Somebody That I Used To Know

The Truth

"Mummy?" Lillian asks.

"Yes, baby?" Molly responds, stroking the side of her daughter's face.

"Can Daddy come say goodnight to me too?"

"Daddy's sleeping right now, love."

"Oh, okay. Is Daddy okay?"

"What do you mean?"

"He sleeps a lot and isn't as nice to me anymore. Like I want to snuggle with him and he's all weird about it."

"What do you mean?"

"Like he starts getting panicky sometimes and then a few times he's thrown me off of him but then looked like he was going to cry so he picked me back up again."

Molly sighs and looks into Lily's eyes, trying to come up with an age appropriate way to say this. "Do you remember when Daddy was away for a few days and I told you that there's a chance he might not come home?"

"Yeah."

"Well that happened a couple years ago too. Daddy is still... upset about what happened to him. He was hurt very badly the first time this happened and so it's hard for him to shake that."

"He's not really eating as much either. And he gets the flu a lot."

Molly closes her eyes. "I know. Listen, does Daddy get weird if you touch him? Not just cuddling. Does he jump if you sneak up on him?"

"Yeah. Well sometimes I come in your room and he just grabs me and holds me for a little bit but then other times he's a meanie and doesn't let me touch him. I just want to snuggle, I don't understand why he gets angry with me like that."

"I know you do. So someone hurt Daddy very bad, this has happened a lot to him unfortunately, and it makes him a little hesitant for people to touch him. You do remember what we talked about?"

"No."

"Well boys and girls have different anatomy, you know that."

"Oh, yeah, I know."

"And so we all have different... your school says swimsuit areas, right?"

"In presentations? Yeah."

"Okay. We talked this a couple years ago but I'll say swimsuit areas because that's what you hear most at school. So technically me and you have two swimsuit areas and Daddy has one. People are never supposed to touch your swimsuit areas unless you give them permission. Remember when we went through the list of people who can touch you there?"

"You or Daddy but it has to be a good reason like I got hurt or something, the doctor, and the nurse. Also police but they have to be with a doctor."

"Exactly. And if anyone ever does that and it makes you feel uncomfortable or bad, you come tell us, right?"

"Even if they say to lie about it." Lillian replies.

"Good. Well, baby, um... that can happen to adults too. Sometimes it can be a lot worse than someone just touching you where they're not supposed to. When that happens to someone, a lot of things change in their life because it's scary and it hurt them."

"So... wait a minute, I'm confused."

"About what, baby?"

"What does this have to do with Daddy? We already went through this and you taught me the technical names for girl parts and boy parts. I know this stuff already."

"Well, sweetheart," Molly lets out a long sigh. "Someone hurt Daddy like that. Actually, it was a few people, but mainly this one really bad person. When Daddy wasn't feeling good all the time a few months ago, that's because of that person. That's why Daddy gets nervous when you touch him and he has bad dreams sometimes."