stoner nerd 🦖

"What, you need consent for everything these days?" Literally yes. And not just these days, but always have and always will.

"Do I need consent to kiss my wife in the morning? Do I need consent to shake someone's hand after a business meeting? Do I need CoNsEnT to braid my daughter's hair?"

Yes, yes and yes. A neurotypical person of reasonably passable social skill should have the ability to either instinctively understand when their touch is welcome, or logically conclude when their touch is socially expected. If you truly, literally, genuinely cannot tell whether your own child delights in you playing with her hair or merely endures it, then yeah, maybe you shouldn't touch anyone at all, ever, before you learn how to do that.

"Do I need consent to make eye contact with strangers on the street? Do I need consent from everyone on board before I get on the bus?"

anything you do to another person requires their consent unless we're talking life or death. even then, it's nice to apologize if you violate their boundaries. THIS GOES FOR CHILDREN MORE THAN ADULTS. children are still learning. if you think they don't deserve to be asked for consent, you are contributing to setting them up to be victims to predators almost as if you handed them over on a silver platter.

family members especially need to establish consent, because kids are by far and large taught to be careful of strangers. however, it's much more likely that they'll be abused by uncle ted or cousin jimmy than the guy you're telling them to be careful around.