I'm a what??

[draftermatt]

I would have yelled at my child too. But it would have been "Child, haven't I told you not to talk to strangers?"

[Samaliel]

I was sorta hoping maybe she was just trying to teach her kid the whole don't talk to strangers thing, but blurted out "child molester", instead of "axe murderer".

child molester is the new stranger danger call it seems

Yeah, it seems that axe murderers are out of fashion. When I grew up, we were just told that strangers might do "bad things" to us. It left much room for our young and creative minds to imagine what that could mean.

[tropicsgoddess]

Forget kids present, I would've really handed that bitch's ass to her with some deadly verbal assault. No way would I tolerate anybody calling me or somebody I know something like a child molester (and I'm a girl)!

[Evil Queen]

Ever notice how your parents tell you not to talk to strangers, and then bitch when they realize that their kid has no friends?

[Misanthropical]

Way back before I met my husband I would go up to a guy on a motorcycle and ask for a ride and you know what? I got a lot of rides and not once did any of the guys do anything inappropriate.

I still look at motorcycles with a longing, but my husband would kill me if I asked a stranger for a ride.

My boys think motorcycles are the coolest and I have no problem with them talking with the person as long as they aren't bothering the person. I have never once thought motorcycle=child molester.

[elysia]

Which is ironic in the extreme, considering what the serious Bikers I've known would DO to a pedophile if they got their hands on the guy.

My thought exactly.

[MMATM]

Part of the fun of riding a motorcycle, or so I hear, is that riders of all shapes and sizes (from chopper fanatics to crotch-rocket racers) are terribly misunderstood and so people tend to shy away from them, which makes motorcyclists a pretty cool society as a whole.

Think about it. When a guy on a sport bike is zipping along on the highway or through town, most people immediately go "wow what a bonehead jock" or "pretty sad that he needs to use a fast bike to get girls". Or when people see a group of eight or ten bikers (of the chopper/cruiser variety) people think "uh oh, a biker gang - better not go near them" or, in this case, "a motorcycle! HE MUST BE A CHILD MOLESTER!!!!!!1!1ONE!ONE1ELEVENTYLEVEN".

I've wanted a motorcycle for a long time, but A) while still living under my parents' roof I cannot safely park one anywhere near the house for fear of the WRATH OF MOM, and B) as I haven't got a bike to practice on (and neither do any of my friends, currently) it's tough to get a license, even if I were to get a permit.

Speaking of which, since I will be moving out to my own apartment within the next three weeks or so, does anyone have a bike they're looking to get rid of? Project bikes included, since one of my roommates is an amateur mechanic and all three of us are mechies at university together, and there's more combined auto-mechanical knowledge in my family tree than there are leaves.

[unclejampuff]

I remember reading a while ago a story about a family that hired a biker as a babysitter. Full tattooes, black leather, piercings, long beard, the whole "ooooo - scary man!" look. Best babysitter they ever had. Nobody bothered THEIR child, and the sitter was just awesome with her.

My favourite babysitter was this biker dude my stepdad knew from way back in the day. He had just gotten out of rehab and needed a chance to get back on his feet. My parents made him get some tests done(in case of blood-borne diseases), but other than that, he was completely trusted and wonderful. Loads better than the silly teenage girls who babysat us down the line. I remember him as one of the few people I trusted completely as a child. More impressively, he was pretty much the only person not related to me who could get me to stop reading at the dinner table.

[Jadedcarguy]

Which is ironic in the extreme, considering what the serious Bikers (not just guys who are really into choppers... think REAL Hell's Angels) I've known would DO to a pedophile if they got their hands on the guy.

Yeah, he'd be toast. Which just goes to show that this gal watches to many TV shows about "bad bikers".

She shouldn't have said it, but I don't know that it had anything to do with the bike. I think it was more of a "don't talk to strangers in general because you never know who might be bad."

It probably had nothing to do with it, but the kid would likely not have even noticed me if I didn't have it.

But at least give the lady half a point for paying attention to her kid

She gets points for it. I see too many kids with no supervision. I just wish she would have waited until the boy was in the car before branding me as one of the worst kind of criminals.

Wow, only 30mpg. Dang, you must have one oversized engine for that bike.

107 ci S&S Evolution V-Twin.

It's still better than my truck, which gets about 15 mpg in town.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

She's got her stereotypes all wrong. Pedophiles drive huge vans with no windows. DUH.

How are you going to stash a kid on your bike without someone noticing?

What a loon.

/sarcasm off.

I know! And they are wearing a trenchcoat with no pants and big candy canes sticking out of the pockets, a popped collar, and a hat.

I mean, they are so very easy to recognize.

[Megg]

My parents are bikers. They were never Hell's Angels or anything like that, but they did belong to a bike club. So I was around a lot of large, bearded, SCARY looking bikers as a child.

If I were ever in trouble, and there was someone like that around, they would likely be high on my list of people to ask for help. A kinder, gentler group of souls you will never meet.

I am still trying to talk my mom into leaving me her bike, she is beautiful, and I love her. I wish I had a picture.

[zzapp the witch]

All the bikers I know call molesters "skinbeefs" and oh yeah, skinbeefs get skinned alive.

A *retired* biker couple watches my kids on weekends when I go out, and if they can't their biker son does. One of the safest places on the planet for my kids.

And its ok Jaded....you can touch me.....

[Jadedcarguy]

And its ok Jaded....you can touch me.....

I'll be right over.

[CTB]

I have 3 kids and I have never, ever thought of bikers as child molesters! Back in the late '70s my mom actually used to take me to a biker bar with a friend of hers and those guys were always fun to hang around with. (I was under 10).


She must have never heard of the Patriot Riders...


I'm sorry that some woman was that stupid to you.

[protege]

Are you serious? Do people actually think guys are child molesters because they ride a motorcycle? That's insane. Here it's white vans. They're mostly known as "Molester Vans", do you know what I mean?

We all called those "kidnapper specials." They had no windows, no company logos, were usually some plain color (white, pale green, beige, etc.) so they'd blend in more easily. Never an import (VW, Toyota), but a boring Ford or Chevy. In other words, a vehicle that would be a pain to track down because it's so common.

Every so often, you'd hear reports of a kid getting dragged into one of those vans