This was the story of "Saving Noah" by Lucinda Berry. The story was so uncomfortable, but it exposed so many real life issues. The writing style was a bit meh, but I read it in one setting (partly because it reads quickly, partly because I wanted to get it over with).
Has anyone else read it? Did you agree with the mother's decision? It was so unbearably sad on every conceivable level.
EDIT: By support, I mean that in the book, the mother visited him (I think he was 15 when he committed the crimes) in prison, secured a place for him in the best treatment facility, and tried to get him into a school far enough from their old neighborhood but close enough to be near her young daughter. >! She also assisted him in suicide as he couldn't bear to live with himself !<
by traylaplaya
7 Comments
No. I would want them to receive jail time and disown them
I’d kill him
What do you mean by “support”?
I wouldn’t disown him just for feeling attraction. You can’t control who you’re attracted to. I would try to help him find a therapist who specializes in working with adults attracted to children, and I would try to make sure he doesn’t interact with kids (for example, I wouldn’t invite my friend to bring her kids over to my house if my son was home). If I found out he was planning to put himself in a situation where he would be interacting with kids, I would tell him that he has to withdraw from that situation or else I will inform people in charge of that situation that he’s not safe to be around kids. For example, if he applied for a job at an elementary school, I would tell him to withdraw his application and that if I ever see him at the school or find out that he’s visited the school, I will inform the principal that he shouldn’t be allowed on campus and why.
If I found out he had acted on his attraction and abused a child, I would report the abuse (if it hadn’t already been reported), and I would probably go no contact with him. I wouldn’t let him into my home, and I wouldn’t help him navigate the legal system if he was charged with a crime.
If by support you mean therapy and psychiatric help, yes. If by support it means enabling or ignoring it, no.
if he’s under 18, i would support him not to commit any crimes. i wouldn’t try to control anybody’s thought regardless, it’s impossible and wrong in a free country.
There is so much sexual abuse in Christian families that I know of and as a child I was abused by my father, so I use to think about things like that. One of them was what if I had children who had an attraction to children? I would have: separated the child from rest of my children and have them in therapy and sent away to boarding school that has only their age students.
If they still struggle with that attraction, I would let my immediate family know so they would never let them alone with any children ever. They also would know I would immediately report them if I ever suspect they commuted a crime.
Support as in try to get him help, yes.
Support as in defend or enable acting on it in any way, no.
I don’t know the story to have any context about which we’re answering here.