Children are victims of a social problem that wounds the family.
Since I was probably eight years old, just about everyday, all the way until I was 14 or 15 years old, just about everyday my mom and my stepdad would roll around in the living room fighting.
I probably gave up on my dad when I was born.
What's so sad is when we're younger, if you have a bad parent, that is normal to you and that's what you think of as healthy.
When I was a kid, my parents had a 900-pound television on top of a TV tray. My dad's theory was, 'Let him pull it over his head a few times, he'll learn.'
I came from a dysfunctional family - very dysfunctional. And my father used to find great humor in throwing me down the stairs.
Better a serpent than a stepmother!
The little things that made up the fabric of the first six years of my life were suddenly ripped away, and I didn't have anyone around me who loved me. Not one single person.
My mum had four kids on her own, so if I had one kid with one nanny and not a full-time job, it would be a joke. And I think the impossible happens when you leave your kids. I've seen so many nannies in the park on their phones, and the kids are running off.
While not impossible, it is especially challenging for teenage parents to develop bonds with their children. A high percent of them were themselves children of teenage parents and have never experienced appropriate parenting.
Mum's serial misbehavior over the years had driven me, despairing, to write her scolding - occasionally scalding letters.
No one realized that I needed eyeglasses until I was 12 years old. My parents were writers, so I was around the sounds of words and developed a vocabulary with my sense of hearing. I play guitar by ear.
What is a neglected child? He is a child not planned for, not wanted. Neglect begins, therefore, before he is born.
My father, he left the family when I was 13, so mum looked after us.
I never really saw [my father] at all when I was growing up.
I did not give my daughter the kind of childhood anybody would want. The vision of the divided loyalty between a mother and father who don't live together and don't share in decisions is a great depravation for children.
There are illegitimate parents, but I don't believe there are any illegitimate children.
Mother beat the hell out of us. She'd have wild outbursts.
I grew up with my mom, and my mom had six kids, and I was the youngest, but I had a different father than my brothers and sisters, and I only met him when I was ten years old. Then he introduced me to his other children.
My father was always depressed. When he was home and sober, he was mostly in his room.
I remember being two, maybe, and hearing my mum's typewriter in the other room and sticking my hands under the door and screaming, 'Mum! Mum!' I was so angry she wouldn't come out. I got used to it quickly.
There's never been a parent in my life.
I went to visit my father to tell him that I was going to go to college and become an architect - that was my dream. I was like, yeah I graduated from school, but it's not like you showed up for that. But all he was worried about is whether or not I wanted money from him.
I didn't expect to be so comfortable handing my child off to a nanny without getting any of her information. As soon as she arrived at my house, I threw my baby in her arms and went to Target.
A parent who is high is unavailable to attend to the needs of a child.
