Hello there
I’m glad you’ve chosen to contact me at ChildLine, and I think you’ve been really brave to share what happened and how you feel about it.
Children can be sexually curious, which is natural, but it’s clear that what happened with your brother has lead you to feeling upset, guilty and ashamed. You didn’t say how old your brother is, but in a way that doesn’t matter. You were a young child at the time, and he had no right to do anything sexual with you, regardless of his age. It’s important that you and all young people understand that nobody – no matter their age or relationship to you, has a right to touch you sexually as a child.
You mentioned that you have a good relationship with your brother now and that the sexual acts stopped. However, it’s understandable that you may continue to feel upset about it at times, and it’s good that you were able share with your mother about what happened. You seem to want to be able to talk to her about it at times to feel supported. It’s possible that your mother may feel some sense of guilt or shame about what happened too, and it may be hard for her to talk about it. That doesn’t mean you don’t have a right to be able to say how you feel and get the support you need.
If you chose to, you would have every right to talk about what happened and your feelings with an adult you trust apart from your mum as well. Depending on the circumstances of what happened, you also could think about whether you wanted to report what happened. That, however, would be completely up to you if you wanted to do this.
ChildLine is here for children and young people to talk to about anything that is going on for them. Anytime you are feeling upset or need to talk about this issue or anything else, you can phone, have a live 1-2-1 online chat (like MSN) or send an email. A ChildLine counsellor would be able to support you, help you talk about your feelings, and talk you through what your options could be if you decided you wanted to take the issue further. You can contact whenever you would like to talk – we’ll be here.
Take care,
Sam