Listening to "That" Voice

Hi,

Today I'm writing about something that all of us as women and mothers must be very attuned to. I have four children; three of them are 18 and up. One tends to think that we have to be more alert to unsafe situations for our younger children but today I had an uncomfortable situation occur with my 18 year old.

My daughter had an audition for a local youth orchestra. She worked very hard to prepare for it. I brought her down and waited OUTSIDE the audition room door. The gentleman (and I use the term loosely) came out to greet her. They walked toward the room and were talking. I didn't hear what they were saying until my daughter told me after the audition.

The conversation went like this:
MAN "Hi, are you ready?"
DAUGHTER "Yes."
MAN "You are beautiful."
DAUGHTER "Oh, thank you." giggle, giggle.
They walk into the room where my daughter hands him two pages of sheet music.
MAN "What are these for?"
DAUGHTER "I was told to give these to the auditioner so they can look at them while I play."
MAN "Oh, I'd rather watch you. You're beautiful."
DAUGHTER "Thank you." giggle, giggle.

The 30-minute audition took 10 minutes and my daughter came out very thrilled; not only to be out of the audition but also because she was told she was beautiful.

As you can imagine, every red flag inside of me was raised. I asked if she remembered his name and of course, she didn't. I asked her to tell me what else occurred during the audition, specifically if he touched her. She said no.

I told her that I was uncomfortable with what had transpired and asked her how she felt about the auditioner. To my shock and dismay, she said, "Oh, he was just trying to be nice. He thought I was beautiful." I spent the remainder of our drive home, assessing the situation and my response to it.

What I did was this:
I told her that I felt this man's comments were uncalled for and that I was uncomfortable with them.
I told her I was also concerned that she wasn't the least bit uncomfortable with his comments.
I called her music tutor to see if she could find out who the auditioner was and what his role in the organization was. She wasn't home so I will call her again.

My plan is to keep an eye on this person if he is involved in the organization and if my daughter is accepted into the orchestra.
My plan is to educate my daughter even more than I already have-to fine tune her sense of danger and help train her to hear her inner voice.
I will also report him to the organization's leadership if I am able to gather more incidences of inappropriate behavior towards my daughter.

I will not stop being diligent in protecting my children-no matter how old they are.

Donna