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Etched in Sand - Student Responses: Challenges of Abuse & Neglect

Challenges Regina and Her Siblings Faced

The Challenges Regina and Her Siblings Faced

            Regina and her siblings faced three challenges during their childhood. The first challenge was abuse. They had a mother who was mentally ill, and she had alcohol issues. She was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which is a mental illness that brings severe high and low moods and changes in sleep, energy, thinking and behavior. Regina’s mother also had a problem with self-medicating herself, getting medication not prescribed from her doctor. Regina’s mother tied her up behind a dumpster while she went to work. In addition to this, one night their mother came back home from drinking in the street and tried to beat up her youngest daughter. Regina got between her mother to protect her little sister and she got a terrible beating by her mother. The second challenge was neglect. Regina’s mother would go to obtain rental voucher plus first deposit voucher, find a place and leave them by themselves, and she would disappear for weeks or months. Therefore, she did not provide food for them, so they had to come up with ideas to steal food from stores and supermarkets. Also, they used the beach as a source of food and their personal hygiene. Finally, the last challenge was living in foster homes. Regina and her siblings were never placed together in the same foster homes. They had very bad experiences with foster parents because back then foster parents were not required to get a background check, so anybody could be foster parents. In conclusion, the challenges of abuse, neglect and foster homes made Regina and her siblings stronger.

Children With Family Issues

Children with Family Issues

      Three reasons why parents abuse or neglect their children are money, addiction and relationship problems. The first problem is about money. As a family, it’s very important to have some money in the saving account for unexpected emergency needs. For example, If either one of the parents addicted to gambling and unorganized the expenses, of course, that would cause a family problems and these family problems can cause stress and abuse. The second reason why parents abuse and neglect children are drugs and alcoholic parents. The parent who abuses drugs often neglects his/her children and are more concerned about drugs and  this can also lead to abuse by the parents. By using large amount of drugs and alcohols, or using them for a long period time can effect brain’s performing, emotion, feelings, also, they will get an anger easily, that can cause an augment, fight and abuse. The third reason of parents abuse and neglect their children can be relationship issues between parents, such as cheating on the other partner, lying and being careless about each other. So, one of the parents choose heal that emotional by going out with another partner, earn some fun for themselves, and they do not realize that they neglect the children. Most of the time when parents have relationship issues, the whole family often suffers. Especially, the children are the one that suffers the most . Some children are usually force to grow up in an single parent household. Ultimately, money, addiction and relationship problems are three reasons why parents abuse and neglect their children.