[Check out today's Project365 photo of the day for something a little sexier]
We were relaxing at home as a family on Monday evening and I had SportsCenter on in the background. Like every other day for the past week, a featured story was the on-going scandal at Penn State. This particular segment was detailing the charges against Jerry Sandusky, including the details of a grad student walking in on a child being raped by Sandusky.
Veronica whispered to me “is this appropriate for him to be hearing?”, referring to Darling Boy
At that moment it dawned on me that yes, it was appropriate. He is 11 yrs old, the boy in the shower was 10 at the time, most of the other victims were in the same age range as well.
In the past we’ve talked with him about private parts and where it is or is not appropriate for people to touch others, from a child’s perspective, of course.
With my alma mater continuing to make front page news all week, we’ve had conversations about sex crimes, lying, protecting your friends, media relations, accountability, dealing effectively with a crisis, owning up to your mistakes, and even a little about the (overblown) role of sports and particularly collegiate athletics in modern society.
It hasn’t always been easy for us, or for DB, to have some of these conversations. We make sure to keep it all in context, that this is happening because a grown man had or attempted to have sex with young boys.
The above-the-fold headline of the sports section of today’s Boston Globe reads “Penn State trustees fire Paterno”
DB saw the headline and without prompting declared “dad, I’m glad they fired Paterno”.
He gets it. It’s been a tough week to be a proud Penn State grad, but I’m definitely proud of my little man. He gets it.
Veronica: And I’m proud of him too. However, the look on his face as we brought up the topics saddened me. I never saw him look quite so uncomfortable and nauseous during a conversation with us. However, they were all very important conversations to have.
