Knitted_in_the_womb

Uuuhhhh...YEAH!

The most common reason my siblings and I were beaten as children was for lying. Generally it went like this...we were hungry for an after school snack, and we knew our step-monster would say "no," so we snuck it...but then eventually she would inventory the pantry and come up with what was missing...and we would all get lined up and asked who took it. Eventually someone would confess (not necessarily the guilty party!), and that person would get beaten.

But then when my father left a bruise that was visible (breaking a paddle over my head because he was upset with a friend of mine who "told" him that he "couldn't" take me away from her by switching churches), they had a the "foresight" to instruct me to LIE to anyone who asked how it happened. Yeah...a 13 year old falls out of bed on a regular basis and hits her eye on the leg of the bed. I knew how implausible that story was--I couldn't even figure out how I could physically do it (manage to hit my eye on the leg of the bed--that was right next to the wall)). I kept hoping someone would question that story, but no one did.

Then three years later I had a visible bruise again--my father hit me across the face breaking my glasses and giving me a black & blue eye. This time they didn't tell me to lie, and I didn't lie. But the first thing I heard when I got home after Child Protective Services contacted them was "why didn't you lie about how you got bruised? Tell them that you fell while you were cross country skiing or something!"

In a "Christian" home no less.

Jenn