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Man Is Seen As A Predator For Comforting His Baby Son In the Shower

My brother told me about this story he read in one of his email subscriptions, and then I went to Google it myself.

Man Is Seen As A Predator For Comforting His Baby Son In the Shower

Back in November 2014 a couple's baby boy was sick, throwing up and having a high fever, until the boy's father Thomas decided what might is to cool him down. So he stripped down and stripped his little boy and they both sat in a cold shower together in an attempt to take the fever down. Although a noble effort, the boy was still very sick, getting worse, and having labored breathing, so they went to the hospital and found out their son had salmonella.

Man Is Seen As A Predator For Comforting His Baby Son In the Shower

His wife Heather Whitten is a photographer and is the one who took the photo. She herself was moved by the beauty of it, of her husband caring so much like that. "I snapped a couple of pictures," she told TODAY Parents. "It was just beautiful. It was not surprising or anything out of the ordinary; it's how he has always been with the kids.... I document our family just how we are. I kind of see something and I just grab my camera."

She later posted the photo on Facebook which went viral, getting over 130,000 Likes and 30,000 re-shares. Many people were just as impacted by it, though others weren't, with some people criticizing it as perverted, and Facebook even deleted the photo twice before finally allowing it to stay. Though Heather decided to remove it herself once and for all later. "I wanted to take it down just because I thought it would get blown out of proportion. I thought the point was getting missed."

https://www.today.com/parents/photo-dad-comforting-his-son-shower-goes-viral-t92271

The couple has 4 kids, and her husband Thomas is in the Air Force, which may have been why he decided to try the shower with the boy if he was trained in survival.

Man Is Seen As A Predator For Comforting His Baby Son In the Shower

People are so messed up...

Even I was touched by the photo when I saw it myself. I didn't see a single thing wrong or perverted about it. Such a situation with people's views tells us how we still are. No one would've thought it was predatory or perverse if the boy's mother was the one in the shower with the baby, and we know that. Or if it was some woman not even related to the baby. If a woman really was in the photo, it could've possibly turned out to be child pornography - that women commonly take payment to be in - yet none of us would ever suspect that or think it. But a guy has his clothes off with his own blood son in an effort to help him, and people think it's something sick.

These are the kind of things that make you feel like there's no hope for the world. Something great and beautiful is done, yet people twist it for evil in their minds. We complain and complain as a society about fathers this and fathers that, and talk about how maternal women are, yet this guy shows pure paternity and we still aren't happy.

All you can do is commend the good thing that was done, and shake your head at the world.

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Most Helpful Guy

  • Americans are complete idiots when it comes to nudity. We are the biggest hypocrites because we over sexualize everything to the point that we have convinced our society that the only reason to be naked is for sex or sexual pleasure. We have convinced society that nudity is therefore dirty and never to be seen in public. And since all men want sex, then the only reason a man would be naked with his children couldn't possibly be for any other reason right? The world is a big place, and I find it interesting that most of the civilized world "outside of the USA" wouldn't even bat an eye or even question such a loving gesture.

    • It the same with women breastfeeding in public. I was a closet breastfeeder but I think that it is silly how bent out of shape people get about it.

Most Helpful Girl

  • Are you serious, mothers post pics like this all the time
    s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/.../...eac56034bd.jpg
    s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/.../...8ebb273473.jpg
    cache1.asset-cache.net/.../...-son-gettyimages.jpg

    Why would it be any different for the father?

    Besides skin to skin contact is the best way to comfort infants and young children. I hold my infant niece topless all the time for that same reason :)

    • Correctamente.

    • Because all men are pervs Idiot logic ^^

    • @LilWeezey I like you :-)

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What Girls & Guys Said

48 52

  • I always got a bit weirded out when grown adults are showing their naked bodies to children. Maybe it's because I grew up in a household where body privacy was something we practiced and us kids never took showers with our parents. I even get a little weirded out by my 28 year old friend who takes showers with her three year old because it's just odd to me... like why do you want your child to have a memory of your genital? Like even with this picture, I can kinda see where she was going, but her naked child's thigh is touching his father's penis. :/

    • Yes Totally agree

    • @Pinkglitter22 Because you bond more to someone when your naked bodies touch. Thats why when babies are born mothera and fathers typical hold their childern topless. And couples who sleep naked are miles more romantically connect than couples who dont. But no means am I encouraging showering with your child. But comforting your sick child topless or nude is actually one of the best things you can do for your child.

    • OOH a penis touching a thigh. You and Pink are mental cases, seeing sexuality where there is none. Do you really think their child is going to remember their genitalia? Don't try to pin your inhibitions on other people.

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  • What you describe can be boiled down to a single underlying fact.
    That is, the internet is the culminating point for the people on this planet (who are mostly idiots).

    The internet has no single voice, no clear intent and no focus. For every picture, concept, idea and thought, there are 7 billion different points of view or ways of perceiving it.

    As for this picture, there are fathers out there who have probably done the same thing and can relate. Others are victims of child sexual abuse with bad family ties, who only perceive the photo as sexual and perverted. If you want a good opinion on something, especially something that is sensitive in nature or controversial, the internet is not the place to ask it or show it to. You will basically be inviting the 6.9 billion fucktards on the internet who will drown on the 0.1 billion people with decent, intelligent advice and opinions.

    The internet, for all its great uses, is also the place for trolls, losers, underachievers and similar people to make their voices heard because nobody pays attention to them in real life.

    • @meowcow Dude, this is the second time you've just blown my mind with such an awesome response to a Take! I just... don't even know what to say! Lol.

  • ... If you think about it, this man was in a rush to help his child. He wanted to do whatever it took to make him feel better. What helps a fever? A cold shower. Apparently he was vomiting and had diarrhea too, so the father was probably panicking trying to find the best solution. He wouldn't have had time to run around the house and find a bathing suit, and who the hell bathes in their clothes? Maybe he didn't want to get them covered in vomit. Also, a cold shower is bad enough. Adding clothing to the mix would make it worse and possibly get the father sick.

    He was just trying to nurture and help the son. How, on what grounds, is that even remotely wrong? Would you rather have a man sit on his a** and watch as his little son suffers in sickness?
    The problem with society is how they view everything... Men fear showing their children any love at all for this exact reason. "He's a pedophile!" "Sign his name up as a sexual predator and take the child away!" What. The. F*ck.

    Clearly those people haven't experienced the right kind of love from their families. I haven't either, but this is something I can see as being an innocent act of love and nurture.

  • You know... Just today I was having this discussion with my parents and telling them how sad it must be to be a man.. How if a man, who loves kids gets too close to children, all of a sudden he is a predator or child molestor... While that is not or may NOT even be the case..

    But the even harsher truth or sad reality is that it actually is the case with many people and many men who abuse children and molest them... So it is such a touchy, sensitive subject because how can you really define unless you know the two persons so well that someone (for example a father isn't molesting his little daughter?)

    As absurd and crazy as that sound, IT DOES actually happen!!! AND IT DOES OFTEN TEND TO HAPPEN WITHIN FAMILY - rapes and incest and those closest to you and the kids who are abused and sexually used for motherfuckinggg cunts who are perverted!
    So while I definitely understand and see the beauty of this picture and agree that it is a very beautiful, touching, comforting image... It can equally have been a very perverted, disturbing, abusive situation... ESPECIALLY in certain countries and cultures. So, HOW CAN YOU KNOW between the difference?

    The truth is that I don't know... but all I do know is that YOU NEEEEEEEEED TO and HAVE TO and MUSTTTT pay attention to your child and OTHER ADULTS who are near your child, because sad reality is that ANYONE can be a predator, from your husband to uncle to his brother or sister.. I know it is EXTREMELY DISTURBING but the thing is that IT DOES HAPPEN!! And SOO OFTEN.. So manyyy times that people don't even speak about it because they feel ashamed or embarrassed to talk about it. And WORSE, when it is someone close.

    Speak to your son/daughter about the dangers of people molesting them. From as little as 1-2 year old, tell them, that if ANYONE ever touches them here or there or anywhere in their private areas they shouldn't... It doesn't matter if it is aunty or uncle or whoever. Those are private and if they ever tell you to not tell or 'its our little secret' to please tell me. You can always tell me anything and I WILL PROTECT YOU. Always. I promise, okay?

    Reassure them.. I know this sounds extremely paranoid and disturbing but the EVEN MORE DISTURBING and paranoid truth is that MANY CHILDREN ARE BEING ABUSED right now! IN MANY COUNTRIES BY MANY MOTHERFUCKING CUNTS AND PEOPLE. so We NEED to protect them.

    I recently saw a video on fb of some man touching a little girl on his lap while in a restaurant. EffCUNT.

    • Talking about this alone just makes me SOOOO angry because there are sooo many unseen unprotected children who do not know and are just innocent victims of all these people... And it is many times within the direct circle /family of the infant - the father or brother or uncle or aunty or mother or whoever... It is soo extremely disturbing but it is the truth.. It just breaks my heart and fills me with rage thinking about this.. And I know I'm ranting and going a little extreme and off topic on your subject but the sad truth is that THIS IS HAPPENING... and while it may be that the world is too negative but I think sometimes and at times, specially in CERTIAN CULTURES and places, it is always better to be safe than sorry. This is exactly the reason why I don't want children... Because I could not bear the thought of someone touching my child... That person wouldn't last much after I find out..

    • You know there's some recent research that suggest that women are more likely to commit pedophilia of their own children then men, (one source with more sources thepatriotdad.wordpress.com/.../) yet we assume that men are always dangerous and abusers. Yes men can and do molest children, but so do women. yet we only stigmatize men for it.

    • @Anpu23 yes very true. That is also why I included women when I said direct family members, because it also happens with women and little children. Sometimes I can't help but wonder if molesters were also molested as kids by older men/women :( Urgh! Talking about this topic alone angers me.

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  • People have real problems. This is so sad to me. That guy did nothing wrong.

  • Regardless of her profession, if I had a child and he was feeling ThaT bad, I would not be taking photos of it... Taking a Photo would be the last thing on my mind... a true mom would not do this... So even if the man is not a predator, the sole idea that someone had the time to take photos while the child is feeling awfully Ill is disturbing in itself. Yewky!! People!! Maybe someone can take a photo of her when she's in pain.

    • "Even if the man is notva predator..." Nice. Smh.

    • @Intraluminal Yeah as in all judgmental assumptions if he's a pedophile or perv.. Or anything like that... THAT aside, the simple fact that someone, more importantly the mother of the child would take the time to take a photo of a baby when he's feeling Ill. You're just as awful as that type of parent if you see nothing wrong with that. Here are so many disgusting ignorant humans.. Would rather take pictures of tragedies than to help.. Just simply awful. Smh to you and those who think like you is not even he beginning.

  • Knowing the story behind the picture <3

    What an amazing father.

  • You should see what happens in parks with dads keeping an eye on their daughters/sons while they play on the sets. All the mothers giving him the stank eye. this is nothing new to me... I've been reading stories like this for years. Men just looked at as predators even to their own kids. I've heard of cases where children won't be released from their schools to the father unless express consent is stated by the mother... its disgusting really.

  • It's quite touching, especially when you know the back story. For people to be so twisted in the mind after hearing the story, that's beyond me. That's the real perverted part.

  • What do you expect when you have feminists demonizing male sexuality for over 60 years? All men are predators, didn't you hear?

    • I am surprised to hear such an honest answer like that come from a woman. It is always great to hear that there are still women out there that don't have an issue with male sexuality.

  • I think it's a beautiful photo. I really don't see the difference between that photo and the maternity photos of women naked with a sheet over their breast. Or the women who post the pictures of themselves in their unbuttoned daisy dukes covering their nipples with their finger tips. People need to relax. I read a similar story about a couple who took family photos of the dad and son dressed like batman amd saving the mother who was on railroad tracks. People freaked out because they were endangering their child. I thought they were some of the coolest family photos I had ever seen.

  • My concern is with the mother. What was going inside her head?

    "My child is dying. Fuck that, let me take some pics for instagram"

    • Yeses. Like hello? Toddler running a high fever and cold shower with naked dad was the first course of action? Makes no sense

  • Not only is their nothing wrong with it, I think their should be more images like this, of fathers nurturing their children. Its because of this outcry that the notion that fathers are not paternal/nurturing is so prevalient, because every time a man tries he is labeld a pedophile or pervert. Its an unfare double standard. Quite frankly she should never have removed the picture because its something that needs to be seen, it needs to be as prevalent as when mothers are portrayed as nurturing because that is the only way to actually change perceptions, make it so common place no one even thinks twice about it.

    • @hellionthesage Okay, on second thought I would make YOUR answer MHO if we could give them for Takes. I agree, I thought she buckled when she took it down. Bad move.

    • The world is entirely too cruel to fathers. This man is trying to be a father. As a child of a father who left me when I was a baby I give mad respect to fathers who are there for their kids and go above and beyond to show them they are loved.

    • Thanks. I understand how she wouldn't want to be harrased about it but I think their is a larger issue and thus she should have stood her ground on it, its the only way things can change.

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  • Some people see all men as potential sexual predators, and see every action a man could ever take, no matter the context, as something he is doing to advance his sexual goals.

    Misandry is very real. There are SOME people who feel that all a man is is a bestial, animalistic thing, that exists just to feed its own desires, and merely plays at being civilized to lure its pray into a false sense of security. People who see this picture and see that? They are these types of people. They see all men as demon in human form, and every action as merely an example of his perversion.

    It is a minority viewpoint. A very small minority viewpoint. But it is one that gains some traction, because almost anyone can be susceptible to holding it, even in minor form.
    Proof? The vast majority of sexual assault of children under 6 is performed by a female family member, usually a mother. This is a statistical fact. But the idea of suggesting women, particularly a mother, is the most likely culprit when a toddler has been violated is seen as obscene and offensive. So what do we focus on?
    "Stranger danger," the idea that some grimy looking man, in his mid forties, wearing sunglasses and a trench coat, will lure children away from a playground with a piece of candy and into his paneled van.
    Because we are OK with seeing *some strange man* as a monster, without thinking twice about why we're OK with that. But the idea of thinking a woman would do such a thing offends us. Not a man, though.

    And when a woman is caught, one of the first things many people do is suggest "some guy must have forced her into this," as if no woman could be a monster on her own.

    Now, I have wandered WAY off topic here, but it was to illustrate a point: society has no cumpunction against seeing men as potential victimizers, down to a small subset of people who think every man holds a monster within him. And that is why people react negatively to that picture. He is a man, he is holding a child, there is some nudity involved. Most people almost automatically jump to "the child is in danger" in their minds. Even people who find the image and story touching, many jump there in their minds first.

    • @ksoma If I could give MHO for Takes, you would get it, bro.

    • Misandry isn't a thing. Your crazy. Your part of the problem. Damn patriarchy! *sarcasm btw*

    • @LilWeezey lol

  • You know, it's those people that think such things that have the problem. They're the ones who "go there" with such negative thoughts. This is a touching photo. Nothing wrong here.

  • Most people are idiots. This proves it.

  • yeah people who don't have a child or can't be sympathetic or understand the relationship of the parent/child might see this as inappropriate. but hopefully the vast majority can realize the difference between predatory/pedophilia actions and familial action

    i take a bath with my infant daughter every day. try putting a 9 month old in a bath by herself and people would quickly realize what is supposed to be a relaxing time is anything but.

  • I wonder if any of those people who said those things (saying it was perverted) were in fact parents also or childless people?

    Some people don't understand and sympathise with those families. Which confuses me it's like you can't have a say about it because you're not in their shoes, so you don't understand. For childless couples/people.. they won't understand that until they decide to have children for themselves. It's something my mum always tell me "You won't understand until you have children of your own" she's fucking right. I won't understand till that happens for me in the future.

    Surely doing that at the moment "All you can do is commend the good thing that was done, and shake your head at the world" *shakes head at the world*

    • I bet you they're childless. So am i, so that extreme parental closeness like that can seem pretty yucky at times lol, but i get that it's not. Some people don't get the second part

    • @jjmarvin I'm not sure, but I'm assuming they are childless. Yeah I wouldn't expect anyone to get the second part either, but it's not hard for people to sympathise.. right? lol

    • I've got kids, a boy his age. there's nothing weird about it. You'd do anything for your kids. The barriers only start going up as they get older and privacy is a factor. At that age theyre innocent and just want help. The nudity thing isn't an issue at all. They burst in on you in the bath and the toilet and everything. They follow you around like theyre stuck to you asking a hundred questions a minute. You forget theyre there after a while. I let go a big cracker of a fart one day in the kitchen when i was cooking breakfast. 2 seconds later i hear crying and turn around. My daughters got tears running down her eyes. She'd been right behind me again and coz of her age face level with my arse. Caught the whole impact of last nights curry full in the face. You just dont notice theyre there. Sometimes they just follow you around seeing what your up to.

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  • Honestly, I don't know how I feel about this. When I was a little girl my mother and grand-mother used to bath/shower with me, but the difference was they kept on their clothes, and that was coming from females. I don't hold issue with the father's intentions, but most parents, or the ones that I know, aren't going to get in a tub/shower naked with their child/children, be it male or female. Would I personally take a shower with my son/daughter naked? No. I was raised with the notion that there are appropriate things to do with your children and that there are inappropriate things to do. My father stopped kissing my brother on this lips when he was two or three due to the act it self. Most parents stop letting their children bathe together after a certain age, so why would you let your husband who is an adult man bathe with your three year old son? Not only that, she photographed it. I feel validated for the kid. Then again, it could just be odd to me due to my up-bringing, which is why it's most likely horrifying to others as well.

  • The people that said he's a predictor/pervert are unintelligent. Their just jealous they didn't have a father that cared about them that much.

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