Content note: non graphic discussion of sexual harassment So for context my sister is 17. Today an old man helped us when our car broke down on a family vacation. (We were in a grocery store, he stopped to talk, my mom mentioned the car trouble) He helped us find a local mechanic and drove my mom and sister there to check it out while dad and I stayed with the car. A couple minutes later I got a text from my sister sounding scared that he was creeping on her and making sexual comments. I showed the messages to my dad and we asked where mom was and told her to go to her. Mom was talking to the car guy really intently and my sis told me later that the dude had cornered her in the waiting area where mom couldn't see. Everything turned out ok, he left when we got our car to the mechanic. When my sister and I were telling this story to my mom, she pretty much completely brushed it off and said oh he was joking. But this guy's so called jokes made my little sister afraid and creeped out! The same thing happened when I told her (years ago, I was 15 or 16) about a man that had made me uncomfortable at a swimming pool. She said I must have misinterpreted him. I'm not sure what I want her to say or do because the situation is past but I wish she would take these kinds of things more seriously, I guess. Not minimize how we felt. Am I making a big deal out of something unimportant? I don't want to bring it up with her because I'm awful at anything resembling confrontation.
The thing that matters here is, how did the person's behavior make you/your sister feel? If the answer is "uncomfortable and creeped out", like it sounds from your description, there is at the very least something happening there that needs to be addressed. Are either of these circumstances the worst things that could happen to you? No. Is it still good to avoid them happening? Absolutely! You address a cut finger differently from a broken rib but that doesn't mean you should let a cut get infected even if it's small. Your mom is minimizing your and your sister's experiences of reality because it makes her more comfortable to do so. Which is understandable, but she needs to listen to y'all when you say "I don't feel right about this."
