Not even close. Asking a guy if he’s playing pocket pool isn’t like asking a girl if she has an STD. |
Agree. OP is overreacting. And there are grown men who will “adjust themselves” almost unconsciously while wearing gym shorts. Like, almost endlessly. It’s gross and we all see it. Your son’s future wife will thank your FIL. |
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“Mt son sometimes has anxiety or feels social awkwardness so might put his hands in his jacket or shorts pockets.“
Mom, I say this as a parent of a kid with anxiety and OCD and ADHD. Your child is now 14 and old enough to learn what is acceptable and what isn’t, and we need to stop making excuses using anxiety as scape goat. Hands in both pockets of gym shorts is just not appropriate for a 14 year-old young man. teach him other coping mechanisms for his anxiety. |
| I feel like it's a joke from that generation. He should just tell him the score is 2 to 1. This is like the "pull my finger" joke. However, it's only funny like once or twice. After that it's juvenile and annoying, but that's what men are like. I'm sure your son will have to deal with much worse in life from other males. I think your father is trying to get your son to laugh. Teach your son how to have a sense of humor. That would serve him better than having an awkward talk with your father accusing him of something. |
| OP, if you go off on your father about some corny comment during a camping trip, that is what will be inappropriate and weird. |
| I say this as a true blue liberal, but I think the old days where people talked to kids like this and held them to some standards were good. Less leaning into anxiety and more "straighten up and fly right", as my grandparents used to say. |
| Your son is 14. He has testicles and a penis. He is a young man. He does not need you to go into battle for him over someone - a relative - making a joke about him possibly touching himself. That would be extremely embarrassing for him to have his mother involved in. |
| I don’t get it. He made the joke on the camping trip and then a few weeks later said what’s the score and you think there’s a connection between the two conversations? |
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Pull my finger!
BRRAAAT!!!! |
| Well I think you can address this and get it over with. My grandpa used to put HIS hands in MY shorts so I had an even bigger problem to solve. |
This. So many of the PPs gaslighting OP that this is normal. This is not appropriate your minor son doesn't need to hear sexual jokes from a creepy adult. Tell your dad to stop and he does not then do not allow your kids to be with him alone. |
Nightmare? Of course this is normal. How did you decide it wasn’t when many people disagree with you? Ball playing constantly is inappropriate. |
I don’t think it’s a joke—I think blunderbuss grandpa is trying to tell the kid not to do horribly socially awkward things in public in the only way he knows how. And further, it’s not sexual to tell your kid not to touch themselves (or appear to touch themselves) in public. It’s what we need to do as parents. OP shouldn’t even be in this situation because she should have already told her kid, instead of excusing everything as anxiety. |
The person fondling themselves is the one making others uncomfortable. Instead of a chat with Grandpa OP needs to address this with her son before other people notice. |
This. |