No, the cat doesn’t have her tongue. No, she’s not shy.
She just doesn’t want to talk to you. And that’s OK.
That’s the message of Nicole Bescoby’s viral Facebook post. In it, she recounts an encounter she and her daughter, Ellie, had on the bus with a stranger. She wrote in part: "Sweetie, you do NOT have to speak to this person. People do NOT get to make you feel bad. You can tell him to stop and if he doesn’t listen then HE is wrong and you can make sure he knows it! If people like this don’t listen you can shout 'Stop, right now! Leave me alone' and you keep shouting it until they hear!"
Bescoby told "Good Morning America," "Body autonomy is so important, and I really hope people feel empowered to speak out and be heard, either themselves or on behalf of their children."
Her post has resonated on social media, being shared nearly 65,000 times so far. (More: Viral photo is mom's plea to visitors after giving birth)"This is just one example of where this has happened to us," Bescoby said. "It’s actually a very regular occurrence where adults have ignored my children’s request for space."
Many of the thousands of comments recounted people's own similar experiences and thanked her for speaking out.
Bescoby told "GMA" she doesn’t think the man was a predator, just that he felt children should have to speak when spoken to.
"He didn’t respect my daughter’s very obvious discomfort because he felt entitled to her attention," she said. "We don’t refuse to speak to people," she added. "I just want people to understand it’s a choice."
