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Be gentle with the young

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My new-ish and dear friend Erin at Chopstitch informed me that April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. This month she’ll participate in the “No Excuse for Child Abuse” walk in her town. When I saw her posts going up about child abuse, I started doing a little digging on the old Google.

“A report of child abuse is made every 10 seconds in America.”

“Almost 5 children die every day as a result of child abuse. More than three out of four are under the age of 4.”

“Child abuse occurs at every socioeconomic level, across ethnic and cultural lines, within all religions and at all levels of education.”

Those statistics? Are heartbreaking.

When I look at my son, even in his most horrifying toddler moments, I cannot imagine hurting him. I cannot fathom what it is inside of people that makes them hurt other people, much less children. I cannot imagine myself not wanting to protect him from every ounce of pain and hurt in this world.

Rage fills my body when I see news stories about parents who’ve neglected and abused their children. The kind of rage that has me seeing a murderous red. The kind of rage that leaves my fingers shaking and tears in my throat.

Hurt fills my heart when I think about what it must be like for these children to grow up in a world where they think the only people who love them show that love through hurting them. My heart hurts when I think of what might become of these children if they don’t get help. If this crime against children isn’t prevented.

Every single day that I get up and go into work, there are victims of child abuse in my classes. Perhaps not many, but even one is enough.

Most of them are silent about their experience because their adolescent mind doesn’t know how to cope. My adult mind doesn’t know how to comprehend, you know? How could theirs?.

Some of them are emotionally abused.

Some carry and hide physical scars.

Others are neglected by parents who don’t care. And neglect is abuse.

Those children who were mistreated in some way who do not speak up? Who are doing the best they can to hide their personal shame and fear, despite the fact that the shame should not be theirs? Who may be trying to hide their abuse, even as high school students? Who are trying to figure out how in the world they can make this nightmare stop?

They need a voice. And I have a pretty good one of those.

And so do you.

Just as with perinatal mood disorders and mental illness, if we don’t talk about child abuse, we do nothing to prevent it. We do nothing to help the victims who cannot help themselves. We stigmatize the issue and create a sense of shame for victims.

Let’s talk about this, people. Let’s be the voices for these children.

Throughout the month, I’m going to issue a series of simple challenges. I hope you’ll join me in accepting them.

The first challenge? Spread the word.

Take the button. Write a post. Tweet a link. Facebook this issue.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
–Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

This Matters.

 

A special thanks to the mega-awesome and super talented
Lindsay for hooking me up with the Blogging for Children badge.

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Blogging for Children, Week 1 Wrap-up

Friday 8th of April 2011

[...] Last week was simple. Write a post. Spread the word. Tweet a link. Share it on Facebook. [...]

Erin

Sunday 3rd of April 2011

Thanks again for posting this and challenging everyone to make a difference!

Miranda

Sunday 3rd of April 2011

You're welcome! Thank you for inspiring me to do something!

Mama Track

Sunday 3rd of April 2011

What a great idea. I look forward to participating.

Miranda

Sunday 3rd of April 2011

Thank you!

Leighann

Sunday 3rd of April 2011

For years I ran a home for kids in crisis. I saw the pain they brought with them. Your post is sitting with me, in fact I had to come back to write a comment because I could collect my thoughts right away after reading it. I will be linking up with you to get this important message out.

Miranda

Sunday 3rd of April 2011

Thank you so much, Leighann. So, so much. I don't have a linky up just yet, but it will be up on Friday. Fridays in the month of April will be dedicated to Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention on the blog. I'll be posting a new challenge every Friday and asking people to link up what they did the previous week to accept the challenge. So write a post and get the word out and come back!

And thank you for sharing this message with me.

Jen {at} take2mommy

Friday 1st of April 2011

I know the rage you feel when you think/hear of parents abusing their children. And the hurt you feel for those children. It is unfathomable. If there are things we can do to help, we've got to help. I tried to copy & paste your button code. It didn't seem to work. Ideas?

Miranda

Friday 1st of April 2011

Exactly. We have to do something.

I fixed the code. I think. If you'll try again, that'll be great!

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