Originally published at: "Suspicious older male" who offered young boy chocolate was celebrating Random Acts of Kindness Day, say police | Boing Boing
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Clearly, the guy handing out the candies is not a gen Xer, because few things were banged into our gourds like Stranger Danger…
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More like “Random Acts of ME-ness”.
If he wanted to be even more random, he should break into people’s homes in the middle of the night, and leave a chocolate on their pillow while they sleep.
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Like that creepy Milk-Tray dude, going around dressed in black, swinging from ropes,
scattering chocs everywhere.
Bloody weirdo.
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Police continue to investigate a separate incident in Hanover on Thursday, where an older man was seen taking photos of children playing in the backyard of a home.
This is utter bullshit. Why link these stories in any way? It gives the whole story this tone of “okay, the guy was normal this time, but we’re definitely justified in being suspicious of men talking to kids.” As someone who volunteers with kids (and has a ream of DBS forms to prove it) I really hate this fear, and the perpetuation of it.
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As a Boomer, we were always taught “Don’t accept candy from strangers”.
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So what was this guy’s problem?
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There was an older gentleman in my town who used to walk around giving random people Wurthers (he may still be doing it, but I haven’t heard about it for a while now). As @anon61221983 said, there’s a huge generational difference. I know he means well, but that rings every warning bell I learned about in school.
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Well, number one is he’s Canadian… /s
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Ah! So you’d met my late grandfather.
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LadyGoose has told our kids on several occasions “if a stranger offers you candy, just say no thank you and walk away, then tell me and I’ll give you the same candy or an even better treat. You don’t need stranger candy” This was added for our younger daughter, who has a pretty dominant sweet tooth. Of course a few weeks ago she was sighing to her sister after they realized all the candy-holidays were behind them for a while: “I wish someone would try to kidnap me so I could get some treats.”
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Not sure this guy’s kind intentions make up for his profound ignorance or foolishness. There are a lot of kind things one could do that don’t raise huge red flags and alarm parents, and it’s very hard to believe he didn’t know better.
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Our world is fucked up, but good.
Weird and more than a little concerning, but I guess I could see it as well intentioned just really bad form. So the older man then shrugged and went on to the next person, right?
No. Just no. Consent isn’t just a kink thing, it applies everywhere. (I love the tea example and this is very clearly a “no tea” situation.) You made your offer, it was turned down, now go away and take your potentially poisoned candy with you.
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Santa Claus strikes deep
Into your house, he will creep
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Despite the annoying fact that most molesters were from within the family and friends circle.
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But it was always some shadowy strangers that we needed to fear… There were a few high profile kidnapping cases (Adam Walsh, for example) that did not help that perception, either. Or events like the Atlanta Child Murders, etc.
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