Child_Abuse

Domestic Violence and Kids Effects of Witnessing violence in the Home Caroline Stewart, June 22 2008 www.suite101.com Summary of article: The author in this article talks about the long term effect of violence on children. She says about 3 million children witness abuse in their home each year, and the effects can be scarring for a life time. Some of the effects can be that the children will live in fear their whole life, they blame themselves and the children will grow up to be abusers themselves. Some immediate effect are low self esteem, bedwetting and poor school performance. Reaction to author: Anyone who abuses their children ought to be taken out to the town square and publicly hung. There is no excuses for child abuse. The Author has some very interesting facts in her article, I didn’t realize that the numbers were so large. Reaction to subject: I have seen the effects of child abuse first hand, with or first child that we adopted, he was abused in his biological home and to this day if I raise my hands up fast like in a celebratory gesture or to wave at somebody, he still ducks his head and covers his face. For the first year and a half, we had a bed wetting problems, nightmares and hording food in his room. After talking to doctors about his behavior, the doctors say that is typical behavior, and it will take time for him to trust, and feel comfortable with the idea that there is no abuse in his new home. It has been about 5 years now, and we have a nightmare every now and then, he will still duck at real sudden movements, and he will still ask questions about why we don’t hit him when he messes up, like his biological mom did' It has been a struggle at times, but I would not trade him in for anything. My opinion on child abuse is anyone who does it ought to be shot, there is absolutely no excuse, I don’t buy this “my mom didn’t love me enough BS” Tell the parents to count to 10 and if that isn’t enough then count to 20. There are just a few things in this life that I have no tolerance for, drunk drivers is one and child abusers are another.