'Laugh it off and move on': Internet sides with woman whose changing room 'accident' left 5-year-old boy shocked
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: The Internet is rallying behind woman who accidently exposed her breasts to a small boy in the changing room of a local community center. The scenario was discussed by the original poster, u/LolaJohnston on Reddit's popular 'Am I The A**hole' subreddit, where it garnered over 2,600 upvotes and more than 700 comments.
In the Reddit post titled, "AITA for showing my b**bs to a little boy?" The woman, 36, says that she has been taking belly dance lessons at the local community center. She further wrote, "It’s a small center so there is only two changing rooms : one for men and one for women." She added, "The clothes we wear are not your typical gym clothes, but more suitable for this kind of dance (skirts, crop tops, shiny scarfs around the hips). But it’s still a sport so I wear a sports bra."
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'She yelled at me'
She detailed the incident and stated, "Yesterday I arrived a little bit earlier than most times and found the changing room empty. When I was putting on my sports bra, the straps got tangled in my hair and I was struggling to put it on correctly. And just as I was panicking, I heard a voice yell 'b**bies!' I turned around and saw this little boy, about 5, staring. I quickly covered my chest with the first thing I could find and it just happened to be a belly dance scarf (one of those with coins and sparkly things attached to it). Then I just stepped aside and managed to put on the damn sports bra."
She thought nothing more of the incident, but the boy's mother had a different idea. The boy's mother came up to her and said, "Why are you exposing yourself to my boy!” The original poster further wrote, "I learned later on that a new class was taking place at the center. Something like 'Mommy and me dance lessons'. So there were children with their mothers. I politely explained to the mother that this was the women locker room, and I was just changing. Not deliberately exposing my b**bs to small children. But she heard none of it and yelled at me for not being immoral, that the boy is going to be traumatized, that I have to go change in the bathroom and all kind of crazy s**t like that. I tried ignoring her, put on the rest of my clothes and tried escaping. But then she took issue with my dance clothes and called me a few choice words, not suitable for children’s ears."
She ended the post with, "When my class started, I talked to a few of the women taking the class and told them what happened. I expected sympathy, but they told me that when they saw the children at the locker room, they went to change in the bathroom. And that since I don’t have kids, I don’t understand that what I did was bad."
'Laugh that s**t off and move on'
More than 700 people commented on the post, with a majority supporting the woman and finding no fault with her in the situation. One user made fun of the mother by saying, "NTA. What was the mother expecting in the women’s changing room. Also how repressed is this mother to think that the mere sight of b**bs to a five year old is a traumatising experience.. Laugh that s**t off and move on."
Another user echoed the sentiment and wrote, "1. B**bs are not traumatizing. Seriously, they're just b**bs. 2. You were in the space specifically designated for changing, which means b**bs might be exposed. The mother seems incompetent at parenting - if she doesn't want her child to see something, she needs to manager her child. The fact that she attacked you with such vitriol says a lot about her. You are absolutely NTA."
Another user added, "NTA. If anyone traumatized the little boy, it was his mother for making a huge deal of your normal female body parts. It's totally normal for a mother to take her young son into the women's dressing room, or for a father to take his young daughter into the men's dressing room. However it's not normal to expect other adults not to use the dressing room for its intended purpose, especially if they didn't notice the presence of a child."
This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.