Hi there
I have a 8 year old daughter and she has a lovely best friend who spends a lot of time at our house having sleepovers and vice versa with my daughter at her house.
The weekend just gone the girls had a sleepover at our house and the morning I went in to get them up and they were under the mattress they were sharing together giggling and touching each other.
They did go quite shy when I sprung them.
Should I be worried about this or is it harmless kids stuff.
Thanks
6 Replies
Definitely normal, kids are curious!
I would have a chat to her about personal boundaries and we don't touch other people's private parts or let them touch ours etc. But honestly, most kids will go through a phase like this so nothing to be worried about.
Definitely normal, but, you need to talk to your daughter about it and tell her you understand she is curious but it's not ok. I'd also make sleepovers in open areas etc from now on.
Although I see it as normal you need to protect your daughter against allegations etc.,
I remember doing this myself as a child with my childhood friends. I have no idea how it started or who's "idea" it was or anything like that but I don't think that really matters at all.
As far as I'm concerned it is completely normal and for the most part harmless. It becomes an issue when other things happen such as using objects etc. That's usually a sign of abuse.
In saying that, touching, looking and playing are a normal curious phase in a childs life, especially with girls.
Don't make her feel guilty for her curiosity but I would have a little chat about acceptable and unacceptable behaviour.
At 8 years old, you could get a lovely "my body" book for her to read. It will help her to understand how her body is her body and not for anyone else. It's a great time to start learning about self respect too.
I used to as a kid as well. I think is fairly normal.
I also did it as a kid. Completely normal.
100% normal behaviour- some kids are more interested than others so they might not all do it...I definitely had that kind of curiosity from toddler age and no I was not exposed to any kind of abuse, kids are just naturally curious about their parts. They probably don't understand the gravity of what they are doing like adults do, it's just play to them. If you are concerned you could always talk to your daughter about it, but don't discipline her for those actions cause it's totally normal