Re: The Limtis of Expression

How much is too much? That's one of those tricky questions with no clear answer. I would suggest, like most things, this is a matter of context. For example, if you work with children (as a teacher, youth worker or such-like), then obviously noone would see anything odd in your spending time with the children in your care. You may find among them a particular girl that you fall for but this would not mean you were a BAD teacher, although you would, of course, have to act professionally, but most workers with children find they have one or two "favourites" and noone would think anything of you having conversations and games with this girl and her friends. Unless you actually started groping the girl or "talking dirty" to her, there would, likely as not, be no problem.

If, on the other hand, you start talking to a unknown little girl in a park when you were on your own, even if your conversation is entirely innocent, you would be asking for trouble. But again, if you are there with your own children, the situation is entirely different.

I suppose my best advice would be to put yourself in the shoes of a parent and ask yourself what kind of behaviour YOU would view as suspicious in another.

I'm not for a moment suggesing you try to find an excuse to get near children for GL purposes, but if, like me and many others, you genuinely enjoy the company of children, and little girls specifically, then there is bound to be some legitimate way you can spend time with them in your local community and enhance their lives in some way - it's so rewarding!

Decide for yourself where your personal boundaries lie and how much will-power you fell you'd realistically be able to muster (probably quite a lot if you're honest!) and look for something you can do within those limits. I don't think you'd regret it.