Recently there was this article in the economist about people arguing for or against certain cheerleader acts in Texas. And reading trough the article a remark made by person x was that, he did not want to go and see a game and had to cover his sons of 5 years old eyes when the cheerleaders came on stage. He then went further and said that any adult could clearly see that the cheerleaders actions where sexually suggestive.

And I couldn't but wonder. How many children aged 5 have enough experience to know what actions are sexual and are not ?

After some wondering I read further, and read the whole article. Somebody else, person y, noted that when he/she was in puberty almost every action of a women was seen as sexual, but that when becoming a bit older, that was no longer the case. But I was still intrigued by that one remark of the person x. After some thinking, it became clear.

Person x is using the argument about his son, for something he has problems with. Rather then saying directly, I see certain actions as sexually suggestive, and have a problem with that, he says your son might have problems with that.

He is using the reference to kids to obtain his own goals, for things he has problems with. He is deciding without asking for the person, the kid, he wants to decide about. It is not possible to always ask children for there opinion. I'm well aware of that. But in this case, I would like to know the answer to the question.

Have the children any problem with it, or are it largely grown up people who do ? It might be interesting to know.

That parents want to protect there children is normal, but overprotecting them can make it harder in life for them later on. It is a question of balance, but what that balance is I cannot answer for you. They are your children, you are there parents. Yet your children are not your property. Many parents who read this, might find this a strange sentence, and they will think we already know that. I decided to write it, because that does not always seem to be the case.