My Mother's Struggle With Domestic Violence

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“We can say with some assurance that, although children may be the victims of fate, they will not be the victims of our neglect.”- John F. Kennedy (1963). Throughout my childhood I have watched my mother struggle with domestic violence. My mom tried her hardest throughout my life to make up for my biological father not being there for me. However, my mother has not had the best taste in men. Everyman that she dated, was physically and mentally abusive to her. However, the man that had the biggest impact on my life was Jon. My mom started dating him when I was ten years old, he had two little kids that he moved into our home. Jon was physically and mentally abusive to my mom, his children and myself. With Jon came an increase in my mother’s …show more content…

Being a kid that lived on the west side or the “bad” side of town I did not really understand why people were so upset about the change until myself and all my friends from school entered the school of the “other” kids. It was made very apparent to us that we were not welcomed, that we were all dirty and that is when I realized my family was “poor”. I remember many of us trying to blend in as much as possible, not talking about our previous school or what side of town we lived on. It became even more clear the old I got and the more vocal others became toward those in my social class and the assumptions made of those that live on the west side of town. The stereotypes about people that need government assistance to survive their daily lives have dated back to the colonial days of America. However, the ‘most significant example of the stereotype comes from Susan Sheehan’s article, “A Welfare Mother,”’ (Coughlin, 1989, p. 83) this story is of a women that cheats the system in various ways thus creating the stereotype that now follows all of those that are in need of assistance. This stereotype has followed me throughout my entire life and it still follows me today. It is what drives me every day to work as hard as I can to break through the stereotypes, to show that just because someone is a victim of circumstance is does not mean that they should not be given the same opportunities as everyone

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