlfriend (to "teach" him the implication was) - I was like Confused that would be illegal and any possibly predatory older girlfriend would have me to deal with. She then said that he might "pay for it" Shock and that her husband's first sexual experience had been with a prostitute when he was a little over 14 Confused.

Apart from the fact that I really did not need that info about her husband, and will never be able to unhear it, aibu to think that she should not have been saying that my son's first sexual experience might be with a prostitute Hmm, let alone the fact that prostitution is basically the exploitation of women/girls who have often been coerced into doing what they are doing Angry?

I recognise that I may be naive and he may well sooner than I think get a "girlfriend" but would you at that age jump straight into sex, would there not be a progression - friendship, kissing etc?

In any case, aibu to think that my friend should really not have said that my son might pay someone for sex???

Can't stop thinking about what she said and wondering whether I really want to see her at all at the moment. She does have form for being tactless, when my Mum died 9 years ago following 5 years of chemotherapy she said it was "interesting" because her super healthy friend had either lived for much longer with cancer or had not died - can't remember. Implication being that my Mum had not eaten healthily enough to survive any longer than she did Angry.

And breathe....

OP posts:
DyslexicScientist · 15/12/2015 08:14

All depends how its said.

Its the kind of thing I would do, start on a topic as a joke and keep digging accidently.

APlaceOnTheCouch · 15/12/2015 17:16

MrsJayy I guess it would depend on the context if reversing the sexes elicited a different response but since (a) statistically girls are less likely to pay for sex (b) historically and culturally there has been no precedent for girls paying to be 'broken in' as a PP put it and (c) statistically sexual abuse of a minor is more likely to be an adult male abusing a female child - then it's not really surprising that there would be different responses if you reversed the sexes. I'm also not sure how it's relevant.

Nataleejah · 15/12/2015 17:26

Some people just like talking out of their arse. Even when they're good friends.

shinynewusername · 15/12/2015 17:41

I really don't think she was expressing sinister sexual interest in your DS. I think she was amused by your naive belief that a child-like 14 year old is not interested in sex/girls and wanted to tease you, but got it wrong. The prostitute comment was crass but it was based on her own experience (of her DH) - it's not as if she was advocating him using a prostitute.

And - although she was very crass - she was actually right. Please don't assume that a 14 yo of either sex who seems childlike at home is not at risk of underage sex. You wouldn't believe the number of child-like teenagers I have seen with STIs & pregnancies as a GP - from both consensual and non-consensual sex Sad The naive, child-like kids can be more at risk than the savvy ones. You need to have all those embarrassing talks about condoms etc with him asap

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