Is it wrong to have sex when your kids are in the room? Mum gets accused of ‘child abuse’

A WOMAN has divided opinion after raising concerns about a friend having sex with her partner while their children slept in the same room.
The anonymous poster sparked a fiery debate — which has lasted for weeks — on parenting forum Netmums when she said she was “disturbed” that her friend was having sex in the same room as an eight and 10-year-old — and asked if she should say anything.

In the controversial post, she explained: “Have been increasingly disturbed since a friend told me about a week ago that she and her husband are having sex in the same room with their 10-year-old and eight-year-old asleep,” the post read.
“For various reasons they need to share the same room for a few months and so this situation won’t change for a while yet.
“They do have a living room, so I can’t understand why they don’t have sex there before they go to bed. My friend says it’s fine — they make sure the children are asleep.
“But I am not certain that you can be sure, or that they won’t wake up and lie there wondering what is happening.
“She says it is no different to the third world countries where families all share one room, which I guess is true.
“However I feel really uncomfortable since I found this out because of the age of the kids.
“Part of me feels I should say something, but I am a pretty chilled out person and never really get involved in judging what other people do.
“So the other part of me thinks that it is none of my business, and maybe something that is OK for some people.”
Her post was met with a whole range of opinions — with some users branding it child abuse, while others admitted to doing it themselves.
One poster, Jade, slammed the idea, saying: “Both their kids are way too old, not babies.
“If one of these kids was to go into school and mention something to a teacher, social services may be contacted.”
Janette, a teacher, agreed she would have to seek advice if she heard about such a situation — or face an investigation.
Meanwhile, another user, Jan, shared her best friend’s negative experiences of sharing a room with her mother. She wrote: “Mother always checked she was asleep and then had sex with whichever boyfriend she had brought home. My friend regularly watched her mother having sex as she wasn’t asleep at all.
“She has admitted that watching it over and over again has affected her growing up and she has a warped concept of sex and hasn’t had a close relationship with her mother since she was about 18.”
However, a user named Patricia provided an alternative perspective. She said: “My daughter is now five years old and me and my ex always shared the room with her up until she was two.
“I don’t see anything wrong with it. My parents lived in a one bedroom house for years and had two kids, me and my brother. I’ve never noticed anything and calling it abuse is just out of line.”
Another user, who goes by the initials HA, even admitted having sex with her partner on holiday — with their 13-year-old daughter in the room.
She added: “It’s not abuse. OK, it’s not ideal but it’s not abuse.”


This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission