Playing Doctor

If you are a mom or dad or have a mom and dad you have heard of the good old past time of 'playing doctor'. Fisher Price even sells a great play kit. I've considered getting one for my son since his dad drives an ambulance sometimes. Bryston has his own very real stethoscope. He'll listen to my heart and his. Innocent fun right?

Today Bryston and I had a play date with my best friend and her sweet kids. We went to McDonalds since it was nasty outside. Bryston and his friends had a great time. They were the only kids there for a while. As our play time was winding down Bryston came to me with his pants unzipped and said "Mommy, my pants are unzipped." (I had just taken him to the bathroom and first thought maybe I forgot to zip them) Nearby a mother was sitting and listening (only one other child was there, a girl about 5 or 6). I asked Bryston how they came unzipped and he said "That girl unzipped them". Oh my. I'm ashamed to say that my first thought was his overactive imagination. (I was a teacher for peets sakes! What was I thinking? Children don't make things like this up.) As I was talking to Bryston and having him explain to me exactly what happened the mother of the girl told me that her daughter is going through this playing doctor phase and that she did believe her daughter did that. She had her daughter apologize to Bryston and promptly left. I'm thankful to that mother for being honest. It's a simple and innocent game BUT I don't want my child to think that is okay.

After they left I told Bryston that no one is to ever touch him around those areas and that if that ever happened again he was to scream for me because I'm never far away. (I didn't see this because it was at the top of the play area's slide/tube contraption). I learned a valuable lesson. I will never doubt my child or second guess myself.
Later my best friends precious and caring daughter felt really bad that she didn't see what had happened so she could stop it.

I watch my child very close, almost to the point of being over protective. But I didn't think to have other children on my radar for that kind of behavior. From now on before we play anywhere I will add this new concern to my preteach before we play. Thank you Jesus for watching out for my child.