April 23rd Turkish National Sovereignty and Children’s Day
We celebrate April 23rd, the day where the Grand National Assembly of Turkey met for the first time, as National Sovereignty and Children’s Day on Mustafa Kemal -Atatürk’s initiative. He made a present of this day to children, saying: “Today’s children are tomorrow’s adults. Nations who don’t raise healthy and knowledgeable children will collapse easily like buildings with weak foundations”. In our day, we celebrate with festivities, where children present several performances in colorful costumes, express themselves and have fun. I wish all our children a happy day on 23rd April. However, I consider it a social duty to see and show the bitter picture of child abuse behind these happy sights and to invite all to think about it so we can achieve a behavioral change.
Conscious and sensitive approach about child abuse
Punishment as a Form of Discipline and Child Abuse
Punishment is considered natural in the traditional approach to child raising. If we define punishment as verbal or physical negative stimulus, verbal punishment would include admonition, yelling, insulting, and cursing; and physical punishment would cover a wide range of stimuli from light strokes that could only inflict ache to acts of severe violence that could create a life risk.
Research studies show that parents who yell often at their children are, generally, also inclined to hit them. Unfortunately, hitting lightly on the hand, spanking, slapping, grabbing by the arms and shaking, pinching, tweaking, twisting their arm, punching, kicking, burning with cigarettes, hot water and the like, locking up, tying, hitting against the wall or hitting on the head are simply acts of torture we exercise on our children.
Research also shows that parents who were abused as children use harsher methods of discipline on their children in turn. If you were abused as a child you should get help in order not to reproduce the same mistakes as your parents.
The World Health Organization’s data reveal that 40 million children aged 1 to 14 over the world are subject to abuse or neglect.
The Effects of Child Abuse and Punishment
If we are going to make changes in our lives and attitudes, I think we should look into the reasons why verbal and physical punishment, which are traditionally so common, are thought to be abuse by health professionals.
The effects of punishment extend over the short and long term, and some only seem to appear in adulthood. They include:
– developmental disorders,
– sleep disorders,
– eating disorders,
– alcohol or drug abuse/addiction,
– depression,
– anxiety,
– panic disorder,
– increase in criminal and violent behavior,
– self-injury, suicidal tendency, and
– predisposition to use the same methods on their own children.
Studies show that children exposed to violence resort to violence and that this tendency continues through adolescence, sometimes appearing as a criminal tendency. Violence is like a drug indeed brain/body chemistry, changes are activated when we are about to strike out. The use of violence to limit a child’s behavior gradually desensitizes children so more violence is required to establish the same degree of authority.
Child Sexual Abuse
Child sexual abuse is an act in which a sexually mature adult or older adolescent abuses the child for sexual gratification by forcing them through means of pressure such as intimidation and threatening or by tricking, luring, or persuasion. Such acts are considered sexual abuse regardless of the question whether the sexual act was performed with or without any tool, whether genital or physical contact was involved or not, whether it was started by the child, or whether or not it involved substantial harm.
Child Abuse and Solutions
According to statistics, 70% of sexually abused children are 2 to 10 years of age and there is no difference between the rate of boys and girls. 90% of abusers are thought to be men and 80% are people that the child knows, often a family member!
We need to discuss seriously why people commit such perverted acts and, produce radical solutions. Men usually have the power, and we cannot expect those who have abusive tendencies to come up with solutions. I believe it is both a right and a responsibility for every sensible person to gain and disseminate awareness on this issue and demand change. In our capacity as mothers and partners, and with the support of commonsensical fathers, we women need to recognize our power and importance, and question the dogmas about sexuality in our approach to raising children.
Examine and share this article by helpguide.org to protect our children from sexual abuse.
If you have abusive tendencies, please get help before you harm a child and add to your own unhappiness.
