need it when her mother kicks her and her baby out the day after the birth of the child. Finally, there is the baby girl of the family. She turned 13 last month, but she didnt get to spend it with her family. She, like her brother, is living in a detention home. Sadly though, shell be there for the next eight years. She is a prime example of the cycle of abuse. She watched it happen to her mother, her siblings and herself from the day she was born, and now she imitates it. She lives what she knows and she is paying for that as we speak. The reason I was inspired to write about child abuse was because this past Christmas, I went with two of these children to their grandparents home. There we watched home movies from the early lives of these children. As they laughed at some of the few fond memories they captured on video, I almost cried. All I could think of was how differently these lives could have turned out if only they had been given the chances, the respect, and the love that they deserved. I guess no one will ever know for sure though.In conclusion, Child abuse, without a doubt, causes permanent damage to the life of the victim. Whether its physical, sexual or neglect, the after effects will haunt them, and very possibly their future family as well. Child psychiatrist, B.F. Steele stated, we do believe that how we bring up out children has a most profound effect upon how our society is behaving and how we deal with each otheras human beings.(Kakar 6) This is an excellent point. If parents do not care for their children and show them the ways of life, how could they expect them to know any better, and more importantly, how could they expect them to pass on the knowledge to their own children? Parents, more than anyone, hold the key to shaping the ideals and minds of their children and until society gets that key fixed, the problems of child abuse will always remains.Word count: 2,376...
