My father was a nice man and you could tell that he loved his family, and while he wasn’t a mean man all the time, he had an extremely bad temper mixed with severe anger problems. As a child, I never really knew how my actions would make him feel so I often walked on eggshells, because I never knew how he’d react. I can recall one specific time when I had gone swimming with a friend of mine, and I don’t think I told him where I was going. Now this was before parents sent their children with phones, so he didn’t have any way to get in contact with me.

When my friend’s mom brought me home, I remember my mom was so relieved to see me, because she was so worried. My dad, on the other hand, wasn’t pissed and you could tell because he was redder than red. He yelled at me and told me to go to my room, so I did as he demanded. Now I understand that he was angry and was probably worried, but I didn’t fully understand how upset he was until he came into my room. All I can remember was him yelling me and telling me how stupid I was and how lucky I was that I was girl otherwise he would’ve beat me like I was a boy. I was crying hysterically and all the sudden he punched me in my face. He hit me so hard that I fell backwards and hit the back of my head on my dresser. I remember screaming for my mom and as she came rushing in the room, to my aid, my dad just left the room unmoved by what he had done. Later we discovered that I had a huge bruise/scare on my face, and I was bleeding from this huge cut on my head.

This was only one of many instances where my father was physically abusive and I vowed that when I became a parent, I would NEVER put my child(ren) through such demining and inhumane treatment. Along with his occasional physical abuse, my father was also extremely verbally abusive. While all these experiences were traumatic at the time, I’ve been able to grow beyond it and I’ve become a more compassionate and loving parent because of it, and I refuse to sit back and let anything that happen to my son, my future children or any other child – regardless if they’re my child or not.