Child Abuse Story From Anonymous

by Anonymous
(Michigan, USA)

Here's to the Future - Because there's No Looking BACK! 
The abuse had been going on in my family longer then I had even been around. It all started when my mom met my father at the age of 13 and he was 18. She thought he was sweet and daring and all the right things. Shortly after, she got pregnant with her first child, my older brother. That is when the drinking started.

My dad used to work all night, then drink all day and pass out. At first that's all it was. Then he started to act out on my mom. At first, it was a smack here or there, then it gradually got worse. People used to tell her, "Get out while you can, before it gets too bad," but she didn't listen. Instead, when my brother turned a year old, she married him, and shortly after, had another baby, my other brother.

At first, after he was born, things were ok. He decided to quit drinking, or so my mom thought, and they were happy. Till a while later, on one of his days off, he said he had to go in to work, but he really didn't. He just went out in the car and drank. By the time he came home, he reeked of alcohol. When my mom questioned him on it, he got really mad and hit her, right in front of my brothers. That was the day my mom decided to leave. Although, since she still had my brothers, she did need his help to buy things for them.

One day, she went to his house to ask for money to buy shoes. The only way he would give it to her was if she would sleep with him. And even though she didn't want to, she felt she had to for her sons. And that is how I was conceived.

After that, he went into a treatment center for the nine months of her pregnancy. He got out just in time for my birth. My mom decided that since he was clean, they would give it a shot, for the sake of my brothers and me. Then one night, things got really bad. He went totally psycho, and he hit her over the head. That was the day my mom just left. She couldn't take it anymore. She decided to take me with her, but she left my brothers because she felt they needed their dad.

She got a job and worked all the time. I stayed with my aunt while she was gone. But one day, my aunt got tired of watching me. She said I belonged with my brother's and that she couldn't take care of me. My mom sent me back to my dad's. That was when I first really noticed the person my dad was. He still drank all the time and would just send us off to do whatever and not really pay attention, except when he would get really drunk.

One of those times, I still remember like it was yesterday. That was the day the abuse turned on my brother. He threw him up against a wall. After that, my dad decided it was better to keep his distance from us so he didn't really hurt us, even though emotionally he still was. Just as if he was beating us.

He started to get a series of girlfriends, each one worse then the last. All of them started off nice, then we would find out their true side. All of them hated one of us. But then the worst one of all came along. She hated all of us. Shortly after, my dad thought he was in love and moved us in with her.

One day, I remember them telling us they had gotten married. Without us even being there. I was crushed. My dad started working a lot. Even when he was home, they were always gone. I remember days at a time going by without even seeing them. She would leave food out, but not enough and we had no way to cook it. Or it would go bad from sitting out all day. Slowly, we began to shrink away. Sometimes I would go to my neighbors and they would feed me. I remember thinking, why can't I be theirs. I am so thankful for them, because they treated me like I really was. Now, looking back, I don't know what I would have done without them. At the time, I was only about seven, and I really missed my mom. I saw her about every other weekend, when I wasn't with my grandma.

On the occasions when my stepmom was home with her two kids, I would get so jealous because she treated them so well. It was like she was a completely different person. When I would ask to join in, or ask to have a cookie, she would just laugh at me and tell me I was too fat. Her son took on her attitude towards me. Even though he was much younger than me, we were about the same size due to lack of nourishment. Sometimes, when we were outside playing, he would knock me down, punch me, and just kick me. When I tried to defend myself, he would run and tell on me, and then I would get in trouble. She used to tell me I was going to be nothing and he was going to be everything. That I was an ugly little girl that no one wanted. Not even my own mom, and that's why she didn't come around very often. The real reason is they had cut us off from the whole world. Only place I went was school and my neighbors.

During this time, my school and neighbors became suspicious and began calling Social Services. They started an investigation. My stepmother once pulled me out of school for a day and let me do whatever I wanted, because she knew they were going to question me. That night they told me and my brothers that we better not tell anyone what was going on or talk, because if we did, we would be taken away and split up and we would not go back to my mom because she didn't love us anymore. So doing what any child would do, we didn't talk. We played stupid and waited things out. Eventually they stopped the investigation and things went back to normal. Or what normal was for me at that time.

A few months later though, they were called again, but they played the same game and fooled them. That's when my mom started to come back around. It was almost summer, and she knew things would just get worse. My neighbors who had been our protectors had moved away and she didn't know how we would make it through the summer. When it came time for my mom's six weeks that we stay with her, we were excited. We learned my dad was taking off. Although that meant we would be with Mom the whole time, we were sad. Because even though we hated my stepmother, he was still our dad. Eventually life went on and we became healthy normal kids that grew into young adults. And that's how we are to this day.

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