Miander,

I had a similar experience with my daughter. My husband took my out canoeing for my birthday and he arranged for his 16 yr old nephew to watch our girls (6 and 2 at the time). When I got home, my then six year old told me that her cousin had tried to talk her into taking her clothes off and getting into bed with him. Fortunately we had taught her about 'bad touches' and telling us if someone tried to or did touch her.

Even though nothing happened that day, the guilt and anger ate me up inside. I only trusted a few people around my kids and I really understand the violent fantasies. My anger and rage got so bad that I put myself into therapy to try and figure out why. I didn't realize it until recently that my reaction was connected to my PTSD from being molested when I was a child. It was 13 years ago this happened and I was diagnosed last year.

You say you froze and didn't do anything. But you got your daughter out of harm's way and protected her from this person. I know you wanted to protect her and get this bastard. But you did what was most important first...you got your child to safety. You can give the zoo a description of this guy and they can keep an eye on this area. If this person (or another one) comes back and does the same thing, then they can get him.

Please don't beat yourself up. I know the guilt of something happening that involved your child can be overwhelming. Believe me, I know. But beating yourself up doesn't help with dealing with what happened. Things happen outside of our control and we do the best we can at that moment.

Lisa