mental health and child abuse

by beverley
(essex)

I am very concerned for a friend of mine who I am sure is suffering from some sort of mental health condition. She is a 43 year old female; I will give you a brief outline of the condition. She has always been rather highly strung, but over the last 15 years she has gotten worse. My real concern is for her children, she has a boy of 12 and a daughter of 10, she spoils the little girl rotten up to the point the 10 year old rules the house, while her son can do nothing right, she says he is violent and threatening, but this is very much exaggerated. I have known the family for over 25 years and know the children well. Her and her husband treat the boy with utter loathing, my friend even admits to not liking her son at all.

Now my fear is that she will harm the boy as she is increasingly picking on him, e.g. as soon as he comes home from school she shouts at him for the way he opens the door, never has a conversation with him and has also turned his sister against the boy, She has now told him (at 12) he has to get out of her sight as she no longer wants anything more to do with him and she keeps telling the boy how much she hates him also she has now started to tell him everyone else hates him too.

The whole sorry story goes on and on but now I am really concerned as she has told him to leave and he has to stay with various friends and family while his father works nights. He can only be there when his father is home which the father works 1 week nights and one week late shift 6 till 6am and one week 2pm -10pm so you see the problem the boy can only be at home one week per month. She doesn’t feed him, he relies on family members and friends for everything for 3 weeks in the month. Also, I have to mention the mother drinks heavy 7 days a week. Please help

Child Abuse and Mental Health Issues

Beverley, I am very concerned to hear about this. Urgent action needs to be taken in this situation and both you and their family members need to take action now. You are all very concerned for this childs health and yet you are all trying to shield him from this, but at the same time it is not going to change anything. The only way this can be dealt with is through the police and social services. This can be done anonymously and this should be done now, before any potential physical abuse can occur, if it hasn’t already happened. Mental abuse has clearly already been an issue from your comments. For the childs own safety this needs to happen now. What are you trying to do by not acting now? I’m sure you couldn’t live with yourself if something happened. If there are mental health issues, the only way this is going to be addressed is through your actions. You have done the right thing in making contact here, but this website is not the place for taking action. You need to do this! Phone Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or go to their website at Crimestoppers UK and act anonymously now. You can also phone the local police or social services and they should act in the strictest of confidence. Whichever you want to do, do it now. You won’t regret this action and you will help not only the boy, but the family too to get through this in due course. Good luck and keep me updated!




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