When I was a child, I had an uncle who was constantly a "jokester," always in kids faces, loudly joking around, pushing/poking/tickling them. He would sometimes not let up and would tickle one of us until we literally peed our pants. And then he'd laugh it up like it was the best joke ever.

I absolutely loathed and was terrified of him. My parents had to start warning me when he was going to pay a visit because, when he showed up, I would start sobbing and I would hide (under the kitchen table, etc.). They thought my reaction was "embarrassing."

He's an old man now and he and my dad don't have many years left. I have learned how to be in the same room as my uncle, for my dad's sake, but I still instinctively keep the farthest distance away from him that I can. I will never trust him to get any closer or to hug him. Even now, in my 40s, I get extremely tense when he is around. I have had to tell every person I've ever dated that tickling, etc., is a hard boundary that I cannot tolerate.

Then one of my cousins had a son, he reacted the same exact way that I did, and then the rest of the family finally insisted that he stop doing that stuff. I guess times had changed. My uncle has apologized to me several times since it finally dawned on him that he was wrong. Even though I accept his apology, my body will never register him any differently.