Letter: What is `normal'?

AS A MOTHER of two children, I was concerned to read "Profile of a sex abuser, aged seven" (27 June) by Cherry Norton on child sex abuse by children. Sex abuse is a matter that is of great concern to so many parents who hear such a lot about it in the press and are determined not to let it happen in their own families. This leads to a kind of self- policing of natural affection, and it seems that the boundaries between what is normal and what isn't are blurred by this fear.

If adults are awkward about what is normal, how are they expected to police children confidently? I notice that the writer skirts around the idea of "normal" behaviour, and we all know that children go through a "curious" stage, but just how is that "curious" stage bordered? What is normal?

P WOOD

Raunds, Northamptonshire