I (32f) was at a water park this last weekend with my husband (32m) and my daughter. We were in one of the pools practicing swimming and keeping to our self. There was a group of teen boys there and while I was working with my daughter on swimming one of them came up behind me and I felt a tug on the strings of my top untying it. I spun around saw this 15 to 17 yo with a smirk and slapped him.
This quickly caused a scene. The park staff got involved as well the boys parents who were livid at me. My husband and another lady saw it happen and confirmed that he really did grab my top. There was also camera around the pool that kind of show it, wasn’t the best angle. The boys parents threaten assault charges and I threaten sexual assault charges if they decided to go that way. Eventually we were both asked to leave and haven’t heard anything since.
However, it wasn’t just a standard reactive slap. Later, park staff mentioned the other boys were egging him on, daring him to do it. And for me… being grabbed from behind like that… after things that happened in the past [hint at past trauma related to being grabbed or physically violated], it wasn’t just shocking, it was terrifying. It was an immediate, involuntary reaction, a surge of fight-or-flight response directed at the source of the threat.
My husband though still thinks I over reacted a bit which I don’t.
AITA for slapping a teenager, an immediate reaction to his dangerous act of untying my bikini top strings, which I now realize might have been a dare from others and was a trigger for my fight-or-flight response due to past trauma related to being grabbed or physically violated?