Voices Against Child Abuse

Yesterday, during a conversation with my mentor and (Biology, Steemit, Guitar, life, music) teacher, @tojukaka, a desire was birthed in me to do something about child abuse. This post officially flags off my Voices Against Child Abuse (VACA) Campaign . You can join this movement by simply writing a post about child abuse using the #voicesagainstchidabuse and or #VACA tag. It could be an article, poetry, a story, a personal experience, art, photography or any random thing. Anything goes really. Just lend your voice to preach the message of no to child abuse.

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Here's a little poem I wrote yesterday, titled the soliloquy of an abused teen.

THE SOLILOQUY OF AN ABUSED TEEN
Strings of hate did weave me back
When my heart was broken
And my soul despaired

Deprived of love and hurt by lust
I taught myself to hate and with hate
I weaved my heart back to one piece

You can also find it HERE

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CHILD ABUSE

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According to Wikipedia, Child abuse can be simply defined as physical, sexual, or psychological maltreatment or neglect of a child or children, especially by a parent or other caregivers. Child abuse could come in various forms; physical abuse ( e.g beating a child excessively, inflicting injuries of a child etc), psychological abuse, sexual abuse or neglect

In this post I would like to major on how parent abuse their children without knowing it. I call it unintentional/unintended abuse.

Unintentional or unintended abuse occurs when an adult abuses a child without knowing it. In this case, the adult is not doing it out of wickedness. Infact, the adult does it out of love and in many cases this is done by parents, relatives etc. This abuse is however one of the most dangerous for children.

Generally, child abuse is on offense that is generally deemed to be committed by parents or guardians who don't love their children or wards or by wicked adults who choose to abuse other people's children. However, in some cases, parents or guardians in a bid discipline their children who they actually love, tend to overdo it. They might not be abusing their child on purpose. Infact, they might be doing it out of love for that child, the problem is that they do not know the boundary in disciplining a child. There's often a thin line between discipline and abuse.

Another way of mis-disciplining (a word I coined, hehe) is by disciplining a child in the wrong way. The goal of discipline in the first place is to correct a child but sometimes the objective of disciplining a child is forgotten by parents. Once in boarding school I woke up and was punished along with all my classmates without even knowing my offense. All that incident did was to brew a resentment for the housemaster in me. A resentment which took me time to end. In such a case, discipline lost its meaning and became pure abuse. I'm not against children being disciplined because we kids tend to make wrong decisions and make mistakes at times but I believe discipline should be done properly and moderately without translating into abuse

Apart from indiscriminate discipline, parents could abuse a child especially psychologically or emotionally without knowing it. Some parents tend to talk a lot and say things that could hurt their children emotionally and affect them psychologically. We teens tend to be emotional and highly sensitive and I've personally noticed and affirmed by asking a few of my agemates that the words of a parent could affect a child greatly. This is something I think everyone should agree with me on. Personally, at times a teacher at school could shout at me for hours and I would just laugh it off, "This teacher is too hyperactive. He/ she needs to take a chill pill". However, when I'm chastised by either of my parents, I could find myself crying. So imagine the effect it has on children to be constantly told "I hate you", "I regret the day you were born" and all sorts by their parents. This are actually things parents do.

Last week, I was talking to friend and he began to relate to me how he had had to sleep over at a friend's place because his father had chased him out of the house for coming home late for an evening fellowship. The father had said to him "I regret the day you were born. A ro pe omo labi ase ewure labi (I never knew I gave birth goat instead of a child)" and from his tone while relate the story,I could feel bitterness and anger in his tone. At the time he was relating this story to me, his father had already called him back home and reconciled with him and yet I felt he was already scarred on the inside and the words his father had said wouldn't be something he'd forget in a long time to come.

In conclusion, child abuse, especially by parents or people a child loves could leave a child scarred for life and should be avoided. Parents should learn to draw a line between discipline and child abuse. We know you love us but please don't abuse us. I hope I've been able to thrash the issue of abuse by parents well. In my next post I'll be discussing blatant or intentional abuse. I'll be shifting the focus away from parents to all adults. Anticipate!

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Thanks for taking your time to read this. Please resteem and spread the message. Also, say no to child abuse!

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To join my voices against child abuse campaign movement, simply resteem this post and write a post of your own using the #voicesagainstchidabuse and or #vaca tag then leave the link of your post in the comment box below for everyone to see and read your own post. I'd really love to see your posts.

You could also share this post with your friends and encourage them to join the movement. If you want to take a step further, you could promote this post to increase it's visibility. I'd really like to know what you think about this initiative, please comment. Thanks.

" I'm just a teenager with nothing but a voice and I'll shout as loud as I can" -@ajremy (The teen with steam for steem).