Can these two things be related? I think not. Taking my own childhood as a reference point and my adult life as another linking these two things not only appears stupid but can easily be debunked.
Admittedly, my own circumstances cannot be related to the wider circumstances but I can add in all my friends from my childhood as well.
For myself, I was physically abused by my father. This alone made me not so much as hit my own children as I am scared witless that I will turn out like my father.
Some of my childhood friends where physically abused by their father and sometimes by their mother. I am not talking about the modern definition of physical abuse here I am talking about a beating that oftentimes left the abused physically unable to move for short periods. We all know what was happening but back in those days nobody cared about children or cared about their wellbeing. There were some that were sexual abused by their parents as well.
That said, back in the 1960's a child was still to be 'seen and not heard' and because of this attitude children often huddled into small close knit groups of likewise abused children. Adults, including those in a position to actually helping the abused child, did nothing. Even when told what was happening, they did nothing.
So, where I lived as a child abuse by parents seemed a normal thing. Children, such as myself, where made stronger in our adult life, not made into criminals as they now say happens.
Childhood and eventual adult crime have nothing whatsoever to do with each other. At least, not in the case of the children I grew up with as every single one, now in their late 40's and some in their early 50's, are fine upstanding citizens who have, mostly, children of their own who they would never think of doing what their parents did to them and have certainly, to a man or woman, never turned to a life of crime because of what happened to them as a child.
Admittedly, my own circumstances cannot be related to the wider circumstances but I can add in all my friends from my childhood as well.
For myself, I was physically abused by my father. This alone made me not so much as hit my own children as I am scared witless that I will turn out like my father.
Some of my childhood friends where physically abused by their father and sometimes by their mother. I am not talking about the modern definition of physical abuse here I am talking about a beating that oftentimes left the abused physically unable to move for short periods. We all know what was happening but back in those days nobody cared about children or cared about their wellbeing. There were some that were sexual abused by their parents as well.
That said, back in the 1960's a child was still to be 'seen and not heard' and because of this attitude children often huddled into small close knit groups of likewise abused children. Adults, including those in a position to actually helping the abused child, did nothing. Even when told what was happening, they did nothing.
So, where I lived as a child abuse by parents seemed a normal thing. Children, such as myself, where made stronger in our adult life, not made into criminals as they now say happens.
Childhood and eventual adult crime have nothing whatsoever to do with each other. At least, not in the case of the children I grew up with as every single one, now in their late 40's and some in their early 50's, are fine upstanding citizens who have, mostly, children of their own who they would never think of doing what their parents did to them and have certainly, to a man or woman, never turned to a life of crime because of what happened to them as a child.
No comments:
Post a Comment