Six Types Of Emotional Abuse Towards Children
Children who experience emotional abuse are prone to developing mental and emotional issues later in life. Emotional abuse leaves deep wounds, as physical abuse does, breaking a child’s spirit. Varying forms of emotional abuse can have different effects on a child short term and long term.
Rejecting: When parents or guardians dismiss their child purposefully or without realizing it. This makes the child feel unwanted, worthless and belittling their needs. This involves telling your child to leave the house, to leave you alone, calling them names, refusing to hold your child, and not acknowledging their existence or showing them you love them.
Ignoring: When you do not show attachment to your child or nurture them. When you show you have no interest in the child, showing no affection, and not acknowledging their child is there. You may be physically there but not emotionally there for your child. You do not respond or interact with your child. It is like when your child always wants to talk to you but you keep shooing the child away to talk on the phone.
Terrorizing: When you threaten, yell, or curse at your child. It involves punishing, criticizing, and ridiculing your child when they are behaving normally. It also involves threatening your child with harsh words, abandoning them, physical harm, or even death which causes your child to be scared by you. It can also mean seeing, hearing, or knowing there is violence occurring in the house.
Isolation: When you do not allow your child to be a part of activities that other kids are doing. It can mean preventing your child from leaving their room, restricting them from eating, and keeping your child away from their family and friends.
Corrupting: When you allow your child to do drugs or alcohol, making them watch cruel animal behavior you inflict, making them look at porn, or making them witness or participate in crime like stealing, prostitution, assault, or gambling. It can also mean encouraging underage children to do things that are illegal and harmful without thinking of the outcome or their safety.
Exploiting: When you manipulate or you force your child to do something without thinking of their safety. It can be doing intense manual labor that their child is too young to do and giving them too big responsibilities like making your child grocery shop or cooking dinner even though they can burn themselves if they are not careful or do not know what they are doing. It can also mean using your child for profit like knowing your child is pretty and forcing them to be a model knowing you can make a lot of money off of them.
