A Taboo Subject


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      Alarmed at her inability to consistently avoid this unwanted consequence of normal mothering, this woman heaved a sigh of relief whenever one of them became old enough to bathe himself.

      So taboo is this subject, that I have no idea how common this mother’s experience is. As she herself said, “There is no way I would have brought that topic up with another mother.” Whether she was a little over-zealous with cleanliness, I don’t know. She certainly felt she was doing the minimum required of her.

      Regardless of these issues, for it to happen completely unintentionally with three different boys illustrates how easily it would happen if done deliberately by anyone who has wormed his way into a little boy’s trust.

      I know a female school teacher who once worked in a third world setting in which it was school policy to shower little children before lessons began. Her experience seems to have been much the same as this mother’s but at the time she was too naïve to realize what was happening.

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