Scarleteen

So someone in my life, has made a habit of putting his hands on my legs, whenever possible. The majority of the time, I either move away, or remove his hands, but usually after 5-10 minutes, he moves them back.
It makes me really uncomfortable, and I'd tell him to stop, but I'm scared, because he's way stronger than me and could seriously hurt me.
The thing is, He seems to really respect consent with other people, which makes me wonder if maybe I'm just crazy.
But I already told him once to stop, and he laughed it off and didn't.
There's other ways he touches me that I don't like, but usually the thighs is the worst part.

Hi Foreverl0st,

You are not crazy. You have a very reasonable boundary that this person isn't listening to. Moving away or removing someone's hands is often a good enough sign on its own. Beyond that, you actually told him to stop and he just laughed it off. This just isn't okay. Expecting people to be consistent is usually a helpful rule of thumb — if someone treats other people well, it is fair to expect that they will do the same with you. But that doesn't mean you should ignore your own experiences. Regardless of how he treats other people, this person doesn't respect your consent.

Would you feel comfortable telling us a little more about this situation? We may be able to brainstorm some ways to get it to stop. When/where do you meet this person? What role do they play in your life?

He's my father, so, since I'm homeschooled and he works from home, we're near each other essentially 24-7.
It's just so off-putting because I know he respects everyone else's boundaries.