Financial difficulties within a family can cause a large amount of excess stress on the parents or parent, which often times is taken out on the children. In our society today, it seems that money is everything, and without it people cannot be happy. With this attitude, we have developed a need for material things, which cannot be provided without money. Parents who did not abuse their children before lash out at them when they are under this often intense economic stress (Hyde 45). Laura Meilner, a guidance counselor at Penn High School and former therapist, teaches a parenting class, and she says that often large “welfare” groups are sent

Teenage parenthood is a large cause of child abuse in our society. There is an alarming lack of knowledge among teens in our communities concerning how to raise a child, and because of this, these young parents turn to child abuse because they do not know how to raise and deal with their children. In addition to this lack of knowledge, most teenage parents are not emotionally ready for the responsibility of taking care of a baby and therefore would not understand how to properly discipline him or her. After all, as Laura Meilner said, ”Teenage parents are children themselves”. The situation can even be worsened when a child (obviously old enough to walk and talk) has an independent, strong-willed personality or maybe ADHD (Attention Deficit and Hyperactive Disorder). In these cases, the parents might not understand how to respond to the children’s behavior, and they think that they are just doing it to be rebellious and bad, when in fact, they cannot help it or that is just their personality (Meilner). While both the female and male parents of the child do not yet have a full understanding of how to raise a developing human, researchers have found that it is often the young men who are most in the dark. Schools and other educational centers have not fully embraced the opportunity to show young men how to deal with babies – everything ranging from how to care for infants to how to react when they will not stop crying (Hampel B1+). Another important thing that they should be aware of is the fact that they are just as responsible for the child as the mother is (Hampel B1+). Sometimes the teenage parents keep the babies instead of giving them up for adoption for the wrong reasons (Glore 53). Then they are stuck with a child that they do not want, and the child is not loved and cared for as it should be. Occasionally, the mother only keeps the child to please others, like her parents, who say they will help care for the child support it financially, or friends who think that it is not right to give up a child. The decision should be up to the mother because once the baby is born she is the one who cannot change her mind (Glore 53).

“Abuse begets abuse,” says Nelba Chavez, SAMHSA Administrator, when discussing the fact that most abusive parents experienced previous abuse as a child and now they abuse their children because they do not know a better or different way (qtd. in Hayes B1+). For those abused children who grow up and have their own children, they mostly go on what examples their parents set for them on how to discipline and care for a child. We have heard the line so many times, “You shoulda’ seen what it was like when I was growing up! We respected our parents! And a kick in the pants never did anyone any harm!” This thinking is what starts the vicious cycle. Parents who came from families where the kids were not treated with respect and the parents used discipline as a power trip are likely to do the same (Meilner). Most of the time, these parents think they are doing it the right way, when in fact they just do not have good parenting skills at all (Meilner). It i

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