Childhood, stalled

Let kids grow up — and stop fighting phantom boogeymen

by Lenore Skenazy

The little boys in the little girls’ room have gotten a lot bigger lately.

“We were just at the Museum of Natural History, and I took my son into the women’s bathroom with me and we got some looks,” says a Queens mother named Jennifer.

That’s not so surprising — her son is 9. He’s almost as tall as she is!

“ ‘Do I have to go in the girls bathroom?’ ” Jennifer recalls him asking. “I hesitated a moment and thought: ‘Maybe I should let him go. The bathrooms are right next to each other. Maybe I’ll stand right by the door and he’ll be very fast.’ But then I panicked.”

Bingo! That is exactly the word. We are in the midst of a Pedophile Panic. What Communists were to the ’50s, pedophiles are today: A horror we imagine under every bed — and inside every stall. The reality, though, is a lot less terrifying.

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