I have been trying to catch up over the last three threads (stupid having-a-job! grumble grumble) and I would like to comment on the "abuse" thing....
First off, I do NOT believe that JA was abused in the sense that she was beaten severely and/or deprived of basic human needs which effected her emotional development.
HOWEVER,there are many children who are victims of horrific physical and sexual abuse and they live in nice homes and take piano lessons and go on vacations and they do not ever tell ANYONE about the pain they endure on a daily basis because that is part of being an abused child.
I was saddened to read so many comments stating that a "real" abused child wouldn't have art and music lessons, and would have told a teacher or someone. This is SO not true. Children suffer in silence far too often.
I only hope that among those reading the thread, there were not any survivors of childhood physical, emotional or sexual abuse, because reading those comments may have caused them to place the blame on themselves , perhaps thinking "My parent's DID buy me things and gave me swimming lessons so maybe when they hurt me, it was MY fault."
I guess what I am saying is that in our frenzy to annihilate JA and rip everything about her to shreds, we may also be making gross misstatements about child abuse in general.
I just want us to be a little more sensitive to the true victims out there and realize that terrible things happen to children even in homes where everything appears just lovely from the outside.
Oh, and I am one of those sniveling, liberal parents who have never struck my child. And she is one AWESOME kiddo!
![Wink ;) ;)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
. No "spoiled" child here, just one who knows that hitting and punching aren't ever okay.
Sorry for the hijack, I just have a tender spot for the youngest victims and wanted to put this out there for them.