#-> child abuse

[krikeymate]

Hey, I just want to tell you that you're an incredibly talented author, and all of your posts make me happy and excited.

I also have a request (I love angst, sry not sry) and the Carpenter sisters are kind of my new obsession rn (thanks to you lol)

Could you please write a scenario in which Sam comes back from school (she doesn't know about Billy yet) and witnesses Christina's violent outburst towards Tara?

She can't believe it at first because her mother always treated Sam like a princess (we all know why), and Tara is known to be a "clumsy" kid. So, basically, her little sister lied to her about where the bruises come from, but WHY?! I can't answer my own question, and it's frustrating.

I imagine a larger age gap between the two sisters. Sam knows that her mother doesn't love Tara as much as she adores Sam, but the physical abuse always happens when she isn't around.

Thank you so much for your time and effort!

(I'm sorry if I made a mistake, English isn't my first language)

Thank you so much!! I'm glad to hear you like my stuff :) and your English is great!

This will fit pretty well in my five years late AU! The age gap is 10 years, Christina loves Sam and treats her well (although Sam began pulling away once she discovered her father isn't her father - although she never learnt who was). Christina becomes pretty absent when Sam is 15 and their father leaves, but she's never been violent (to Sam's knowledge), or particularly mean to Tara... she just... doesn't care about her so much. She does the bare minimum, and Sam picks up the slack.

It's October, Sam's 18 and in her senior year, and usually she would be at basketball practice right now, except coach started throwing up 10 minutes into practice and sent everyone home. Sam's pretty irritated, all things considered. They didn't need coach there to train, and boy did they need to train. It seems like nobody practised over the summer, and Sam doesn't want to end her final year with as many losses as last year.

But hey, at least she'll get to spend an extra couple of hours with Tara today! Her sister's been upset lately about all the extra time Sam spends at practice now. It was the same last year, she seems to recall. But she got used to it before, and Sam knows she'll get used to it again.

Mom even bought Tara a soccer ball to kick around the garden, she said that her sister was probably just jealous that Sam's good at a sport. Sam can't say she's ever seen her sister touch it once, but mom says she uses it all the time when Sam's at practice, pointing to Tara's bruised legs and scuffed hands and knees. Then she complains that Tara's been kicking the ball against the kitchen wall, and tells Sam to remind her sister to behave herself.

So, Sam's not expected when she arrives home at 3.45 instead of 6pm. She sneaks around the back, hoping to catch her sister practising soccer - an activity Tara refuses to discuss with her but her mother assures her is happening - but finds only an empty backyard... and it sounds like her mother is yelling in the kitchen. It's pretty alarming to hear, mom rarely raises her voice, and it has Sam scrambling over the fence to pull open the backdoor.

It takes a moment for her to realise what she's seeing.

Tara's on the floor, crying, and crawling backwards, away from their mother. Her cheek is bright red, the indentation of fingers spread across it, complete with several scratches. And her mother is screaming at her. She's in the middle of "I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR PATHETIC C-" when Sam runs forward and involves herself in the scene.

"What are you doing?!" she cries, standing between Tara and their mother, hands held out as if to push her mother away.

The way her face goes from angry to calm in an instant unsettles Sam. It feels a lot like watching the theatre kids practise at lunch, the way they could go from happy to sad to angry at a click of the finger.

"Honey," she coos, putting a hand on Sam's shoulder. "You're home early?"

"Practise was cancelled," Sam answers warily. Her mother's avoiding the question. "What are you doing?" she repeats, looking over her shoulder to her sister. Tara's rubbing at her face now, breathing heavily through her hiccups to try and control her breathing. Sam frowns, she's going to need her inhaler.

"She was kicking the ball against the wall again," her mother lets out through gritted teeth. Sam can see fragments of frustration leaking through her mask. She knows there was no answer her mother could give that would make this ok, but she had still hoped for better than this. Something reasonable. Something that makes sense.

"So you hit her? Are you kidding me, what the fuck mom," she growls, shaking off her hand and turning to her sister. Sam picks Tara up off the floor, holding her to her chest, and stares down her mother as Tara burrows her face into Sam's hoodie.

"You have no idea what it's like, Samantha," her mother finally responds. "Trying to raise that girl. She's not like you, she's trouble."

Her mother's words floor her. Sam can't believe what she's hearing. She can't believe this is her mother saying these things, doing these things. Sam exits the room backwards, her head shaking the entire time.

Even once they're sequestered away in Sam's room, Tara won't talk to her, won't tell her what happened. She just stays curled into Sam's side, sniffling. Sam has the nagging feeling that her mother wasn't telling the truth. The football's always in the same place every time she sees it, today was no exception. And if that was a lie, then... where did the bruises come from?

Sam has to choke back the nausea. Her sister needs her right now.

She quits basketball the next day.

[motherofplatypus]

This is how many bullets they shot on a fucking kid.

[fnord888]

Child abuse is a big problem, so it's important that we don't let children communicate with adults except their parents and other official authority figures. Everyone knows the best way to prevent child abuse is to keep children isolated and ensure all their communications are controlled.

[professorcalculusstanaccount]

I decided to clean up an old comic of mine! A thirty something year old Tintin reflects on his childhood with Chang.

[theconcealedweapon]

When you're autistic, it's impossible to miss how much society normalizes child abuse.

I could dedicate my entire life to studying how to interact with people and I'd still never master the social skills that young children are expected to have on command.

Say the wrong thing? That's disrespectful and you're punished. And you don't even have to actually say anything wrong. Pretty much anything you say can be considered "giving lip" if your parent wants some excuse to punish you. But if you say nothing, then you get punished for ignoring. You also have to calculate your response to their mind game quickly because taking too long to respond is considered ignoring. Also, if you're being wrongly accused of something, saying nothing is considered a confession. And even if you somehow manage to say exactly what your parent wants in exactly the correct tone, they'll still punish you for "sarcasm" or "not really meaning it".

[teaboot]

Adult ProTip, from a security professional: If a kid tells you, "My parents are gonna kill me / kick my ass / kick me out" for something relatively minor, don't respond with shit like "Really? ;) that sounds a little extreme, don't you think sweetie?" because that shit really does happen.

Instead, respond as though whatever threat they are afraid of is fully valid, and offer whatever you can do to help- ask if they believe they are in danger of being hurt in any way, and work accordingly.

If they're overreacting, they'll usually realize and dial it back, self-correct and begin thinking a bit more rationally.

If they're not overreacting, and the danger is real, then they'll need a level-headed adult in their corner, not another condescending authority figure who doesn't believe them.

[self-loving-vampire]

Problem #1 regarding child abuse is that a lot of people seem to struggle to imagine normal, respectable-looking parents and other authority figures ever doing it despite the statistics so instead they do the stranger danger panic and completely overlook some of the greatest threats.

Problem #2 is that even when people understand, even if in an abstract way, that parents can be abusive they just... don't seem to actually register that as something that can apply to real life. It's just hypothetical to them and doesn't actually guide their ideas of how to prevent child abuse.

Problem #3 is that even after overcoming the above biases a lot of people have a very narrow image of what abusive parenting is where they imagine like... people doing violent things basically out of sadism and without provocation. They don't seem to think it's "real" abuse if the victim did something that "justifies" punitive violence, like disobeying the parents.

In fact, most people think parents have a right to do a whole lot of awful things to their children beyond just hitting them, like violating their privacy, controlling their access to information, and deciding what/when/if they eat, among other things.

[lostmf]

[krikeymate]

Same anon here Btw! And I much prefer your take on the foster care/estranged older sister story thing Omg

I just thought of it quickly but damn the details on yours are much more intriguing I read it back a couple times.

Also we wouldn’t put Sam as Tara’s mom if Christina made herself more present lmao 😭😭😭

I'm glad you liked it!!

Part 1.

So, in order for Sam to take custody of Tara, she needs to petition the courts. She has to prove she's a suitable guardian! And well, she's not. She's got a criminal record, a history of drug use. She's got a life-altering mental health condition that rears its head in the worst way if she misses even a single dose. She works a shitty minimum-wage job and lives in a one-bedroom apartment. The girls aren't even acquainted. Ordinarily, this would be an open-and-shut no. Except... Sam has come into a lot of money with her parents' deaths, they both owned property, they both had substantial savings. And there's the question of how did this happen? After all, how could a child be born undetected, how did no one notice this child never went to school, how did she end up back with her mother, why was there no one watching the family from the beginning? Tara's social worker gets Sam in touch with a lawyer, and Sam sues a whole lot of people for gross negligence and failure to safeguard.

They give her custody.

Sam can't say her reasons are entirely altruistic, the situation comes with a life-changing amount of money. And a life-changing discovery as she clears out what used to be her home. Turns out her mother really was the absolute worst, all her life. She keeps it to herself.

Sam finds this parenting thing is much easier than she worried it would be. Feed the kid, make sure she's clean and clothed and safe. Take her to doctor's appointments, and social worker check-ups, and refill her inhaler prescription. And, ok, Sam knows there’s more to parenting than this, but it’s also the only thing she can do for the kid. Sam sleeps on the couch while she finds them somewhere new to live, and the kid spends most of her time curled up in a blanket under the bed. She tries not to react to the weird things she does, or the way she flinches if she shuts the door a little too rough. She tries not to wonder if this could have been her if she hadn’t been removed when she was.

The girl isn’t ready to be around others, but they tell her she needs an education, so Sam gets her a tutor, who also functions as a babysitter. It takes 3 months before Tara stops shaking when Sam goes to leave her with the sitter. That very first day had taken her by surprise. In the 5 months she had been with her, the girl had kept to herself, stayed quiet and out of reach. That day, Tara had attached herself to her leg and began to cry and Sam got to hear her speak for the very first time: no nonono no please no. She had to call off work sick that day to calm her down. Things changed after that. Tara became clingy.

Where previously she would watch Sam from afar with furrowed brows and suspicion (and sometimes even anger, she thinks), now she constantly hovers nearby. She’s always watching. She’ll willingly slip her hand into hers when they’re out and about. She crawls into her bed at night and sleeps at the foot, near but not touching. (The first morning after they moved, Sam nearly had a heart attack when she went to check on her sister and found the room empty. The girl was in her favourite place to be, under Sam’s bed.) Sam wonders why she ever sprung for a two-bed in the first place, then remembers, oh yeah, the social workers. Tara can still be taken back from her at any time, and she’s got to admit, she’s gotten used to having her around.

Tara’s a week from 14 when she makes Sam cry for the first time. Sam had been ranting – Tara had been so irritating lately, leaving her possessions where Sam would trip over them, being lazy, refusing to clean up after herself – and Sam couldn’t take it anymore. Mid-lecture, the girl screams at her to shut up and pushes her. It doesn’t hurt, she barely even budges, but the act feels so meaningful. Tara’s anger fades in an instant, apologies flying off her tongue, and Sam just pulls her in and hugs her tight. She’s so happy her sister feels safe enough with her to lash out and not fear the consequences. A week later she presents her with adoption papers for her birthday. It won’t change much for them, but the way Tara throws herself into her arms and says I love you for the first time tells Sam all she needs to know. She wonders how she almost passed on this.

[tododeku-or-bust]

In the same vein as the grounding question, just because I was confused by it, this is a much more direct question:

I recognize whooping runs the range of a swat or two on the leg to.... Well, some of us got beat fr😅. So imma give a preemptive Trigger Warning for Child Abuse if people decide to elaborate in the tags.

[sayruq]

“One of them put his boot on my mouth while stomping on my chest with his other boot,” Majd said. The military vehicle stopped at an Israeli military checkpoint located at the northern entrance to Azzoun. Majd was taken out of the vehicle, forced to stand still and a soldier repeatedly assaulted him with the stock of his rifle on the chest, head, and waist while directing insults at him. “I was begging him to stop hitting me but to no avail. He then wrapped his hands around my neck, pressed with all his strength, and said to me in Arabic, ‘I'll kill you by strangulation.’" Majd passed out and regained consciousness around 5 p.m. and found himself in a room, lying on the ground and surrounded by a soldier, a cat, and a military dog. “I felt really scared, mostly because the sounds made by the dog were terrifying. I started screaming out of fear because the cat scratched my face many times,” Majd told DCIP. “The soldier said in Arabic, 'I will let the dog eat you.' "Israeli forces continued torturing Majd until around 2 a.m, slamming his head against a wall several times, causing him to collapse and ask for water, but his request was rejected and they forced him to remain silent. Israeli forces transferred him to Emmanuel Police Station for interrogation at 3:30 a.m where his tie and blindfold were removed. The interrogator accused him of throwing stones at Israeli military vehicles and then allegedly subjected the boy to physical violence for two hours, forced him to sign an electronic screen with an electronic pen, and tied his hands and blindfolded again, according to documentation collected by DCIP.

Between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2023, DCIP documented 838 cases where Palestinian children detained by the Israeli military were systematically tortured, handcuffed, blindfolded, strip searched, and denied access to food and water during the interrogation period. In nearly all cases documented by DCIP, Israeli authorities interrogated Palestinian child detainees without the presence of a lawyer or family member, and children were overwhelmingly denied a consultation with a lawyer prior to interrogation. Israeli forces use coercive tactics, including the use of informants, resulting in children unintentionally making incriminating statements or even false confessions.

[inkskinned]

hey btw if you're in the USA at  2:20 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Oct. 4, they're testing the emergency broadcast system. your phone is probably going to make a really loud noise, even if it's on silent. there's a backup date on the 11th if they need to postpone it.

if you're not in a safe situation and have an extra phone, you should turn that phone completely off beforehand.

additionally, if you're like me, and are easily startled; i recommend treating it like a party. have a countdown or something. be surrounded by your loved ones. take the actions you personally need to take to make yourself safe.

i have already seen mockery towards any person who feels nervous about this. for the record, it completely, completely valid to have "emergency broadcast sounds" be an anxiety trigger. do not let other people make fun of you for that. emergency sounds are legitimately engineered to make us take action; those of us with high levels of anxiety and/or neurodivergence are already pre-disposed to have a Bad Time. sometimes it is best to acknowledge that the situation will be triggering for some, and to prepare for that; rather than just saying "well that's stupid, it's just a test."

"loud scary sound time" isn't like, my favorite thing, but we can at least try to prevent some additional anxiety by preparing for it. maybe get yourself a cake? noise cancelling headphones? the new hozier album? whatever helps. love u, hope you're okay. we are gonna ride it out together.

[mudwerks]

(via Ruby Franke, Popular Parenting YouTuber, Arrested for Alleged Child Abuse)

According to Salt Lake City’s Fox 13, arresting documents describe a child climbing out of a window and running to a neighbor’s home to ask for food and water. The neighbor noticed that the child had duct tape on their wrists and ankles and called the police. Another child was found at the home the first one escaped from, which belongs to Franke’s business partner and therapist Jodi Hildebrandt.

Viewers of “8 Passengers” and investigative vloggers have flagged Franke’s concerning behavior around feeding and withholding food from her children for a long time. In one video, Franke brags about not feeding her kids breakfast until they do their chores, despite them being “literally starving.” In another, Franke explains the reasoning behind not bringing her hungry 6-year-old lunch at school, because it’s actually the kid’s responsibility to pack her own lunch. It’s all deranged.

Why do people that hate kids ever have kids? And why do they have such strong urges to share their evil with others? I guess it’s...ATTENTION and MONEY.

One can’t help but notice the unfortunate pattern of Youtubers or parenting influencers on any platform who’ve compromised their children’s wellbeing. Remember Myka Stauffer, who “rehomed” her adopted child with special needs in 2020? Or the “FamilyofFive” parents, who were convicted of child abuse in 2017 for the elaborate and cruel “pranks” they pulled on their children? The parenting choices these people made are upsetting enough, but their incessant need to capitalize off of them for content at their children’s expense is horrific.

[self-loving-vampire]

Extremely dangerous how "grooming" in the context of child sexual abuse went from being a very specific pattern of isolation and trust-building with the aim of abusing someone to "telling children anything that contradicts their parents' ultra-conservative worldview is grooming" to "selling rainbow flags in a store is grooming" to "literally anyone I don't like is a groomer".

These days the word seems to most often be used by people who don't care about what it actually means and just want an easy "this person is irredeemably evil, kill them now" button.

[lostmf]

By @hel7l7

[krikeymate]

Here's something that's been sitting in my notes for over a month and a half that I'm clearly not going to do anything else with.

~

The muffled sound of yelling, dull thudding, the sharp smash of shattering glass and crack of thrown ceramics. These were not unfamiliar sounds that would permeate the house when Christina Carpenter was home.

But Sam didn't know that.

The sound of breaking glass roused Sam from her sleep, but it was the sound of a raised voice that had her leaping from the bed. With each hurried step down the hall, the yelling grew louder and more distressing. She practically threw herself down the stairs; her feet hitting the floor with a heavy thump.

The yelling ceases.

She rounds the corner into the kitchen, pausing in the doorway. The sight of her sister curled up on the floor at their mother's feet inexplicably fills Sam with dread.

Her eyes flick between them for a moment, trying to read the situation.

"What's going on?" she asks, careful to keep her tone calm and free from accusation, stepping into the room. Whatever this is, it feels fragile.

Her mother stares back at her as if no time had passed since she last saw her eldest; with a gaze that scours through your skin to reveal what's underneath, a gaze that finds her lacking, as always.

"Samantha," she drawls, eyes piercing and fixated solely on Sam. She doesn't offer anything more, doesn't acknowledge the girl trembling beneath her, doesn't resemble the loving mother Sam knows she used to be. The mother who would tuck her in and braid her hair and always have a smile for her. Who would tell her "you're going to do great things one day my love" and "I'm so proud of you" and "you're capable of so much more than you know." Sam wonders where that woman went.

It's unnerving.

She was fighting for her life and the life of her sister not even 3 weeks ago, and yet standing before her mother is what makes her want to cower. Pathetic.

Sam swallows and looks away, eyes dipping back to her sister. That's what matters, not this stranger before her. She steps forward and crouches down, placing a hand on Tara's shoulder. The way she flinches at the touch sends Sam's heart racing.

"Hey," she coos, her fingers twitching in a soft squeeze. "It's just me, what are doing down there?" It's supposed to be a gentle reassurance. It fails.

Tara only curls up tighter, face hidden beneath her arms. Sam thinks she must be missing something, something important. The uncertainty is suffocating.

"She fell," their mother scoffs, turning away from them. "You know what she's like... Well, I suppose you wouldn't, would you." The words are designed to hurt, and there's a foreign smirk just visible in her profile. A pit settles in Sam's stomach. "She's always been a clumsy thing." That's not true, Tara's always been so careful.

"I mean just look at the state of her!" Is she implying-

Sam adopts a tone so cold it could rival her mother's soul. "She was attacked, if you'll recall." Fuck, Sam remembered why she couldn't be around this woman. "She almost died!"

The woman just scoffs and picks up a nearly empty wineglass. "Don't be so dramatic Samantha."