[UnceOpener]

About ten years ago I was a senior in high school. My parents took me and all my younger siblings to Mexico on a beach resort. It was March so during spring break time. But we weren't in Cancun - it was about an hour drive south of Cancun so a little more mellowed out and balanced than Cancun would have been.

One of the days on the trip we were all on the beach soaking in the sun. I was trying to be cool and sitting a few rows behind and off to the side of where my parents' lounging chairs were - reading a book and hoping a cute girl would come say 'hi' to me. My younger siblings were playing in the sand and running around in the ocean waves while my parents' were watching them.

My mom was wearing a sporty one-piece swimsuit. Nothing particularly revealing, but it is a little awkward when you see your mom standing up on the beach in a bathing suit for anyone to see. At some point she went into the gulf water with my little siblings and maybe a wave did it or maybe the suit getting wet made it happen - but the backside of her suit started creeping up. And I don't know if she knew or not, but she didn't fix it for about 5-6 minutes. She just stood on the beach supervising my siblings playing with half of her buttcheeks showing.

And of course there's a group of frat boys sitting a row in front of me tapping on each other's shoulders and pointed out towards my mom so they all saw it. I had been sitting behind these guys for three hours at this point and they were collectively getting douchier and douchier every sugary margarita they put down. They didn't even know I was with my family since I sat away from them. But I was so embarrassed in the moment. The five minutes felt like an hour. I wanted to go wrap a towel around my mom, but I thought that would make it into a bigger scene.

So as I sat there waiting and hoping for my mom to cover up, two of the frat boys take out their phones and start taking pics or recording videos. I can actually see one of the phone screens zoom in on my mom and recording her standing there on the beach. And at this point I was not even embarrassed, but angry. But I was 2-3 years younger than these guys and way smaller. And I didn't want to do anything to make the video being recorded any more awkward for me. There was nothing I could do but wait it out.

Eventually my mom went to her chair area and grabbed a towel and covered up. It was hard to know if she did that intentionally or not. I've gone back and forth on that whenever I think about this moment. But I've settled on thinking she did know what was happening, but had the excuse of plausible deniability to fall back on and did it as a cheap thrill. Which I find easier to accept than her just being airhead and dumb about it. Although - on the other hand - that would seem out-of-character for her and she knew I was back there in sight too. So I don't know.

I've never spoken about it with my mom or family about it. My dad had already went back to the hotel room to nap before dinner at this point so she didn't do it for him. When my mom grabbed a towel to cover up she started packing everything up and getting the siblings ready to go back and wash up before dinner. I quickly packed up and headed back to the rooms too because I didn't want to be in a situation in which my mom stopped by my lounge chair to say something to me right behind the frat boys. So I left before that could happen.

For years I was afraid to look at "candid beach" type photos on sites like these. But I've since gotten over it. And sometimes even wonder to what extent those pics and videos were used and if they ever got leaked online.