Trending
Children are the future. They keep a family's lineage alive, generation following generation, carrying the tools they learn in their lives. As they grow, they are curious about the world around them, rambunctious and loud in play. They love unconditionally, trust. When they are grown, educated, and prepared to step into adult roles, they will share with the world what they have lived and learned from the generations who preceded them, the parents who raised them, the extended family that influenced them. They will teach, they will govern.
What will your children, as adults, share with the world?
The family is vitally important for the growth and development, the health and well-being of our children and the future of our families, our communities, our nation, and our world. Parents are - or should be - the caregivers, the protectors, the guides for their children who are parts of themselves that they bring into the world. In fact, parenting is the most important job a mother and father will ever undertake. It requires a lifelong commitment.
An older gentleman was heard to say, "Our children are all grown. I don't have to be good now." And his wife responded, "Oh, that is a no. You have grandchildren looking up to you. It's as important as it ever was for you to be a good role model for them."
Everyone - you, me, everyone, is a product of the environment in which we grew up. Young children learn by mimicking the adults in their world. They do not have the working knowledge their parents have about the world around them. Their experiences are limited. They are dependent on the people who love them to teach them how they should grow.
But we live in the real world where all children are not in environments that are conducive to their good health and well-being. In 2020, 1,750 children died of abuse or neglect, according to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). One in seven children were abused or neglected in the United States that year. Abuse or neglect of children is five times more likely in families with low socioeconomic status.
What is abuse and neglect? Federal law defines these as any recent act or failure to act, on the part of a parent or caretaker, which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation. That is a mouthful!
Four common types are physical (treatment resulting in physical injury), sexual, emotional (injure self-worth, emotional well-being as in name calling, shaming, rejecting, withholding love, or threatening.) Neglect is failing to meet the child's most basic physical and emotional needs - housing, food, clothing, education, medical care, feelings validated with appropriate response.)
Adverse childhood experiences (ACE's) have long-term impacts on the child as a child and through their lifetimes. Risk factors that contribute to child abuse and neglect include a caregiver or parent with issues of substance use, mental health, or adolescent parenting. Up to two-thirds of child maltreatment cases involve substance use to some degree.
Other factors posing risk are depression, low self-esteem, poor impulse control, anxiety, and anti-social behavior. It also is stated that anti-social behavior. Lower economic status, lack of social support, and high stress levels contribute to abuse and neglect.
Family Recovery Center offers parenting classes to assist in building a family's life-skills toolbox.
April is Child Abuse Prevention Month. Prevention requires understanding and addressing the factors that put people at risk or protect them from violence. A child is a treasure. Every parent teaches their children through the words and attitudes they use, the actions they take, the ways parents interact with the world outside the door.
------
Addiction has no address, but Family Recovery Center does. For more information about the education, prevention and treatment programs for substance abuse and related behavioral issues, contact the agency at 964 N. Market St., Lisbon; phone, 330-424-1468; or email, info@familyrecovery.org. Visit the website at familyrecovery.org. FRC is funded in part by United Way of Northern Columbiana County.