And again... in Hello.

Remember the entry a couple back, where I was talking about people who didn’t understand me/I didn’t understand them and I thought I was going crackers? It’s happened again.
Yesterday evening Bel came home from school and told me that they’d had an assembly where one of the year 13s had come in (age about 17 or 18, in case you don’t know!) and told them she’d been bullied about being bisexual and it only stopped when she actually told an adult, publicly coming out about her sexuality at the same time. She’d been in year 8 at the time, so aged about 12 or 13. I’m ashamed I hadn’t been listening to Bel properly and I asked her whether she thought it should be anyone else’s business about what sexual orientation somebody is. She said “No, but that’s not what the assembly was about, mum, it was about being bullied and telling someone if it’s happening to you.” I apologised and asked her to set the table. I told her that bullying ANYONE is despicable and she should ALWAYS tell me if it’s happening. She hugged me and said she would. That was it, the end of the conversation.
A couple of hours later, my cousin, M, who has a daughter in Bel’s year, contacted me via messenger on Facebook. Here is the conversation with my thoughts added in square brackets.
M: Hiya have you heard anything about a talk at school today about bisexuals

Me: Not much, just that they had a talk about it.

M: Do you think that’s ok at 11years old

Me: I think I’d rather they hear about it from a grown up than another kid that doesn’t know anything. I guess it depends on the kid!
[M is VERY bigoted and opinionated and has, on numerous occasions, run a debate into the ground with her outdated views. I was trying to be diplomatic and not start anything.]

M: I think it’s disgusting they’ve told them at 11 years old that it’s fine to be bisexual if I wanted L to know about that now I’d have told her myself they shouldn’t even know about it at that age I’m gonna ring tomorrow
[Bear in mind that M and her husband own a dairy farm, I’m sure L has known about sex since she was tiny, unless M has managed, by some miracle to avoid the subject.]

Me: Maybe a consent form would be in order? I know my mam had to sign a form when we had the sex talk in first year.

M: I think so I’m not happy at all

Me: The school should listen to the parents, it’s supposed to be a two way thing.

M: A year 13girl told them she knew at 11 that she was bi cos she had feelings for her friend that could really mix up some kids

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I left it there, I was getting increasingly wound up by her. When Bel told me they’d had a discussion about bisexuality, my first thought was “I wonder if I should have rice or tacos with my chilli?” not how ‘disgusting’ it was. I was shouting at my cousin via John and John told me to just ignore her. So I did.
But then I see this on her Facebook page just now:

Not sure I agree with what L been learning about at school today think 11 is too young
.
P: they dont need to no sum things for gods sake let them hav a childhood !!” xx
M: I know if I wanted her to know about such things at her age I’d tell her lol xx
P: i really dont agree wid it at all xx
M: Thanks for the chat P glad it’s not just me xx
[I don’t know why, but I felt this was directed at me…probably not though…]
Z: I disagree with it too. They’re almost forced to grow up. There’s time enough
M: Far too soon z xx
L: Let them be kids, they have a lifetime ahead of them to learn and experience everything!! Xx
M: Yous don’t wanna know what they’ve been told today very wrong I think x
Z: I know cos I’ve heard it before it’s basically wrong xxx Very wrong at that age
M: It’s each to their own and no disrespect to anyone but they shouldn’t be told about certain things at 11 x
H: When our kids were at school their teacher refused to teach it and had to quit. They were to young too.
L: hmmm, think it was a bit much from what Iv just heard!
J: It’s not up too school too decide what children should or shouldn’t know and it will create more bullying by teaching them stuff they wouldn’t even know existed if they hadn’t told them xx

I have several issues with this conversation, but the most GLARING one (from cousin’s daughter J, who is married and has a kid of her own!) is that the school shouldn’t decide what to teach our kids! That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever read on the internet....what else do school do if they don’t teach our kids stuff they don’t already know?

So this is what I was getting at the other day. Is my cousin’s viewpoint typical and I’m super liberal? Or is my attitude to it normal and my cousin has just surrounded herself with a load of yes men? I don’t know if she’s deleted any comments, but all the ones on the thread agreed with her. The other thing that doesn’t help is a couple of the people who agreed with her are people who’s viewpoints I generally respect!

Maybe I’m just paranoid.

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I was going to write more, but I’m mighty pissed off that the Foo Fighters crowd funded gig isn’t going ahead (just announced. :( ) so I’m going to leave this here.