Child Abuse Story From Anonymous21

by Name Withheld
(Texas, USA)

My story isn't half as bad as most I've read, but it has affected my life in many ways and to this day I am still trying to deal with it.

My parents divorced when I was 4 because of my father's alcoholism. My mother was given custody of me and my brother. She did her best to do everything she could for us, and we always had what we needed, plus more.

Trying to deal with being a single parent, she made many bad decisions with men. She was trying to find a father figure for me, even though my brother (ten years older) was always the one I looked up to. Over the course of my life I have seen about 10 different men come and go, and anytime I tried to tell her I didn't like the un-stable lifestyle she was putting me in, she would make me feel guilty and tell me I didn't want her to be happy.

When I was 11, time went on and she remained close friends with one of her ex's. We would visit his family and stay for the weekend, as my mom was very close with his sister. One weekend while there, I woke up in the middle of the night with him putting his hand down my pants. I was so scared I didn't know if I should scream or not do anything. As soon as I woke he ran from the room and I lay there in shock. I didn't know if I should run and tell my mom who was only one floor away, or if I should just keep quiet. I was even more confused because he was dating my mother before for about 2 years and I could never remember if he had ever abused me in that time or ever tried to, or if I had just blocked it out because I was so young and it traumatized me.

Over the next years of my life she has allowed many different men to move in our home, and since the abuse, I was always terrified that one of her boyfriends would abuse me. None of them ever did, but the fear was always there and I slept with my door locked for 5 years after that one incident. I never told anybody what happened to me, because I never thought it was actually considered abuse, but now at 18, I realize that has affected me in so many ways. I hope one day abuse is a thing of the past and no child has to go through the confusion, depression, and anger that many abused children feel.

Darlene's comments to this "Child Abuse Story From Anonymous21" can be found at Comments below this submission. Depending on system activity, there are sometimes delays in comments going live on my site; but rest assured, they do eventually appear. So if you don't yet see them, I hope you will return later to read what I, and possibly others, have written. I thank you for your patience and understanding.

Email addresses, phone numbers, home addresses AND website/blog URLs in visitor comments are STRICTLY prohibited, and could result in being banned from making further comments on this site.