[LaneyDoll]

I have been on vacation. So my gripe is a few days old-lol. But, I am still less troubled by it.

My mom, my kids and I went to a family resort in Panama City Beach, FL. I realize that there will be a ton of kids there and kids will be kids. No problem. But, rules exist for a reason and parents are not serving anyone well by showing their children that rules do not apply to them.

My kids, mom and I were in the hot tub Friday night. One of the rules is "all children must be 4 years old to use the spa." One child was obviously younger than 4 but I did not let it ruin my time. UNTIL he came up to me and felt me up on the breasts like he was rounding second. This kid did NOT fall and land on me, he was groping me in a very noticeable manner. I put my hands up in front of me (the universal signal to stop) and told him "please do not touch me there."

His parents saw me address their kid and jumped my ass! They actually said "if you have a problem with my son, you need to tell me." I replied "there are too many kids in here for me to know who belongs to who and he is grabbing my breasts inappropriately." And they became infuriated, talking about how he was only 3 and did not know better. Luckily, the security guard was making rounds and asked everyone in the spa how old their children were. When he asked the mom how old her child was, she looked at me (she had just admitted his age) and told the security guard then asked if her child could stay in since he was "almost old enough." But the guard held his ground and made them leave. At that point, the dad and his other kid were left and they stayed for a while.

The incident was enough to cause me to make a report later. I honestly felt that the father was so angry he could cause problems later and I wanted to establish my side of the story first.

What troubles me about this are several things---
1. I am severely ticklish. It is the trigger to a very bad memory and I react to tickling etc in a very violent way. It is such a bad trigger that I usually cannot control my reactions-but I did.

2. What are we teaching our kids when we teach them that posted rules do not apply to everyone?

3. Had the situation been reversed, I would have been mortified. If my child touched anyone in an inappropriate manner, I would have excused me and the child and we would have had a discussion, after an apology was offered to the other party.

4. I am still very upset about this and, while I KNOW that I did not react too harshly, my children saw me treated badly because of my reaction to someone crossing severe personal boundaries regarding my body.