Raising Healthy Children Despite Former Personal Abuse

Raising Healthy Children Despite Former Personal Abuse

By: Mandie Schreck

Being a survivor of abuse, especially throughout childhood, creates a common fear of raising children and the need to be the best parent or caregiver you can be. We may think of ways we can create a do-over of sorts. If we grew up in an unsafe, abusive, or neglectful home — we would wish for nothing more for our own children than to have safety and security. Focusing on not recreating the past or putting our own children in those circumstances becomes our utmost wish and priority as they grow. How can we as a society ensure that our future generations are not only safe but learn from the past to prevent any kind of abuse in the future?

Communication Is Key

Communicating and having open conversations about simple and more complex issues is crucial in understanding our children’s thinking and comprehension. Communication is a way for them to formulate who they are as individuals and build their sense of self-esteem and self-realization (Lancer, 2016).

Community & Social Support

Having a community of individuals to support the upbringing of our future generations can significantly impact their social wellbeing, intelligence, and confidence. Bringing individuals to aid and support us as we personally work through any past trauma to ensure we create a sustainable life for our children can greatly impact their growth (American Psychological Association, 2009).

Healing Starts with You

To help teach others how to fill their cup, we must fill our cups first. Healing from past trauma and abuse, especially abuse from childhood, can take years to overcome. Healing starts within ourselves, so we must show our children proper coping mechanisms, healing practices, and ways to recognize and heal from the trauma we experience in our lives. By identifying our triggers and stopping the cycle of abuse with our own inner work, we can then teach others how to do the same. (Ma, 2020)

We at ARO are here to support you in your personal healing journey to complete wellbeing. We bring awareness and education to ten different types of abuse: Narcissism, Sexual, Physical, Psychological, Financial, Child, Self, Spousal, Cyberbullying, and Bullying. We help others heal to find peace. If you would like to learn more and donate to help others find refuge, please visit GoARO.org.

References
American Psychological Association. “Understanding and Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect.” American Psychological Association. 2009. https://www.apa.org/pi/families/resources/understanding-child-abuse.
Lancer, D. “How to Raise Emotionally Healthy Children.” Psych Central. 2016. https://psychcentral.com/lib/how-to-raise-emotionally-healthy-children#2.
Ma, L. “10 Ways to Heal from Childhood Trauma.” Psychology Today. 2020. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-intelligent-divorce/202001/10-ways-heal-childhood-trauma

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