Teens - Witnessing Domestic Violence

AMY’S STORY

Hi, my name is Amy.  I’m in the tenth grade in school.  I like being with my friends, playing sports, and writing stories.  This is a story about my family.

I lived with my Mom and Dad and little brother, William, who’s three.  Mom and Dad both worked and William went to a sitter during the day.  Things usually were okay, but there were times when we had real problems.

One day last year Mom had made dinner for us.  We waited and waited but Dad didn’t come home.  William cried, he was so hungry.  Mom finally said that we could go ahead and eat.  As we were finishing, Dad came home.  He got angry at Mom because she didn’t wait for him before eating dinner.  She got mad too.  She said it was his fault if he wasn’t on time and didn’t call to tell us.  Mom told William and me to go to our bedrooms, but we could hear what happened.  Dad started yelling at Mom and then we heard him hit her.  Mom was crying.  Then we heard Dad stop and go to bed.  William and I were really scared.

The next day, Mom didn’t go to work.  William and I stayed home, too.  Mom called someone on the phone and talked for a long time.  I didn’t know what to think.  I love my Dad, but I was angry at home for hurting Mom.  I was very confused.  Would Dad start hitting me or William?  I didn’t know what was going to happen next.

It was weird, but nothing happened.  When Dad got home from work, he and Mom talked.  Then we had dinner.  I guess they made up, but I couldn’t understand what was going on.  I just hoped that it wouldn’t happen again.

After the first time, things were okay for a while, but then it happened again.  Every so often Dad would hit Mom, sometimes she’d be really hurt.  The last time, our neighbors called the police who took Dad away with them.  Mom took William and me to a place called a shelter.  She said that we could stay there and be safe.

The shelter was a big house.  Other Moms and kids were staying there, too.  I missed my friends and wanted to go home.  But I didn’t want my Mom to be hurt anymore.  The other kids and I talked about our families.  We all felt so confused.  Mostly, we just wanted our families to be happy and normal.

After a while, Mom explained what we were going to do.  We’d go home, but Dad was going to move out for a while.  Mom said she knew that William and I would miss him, but Dad needed to change so that he wouldn’t hurt her anymore.  She needed to protect herself and she wanted to keep us safe too.

Now, Mom and William and I are doing okay.  Dad is getting help.  We still don’t know if we’ll all get back together.  This is hard for me too, not being sure how things will be in the future.

Talking about my family isn’t easy, which is why I wrote this story.  Even good friends don’t always understand these kinds of problems.  But now that I shared it with you, I feel better.