Being Mentally Abusive to Your Child and Not Knowing It

Critiqued by Cowboytf | September 27, 2007 .

Mental abuse comes in many forms. It can be intentional, out of habit, or simply displayed not realizing it’s wrong.

Do you……..

ignore your child’s feelings?
ridicule or insult your child, then tell them you’re joking?
give them the silent treatment?
roll your eyes when they are talking?
criticize them, call them names, or yell at them?
tell them they’re too sensitive?
interrupt them; hear not really listen?
manipulate them with lies or contradictions?
make them feel like they’re not quite good enough?
talk to others hatefully in front of your children?
argue with your spouse in front of your children?
shoot down their ideas they come up with for projects?
tell them what they should have done after the game?

Obviously, the list could go on and on. Parents do these things all the time not realizing they it can hurt your children mentally.

What you should do:

Listen your kids. Pay attention to the different emotions they are displaying.
Praise them for everything they do good. A simple “that’s great!” can make a world of difference.
Don’t yell at them or in front of them.
Commend their creativity when they come up with projects on their own. You can always add input in a subtle manner.
Let them know what a great job they did in their game and, if they lose, a simple “better luck next time” will suffice.
Don’t contradict previous conversations. If you were wrong, say you were wrong.
Listen to what your kids have to say. You may not care about a joke some kid told your child but it’s a story that your child wanted share with you, so listen.
Ask them how they feel about something or what their thoughts are on a particular subject.
Show them respect.

Physical abuse can be healed in a matter of weeks. Mental abuse is far much harder to overcome and, even though may become manageable, it will always, always be a part of that child.

This post was written in support of the Bloggers uniting and trying to “Stop the Abuse“.

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5 Comments so far

Zhu September 27, 2007 8:45 am

Sorry I’m off-topic… for the smileys, you can download a bunch from there : http://drunkenmonkey.org/user/archive/ (the more_smiley zip file).

There are all PNG so you have to convert them to GIF and upload them : instruction are here : http://www.tamba2.org.uk/wordpress/smilies/

:wink:
Cowboytf September 27, 2007 9:41 am

Thanks girl!!
CyberCelt September 28, 2007 10:18 am

Excellent post. It is so easy to scar the minds and souls of the little ones. Pat Benatar sang a song called Hell is for Children which talked of this.

Thanks for blogging for peace.
Cowboytf September 28, 2007 5:59 pm

Back at you! I wish I would have seen more people get involved.
Pips September 28, 2007 6:08 pm

This is an interesting blog. I´m here for the second time and find every day new interesting details.