[Serious] Women and Men of Reddit, what's your "Me Too" (sexual assault/harassment) story? How are you doing now?

Mine is a little weird in the sense that it took ten to fifteen years to realize it was abuse.

I was 6 or 7 years old. My mom was a single mother working two jobs to keep us off of welfare. As a result, I spent a lot of time at the baby sitter then mom would pick me up and take me home where grandma would get me to bed.

Everyday I would walk to "Mrs. Johnson's" house after school. Around 3:30 her daughter would get home from high school and Mrs. Johnson would go get dinner ready. Her daughter would then take me up to her bedroom to watch MTV. The first couple of times was no big deal. We'd watch music videos for about an hour, sing, dance, then it was dinner time.

Then one day she wanted to play a game where we got naked and did stuff to each other. This went on 5 days a week for about a year or so. To this day, I don't know how it stayed a secret. Why I didn't say anything to anyone. It's not like she shamed me into staying quiet. There were no threats, no coercion, none of that. In my mind, I guess I just thought it was normal boring love stuff that no one would want to hear about. You know, just a 6 year old boy and a 16ish year old girl in love. Normal stuff, right?

I only realized it was abuse years later when telling my high school girlfriend the story of how I list my virginity. She had to explain to me that I was abused.

This is where it gets fucked up and the part that still keeps me up at night. Somewhere after about a year of this, Mrs. Johnson started babysitting a girl about 6 months younger than me. Her daughter thought it would be fun to have her play with us. She would take us both up to her room and get us all naked then watch as me and the girl played together. This went on for a few months until Mrs. Johnson passed away. Her husband and daughter moved away.

Now, I don't remember the little girl being upset at all during our "play time". We even were friends until my family moved in 3rd grade. But in my head, I always wonder if she sees little 7 year old me as her abuser. They say fear leads to fight or flight but it actual leads to fight, flight, friend, freeze, or flop. Did she only friend me to end her abuse? I don't know if grown up her wakes up to nightmares and blames me not realizing I wasn't complicit in the whole thing. I don't know if she knows I was a victim too.

Things I do realize: Mrs. Johnson's daughter was just acting out based on her experience of normal. In retrospect, the signs she was an abused girl were all there.

Mrs. Johnson likely had no idea what was going on with me but probably should have seen the signs in what was happening to her daughter. I don't know if it was her dad or someone else but someone did something to that girl.

I think because I didn't realize it was abuse at the time, I got away with out having my child hood shattered like so many abuse victims. Under the circumstances I was pretty lucky. I got to tell myself a story about young love until my brain was mature enough to comprehend what had happened. I hope the little girl got the same chance.

/r/AskReddit Thread