Call NOW for appointments

You may think domestic violence involves only two people - you and your partner, but it impacts on everyone in the family, particularly your children.

Some people think that children don’t worry about people fighting at home - that they’ll soon forget things they see, like mum being hit or parents screaming and yelling at each other. Children don’t forget! They suffer considerable harm from living with violence. Some children, particularly older ones, will intervene to try and help their mother and may try to restrain the violent partner. Others will be stunned into silence by what they see… Children tend to see the world as revolving around them. They may feel the violence is their fault - that they have caused it. They may feel guilty and confused about loving their father while at the same time not liking the violence.

CHANGES IN YOUR CHILD’S BEHAVIOUR.

Have you noticed that your child/children have begun to display any of the following behaviours?

• greater anxiety
• a nervous and withdrawn manner & attitude
• adjustment problems - few interests, few social activities and low school performance
• bed wetting
• restlessness
• psychosomatic illnesses (including headaches, abdominal complaints, asthma and stuttering)
• excessive cruelty to animals
• using aggressive language and behaviour in their play
• running away from home

Young children learn by observation and by learning how adults deal with their problems. If parents deal with disagreements and conflict by shouting and yelling, then that is what the children learn. If children are punished by being beaten or hit, or see this happening to their mother, then that is what they learn and believe is the right or “normal” thing to do.

Patterns of violence or abuse are learned early on and can become a pattern for life. As children grow up and enter relationships of their own, they behave in the way they have learned. In this way, violent behaviour is passed on from one generation to the next.

Taking responsibility for your own violence and doing something about it means that you have a good chance of breaking this pattern.

A whole new generation of children, including your own sons and daughters will benefit from the choices YOU make now.