Molested my brother, the guilt is killing me

Hi. When I was around 12 years old, I did things with my 10 year old brother. I didn't know it was wrong at the time, but we would remove our clothes and rub against each other a couple times. The guilt has been killing me for years, and now I'm 18 and I just don't want this to affect his state of mind or experience with girls. I'm not sure what to do. I'm not sure if he remembers, but if he doesn't I don't wanna bring it up… I feel like a disgusting terrible person and I don't know if I'll ever forgive myself. Any advice?

Hey sweetie.

It's my understanding that sexual experimentation between similarly aged children is perfectly normal. You were old enough to be getting interested in sex; not old enough to fully be responsible for your actions. I don't think 12 and 10 is that big of a deal, honestly. Kids do crap like that, grow out of it, and move on. Even sexual orientation tests- the good ones, anyway- tell you to discount anything that's not firmly this side of adolescence, because there's a lot of same-sex experimentation going on, which further illustrates my idea that kids do this stuff, with whoever is handy.

I seriously doubt you've adversely affected him- again I hear this is very common. I think you ought to try to forgive yourself- you were twelve! not the same person you are, now- and leave it in the past. It was just stuff that kids often do, in my opinion, and to me the best thing would be to leave that in childhood and not beat yourself up over it.

I'm with Snaga on this.

I played this kind of game once with a girl about my age when I was around 8. I also think it's more common than we think. That's a way for kids to explore their body, but sitting here looking back, it wasn't sexual in nature.

Don't worry blossom123, it takes a lot more to be a perv!