Annie's Mailbox®, May 23
by Kathy Mitchell and Marcy Sugar
Dear Annie: My husband and I retired several years ago and built a house in the country. He told me that one day he might have to let his widowed mother live with us. I had no problem with that until she actually moved in. For the past three years, this woman has played on my husband's feelings. She won't make any new friends and expects him to stay in the house 24/7 with her because she is afraid to leave the premises. Our friends stopped asking us to go out with them, and they no longer com ...
( Back to Article )
Join the Discussion
|
3 Comments | Post Comment
|
Posted by: Ariana
Comment: #1
Sat May 23, 2009 10:35 AM
LW2 - I call a fake. A 16-year-old doesn't know of any websites where she might find helpful information? I don't believe it! Has she ever heard of Google? All she needs is to type "eating disorders" into the google search window, and about 17,000,000 websites will come up, including the National Eating Disorders Association in the top five or six choices. Isn't googling a bit easier and faster than writing to an advice columnist and hoping that you will get a response?
|
Posted by: julia
Comment: #2
Sat May 23, 2009 2:50 AM
The letter from the woman who wrote about her father molesting children was not good. So she threatened him with the police? What she did is leave a predator free to molest the children of those who didn't know he was a threat. And in some cases, this is how such behaviour escalates into murder. If someone molests children, they are a criminal. It is not up to the family to decide how to handle it. It is not a family secret. It's a crime. By not treating it as a crime, those molested have had their trauma minimized by those who felt it was a "private matter." And those who didn't report it are partly responsible for further molestation.
|
Posted by: Pat-tricia
Comment: #3
Sat May 23, 2009 6:52 PM
Re: julia --- You are so right. I wonder how many other grandchildren and neighborhood children Gramps got to. If this were taken to the police and publicized, there may well be others who come forward. These victims need to be heard and they probably also need counseling. It actually shocked me that the lw did not contact the police when Gramps molested the child. When children are molested and their abuser is not called to account (in the courts), the child is further abused by being made to feel of little account. It can make them feel that people (their parents in particular) consider the abuser as more important than they are. In fact, I think that may be one reason some kids don't come forward - they think their parents either won't believe them or that they aren't important enough to do anything about the abuse. And in the case of the lw's child, isn't that exactly what happened? The lw didn't feel her child was important enough to report the abuser to the police. SHAME!
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
- 
- 
- 
