It seems like almost daily, another man is accused of sexual harassment, etc. I can't
even keep track of it. It's like a lid has been pulled off a boiling pot and all the men
accused are spilling out. What would have happened if all that stuff hadn't come out
about Harvey Weinstein?
How long would have all those men been kept in the "boiling pot?" I think
the individuals coming forward are very brave and it makes me sad that they felt their
voices were not heard for so long or that they kept it inside for years and sometimes
decades. I told my dad
recently about my "#MeToo" moment. I thought I had told him before, but
evidently I hadn't. Anyways, in the late 1980's into the early 1990's I worked for a very
small company as a receptionist. I was told by the owner of the company I had to always
wear panty hose and a skirt/dress. I did it because I liked the job and the people I
worked with. After I had been there a few years, the owner hired an older gentleman. He
was easily three times my age. On more than one occasion, he made comments about my
figure and how I looked in my clothes. It made me more than a little uncomfortable and I
talked to the owner of the company privately. His response, "if you take him to
court, I would be on his side." I can still remember his words this many years
later. When I finished telling my dad the whole story he said something along the lines
of, "I can't say that I'm surprised, that's the way it was back then." Excuse
me?? It's never okay for that type of thing to be going on in the workplace. My
experience sounds tame compared to the stories I've seen and heard in the news. After I
moved on from that job, I took a night class at the local college. I had a professor that
would come and stand behind me just a little bit too close. This happened so many times
that I eventually dropped the class. I had passed the point of being able to get a
refund, but I had to get out of the class for my own mental well being. I had actually
forgot about that professor until all of these stories starting coming out in the news.
Many of the accused men claim they are "sorry." Are they really sincere or are
they "sorry" they got caught???? Time will tell.
When Dominic was diagnosed with Autism at 2 1/2, I went to our local library and took out every book I could find about Autism. Sometimes I would bring back 20 books. This was 2006, so a lot of the information was very "dated." I guess I was looking for a book that would tell me what I should do next, like a "manual." Autism doesn't quite work that way! The saying is, " if you know one person with Autism, you know one person with Autism." Every mom to an individual with Autism follows their own "path." I think as moms, we judge ourselves much harder than anyone else does. I was 41 when I had Dominic. Did he get the diagnosis of Autism because I was an older mom? because I drank a lot of pop? I could sit and think about that every minute of every day. I am pretty integrated into the Autism community around Lansing and have told more than one person that it took me about two weeks to come to terms with Dominic's diagnosis. It is so incredib...
I go with the sorry I got caught theory. My experience was a client coming behind me and putting his hands on my shoulders. I informed him to NEVER touch me again and reported the happening to my boss, who assured me it would never happen again. Good or that miserable human would find himself with a slap mark on his face or a wound farther down his body. Sorry you had your incidents. Love, Auntie
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