nicole: the sinister side of show and tell

Nicole truly cannot remember what inspired her to draw her stepfather in a very peculiar way for one of her 'show and tells' at elementary school but she is absolutely positive that she had never been abused by him.

"Mom was called to school by my teacher to discuss the picture I'd drawn," says Nicole, "and I didn't understand what the fuss was all about until much later."

"Mom kept the 'offending' drawing and when I look at it now I can understand how my teacher was concerned."

"It's a drawing I did of myself between my mom and stepfather," explains Nicole. "It's a typical kid's drawing - stick figures and big smiles - but my stepfather looks very strange because I drew him with three legs and I drew mom and myself with two."

"Mom thought the whole thing was ridiculous - if for no other reason than my stepfather's 'third leg' was nowhere near as long as I had drawn it," laughs Nicole, "and after lots of questioning about where I might have seen a naked man the issue was dropped."

"After that incident my mother was very wary about sharing any private information with me just in case I'd blurt it out at ‘show and tell’. If my mom could do that then so could parents with something really horrible to hide."

"From then onwards, every Monday morning - the show and tell day - mom would actually tell me what to show and tell."

"She'd say something like: 'tell your class that you visited your grandma and played with the dog' and she would even draw the dog for me so that I wouldn't draw it with five legs and get into trouble again."

"Mom wasn't perverting the course of justice or anything like that - she was just trying to protect me from an over-zealous teacher - and possibly nosy old gossip teachers, too."

Read more of Nicole's story:

stepfathering girls is dangerous

nosy teachers