Child Abuse

Child Abuse

It is never a child's fault when it comes to the issue of child abuse. Many people may confuse abuse with discipline but there is a very fine line between the two. Mentally unstable parents, more likely than not, abuse their children. "Unfortunately, these unstable adults also have children to look after, impressionable and sometimes completely helpless young people who depend solely on the adult for attention, nurturing, and affection. The tragic result is that, of the 3 million cases of child abuse reported each year, the majority result from dysfunctional relationships between parent and child." Kim (n.d)

Depression is usually taken lightly these days but when someone is a mother or father that needs to take care of and set a good example for their children other factors come into play. "Young children depend heavily on their mother's, and 12 percent of mothers of young children are depressed according to strict diagnostic criteria, and 52 percent report depressive symptoms."1 The Vulnerable Child, Richard Weissbourd (n.d.)

A baby needs to be constantly fed, caressed and shown affection in order to continue to grow and be happy and healthy. Kim (n.d)

If a mother is depressed she wouldn't be able to show her child the daily love and care that he or she needs. Richard Weissbourd tells of one parent who "admits that before entering a family support program, when she started to feel helpless and overwhelmed she would hit and scream at her children because 'they were the only things in my life I could control.'" As a result, children who must endure a depressed parent's erratic behavior "may come to feel defeated and deficient,"2 say Weissbourd.

One wouldn't believe what this type of abuse does to the child psychologically. To see your parents behave this way is life altering for a child. When a child is young they learn solely from their parents on how to lead a family life and how one should react with their own wife/husband and children. If a child is to learn that a normal way of life is one where the children get abused or mom gets no respect then that is how their home will be. Not to mention the fact that along with physical abuse a child is bound to encounter mental abuse as well. This will leave the child feeling worthless in themselves and everything that they try to do. As a result they will have no motivation and believe that they can't do anything right therefore they wont even bother to try. This in itself would result in depression and this is how the cycle begins. "One adult's abuse of another adult in the household is usually referred to as domestic violence. Violent husbands are frequent culprits, battering their wives, sometimes in front of their children. Other times, a stepfather or the mother's live-in boyfriend may develop a pattern of physically abusing the mother. The American Humane Association notes a strong connection between domestic violence and child abuse: "Child abuse is 15 times more likely to occur in households where adult domestic violence is also present."4 Perhaps a child gets in the way during a fight between parents. Or a child may attempt to intervene, taking the blows a father or other male adult intends for the child's mother. " Kim (n.d)

Many battered women are child abusers themselves. This abuse strongly resembles what the mothers experience through the abuse that they receive. Abused mothers are so incapacitated by their own abuse that they cannot properly give love to and care for their children. The stress and constant living in peril causes the women to beat on their children in a misguided attempt to turn them into "perfect angels." American Humane Association (2004)

It is such a shame for a child to have to