A Hampton Wick mum is considering getting kids’ clothes that say ‘Don’t touch - my mum bites’...
Wha...?
... due to strangers stroking her children's hair and faces on buses.
*blinks*
Karen Ovenden frequently uses the number 285 and 281 buses and said some people “can’t seem to refrain themselves” from ruffling the hair or stroking the cheeks of her children.
After posting about the issue in a Facebook group, she discovered other parents have the same problem.
Do they all ride the No 285 or 281 bus as well?
“The boys worry when they get on the bus that somebody is going to touch them, ‘They say, nobody is going to touch me are they mummy?’
“If it just happened once I would probably have let it go.
Some people defend themselves. They have always got a different excuse.
“It doesn’t matter how I approach them, they say ‘Oh I’m just being friendly’. It doesn’t matter what the intention is. I know the children don’t like being touched by strangers.”
Why would anyone want to touch them? Frankly, I would go to considerable lengths
not to come into contact with children on public transport.
Karen's twin sons are three and a half and often are at the receiving end of the petting from strangers, which makes Karen wonder if it's because of their afros.
Ah.
Now it all becomes a bit clearer, doesn't it? This isn't 'Please don't touch my kids', this is 'Look at me! Look at ME! I am so keen on diversity I have mixed race children. Praise me!'
If only that woman knew what people were really thinking................
ReplyDeleteA. She's made it up.
ReplyDeleteB. Next week: "How rude people make my beautiful brown boys feel left out by ignoring them and fussing over blonde kids."
Strangers touching kids hair etc is definitely a thang in Latin countries.
ReplyDeleteA Hampton Wick
ReplyDeleteIt would gladden my Ol'Dad's Eastend heart hearing you speak cockney.
Well I agree with her. What possesses people to think they have the right to stroke childrens' faces or hair without their permission.
ReplyDelete"If only that woman knew what people were really thinking...."
ReplyDeleteQuite!
"A. She's made it up."
Oh, I don't think so, not this time. As Timbotoo points out, it's a known thing in some cultures.
"It would gladden my Ol'Dad's Eastend heart hearing you speak cockney."
*chuckles*
"Well I agree with her. What possesses people to think they have the right to stroke childrens' faces or hair without their permission. "
Cultural mores. We import those when we import diversity, remember? This is unremarkable in certain countries.