My young son is touching other children inappropriately
My son just turned 7 a couple weeks ago. About 6 or 8 months ago, his little female friend from the neighborhood was over playing. She is the same age as he. They always told everyone they were in love and going to get married. Sweet and innocent enough, right? Well, she came downstairs and said that my son had asked her to lay down with him and take her clothes off. She knew it was wrong and came to me, thank goodness. I called him downstairs to speak with him privately and he was very embarrassed, cried his eyes out. My husband said that his brother was caught under the bed, naked, with a little girl when he was 5. I've heard of this type of thing before and tried to not overreact, but definitely let my son know that it was very inappropriate. A few weeks later, he burst into tears one night, out of the blue and told us that he'd done something bad. He said that he and his male friend (at the time, they were both 6) rubbed their bodies together and kissed. He said that he instigated it because he wanted to see what it would be like. He was beside himself explaining this to us. We talked to him very calmly, held him and told him that it was extremely inappropriate and could not happen again. That if he had questions about private parts/sex that he should speak with us. Now, just yesterday, he came to me again saying "i have to talk to you." he said that before either of the aforementioned incidences occurred, another male playmate was over and my son asked him if he wanted to lay under a blanket and rub on each other. The child said "yes" and they did. I could tell that this had been eating away at him and he needed to get it off his chest. I had many questions for him asking if there were others and how many times it had happened with each child. He said only once with one child, not at all with the female (because she came to me) and "a lot" with the other male child. He couldn't tell me exactly what "a lot" meant. From what I can gather, it's been 4 or 5 months since the last incident. Needless to say, his father and I are devastated and assuming this has gone past sexual curiosity. He is such an amazing child in other areas. Almost a straight A student, very nurturing and loving to everyone, makes notes for me if I have a headache to feel better, etc. we are a very close-knit family (dad and I have been married for 21 years). He has been "that child" to stop and watch somethind adult that is on the TV instead of walking on through without a care like our 2 older children have done. Once he confessed to us initially, we've made sure that he doesn't see anything inappropriate. I'm a huge stickler about that and his dad has done much better. He said that his parents had whatever on t.v. and he was interested, but it never made him act out in this manner. We have made an appt. to see his gen. dr. on Monday (3 days away) and are asking for a referral to see a child therapist. We want to guide him in the right direction because other than this, he is that child that is just so loving and happy. PLEASE ADVICE ANYONE!