Every year, thousands of families welcome a new baby into their home. The upcoming years are spent watching Disney movies, going to parks and petting zoos, buying ice cream from the truck, and finger painting with their family. Almost all those children brought into the world get to experience what it is to have a loving family, but for a small percentage, life is not so fun.They are forced to deal with things that most of us would never imagine in our worst nightmares.

. 227,080 children are sexually abused each year. 811,000 children are physically abused each year.. 97,320 children are emotionally abused each year. 2,011,280 children are neglected each year.. 60,500 children die of child abuse each and every year
Child abuse takes many different forms, as suggested by the statistics. This makes it difficult for people to recognize that abuse is taking place.. Mike is a six-year-old who is left to live with his father and stepmother when his biological mother leaves him. His parents repeatedly lock him in a hot, dark, airless closet for twenty-four or more hours at a time, chained so he can not sit down. He is forced to eat food coated with burning sauce and he is deprived of liquids. When he loses control of his bowels, his captors rub his feces in his face. The small boy's cries are either drowned out by a radio or muffled with dish soap. His crime? He was unable to sleep.

Everyone can tell that that was a clear example of child abuse, but what about this one? This is another true story of a young boy who we are going to call Timmy. Timmy's family seemed to be perfect. They spent all of their free time together, playing flag football, board games, or watching movies as a family, but Timmy was an introvert in this extroverted household. His parents would often pick him up and tickle him, a common gesture of affection, but Timmy would scream and cry for them to stop. Unfortunately they wouldn't, and encouraged his siblings to tickle him, also., the parents were convicted of child abuse.

There are four main types of abuse: sexual, physical, emotional, and neglect. The next form of abuse is physical abuse. This can be defined as the non-accidental physical injury of a child (including beatings, burns, biting, strangulation, scalding, bruises, welts, broken bones, scars, or serious internal injury) or simply if the caretaker creates or allows situations in which a child is in danger. If a child avoids physical contact with others, or wears clothing to conceal their bruises and cuts, there is a chance that he or she has been physically abused. Emotional abuse is a pattern of behavior that attacks a child's emotional development and sense of self-worth. Unfortunately, many children are subjected to name calling and harassment from people that are supposed to shield them from that type of behavior. The last form is neglect. Most people are under the false assumption that neglect isn't as serious as the other forms abuse, but in reality most victims of child abuse suffer from neglect, and it is the most cause of death. Neglect is when the child is not taken care of or deprived of basic needs by their parents or guardian. This includes, not feeding the child, not bathing him, or not giving him warmth in the cold. If a child is left outside, hungry in the cold with no warm clothes, his fate is anything but good.

As we found out.child abuse isn't always life threatening, but even small things, such as tickling, can have a very emotional impact on a child. With Timmy no drastic measures were needed to help the child. There are many hot lines and associations such as Child Help USA and Safe Child Association that can help. If the abuse continues, there is a good chance that the child will suffer long term emotional problems, or in the worst case, die How would you sleep at night knowing that an innocent child could be suffering at the hands of who are supposed to be their protectors. Take the obligation upon yourself and save a life.

There are so many ways to help children live happy, well adjusted lives. Adoption. Last year 127,000 children were adopted after they were taken out of abused homes. To help you see how many children that really is, if you line up 127,000 pennies end to end in a straight line, it would reach over 2,000 miles long. Foster Care. 542,000 children are in foster care right now, in happier homes where they are taken care of. People may believe that foster care is a horrible system where children are worse off than in their abusive homes, but in actuality every foster parent is carefully checked out, to make sure that the children are safe and being taken care of. Love. Four children, every day, are taken out of their abusive houses and put in homes where they are really, truly loved. This could not have been possible without the help of brave people that reported abuse in their community. Give those children a chance to live and have a childhood like other children do. They shouldn't be deprived of those Saturday morning cartoons and trips to the petting zoo. Personally, I'd rather see more of the good statistics than the bad, but that can only be made possible with the help of all of you "It shouldn't hurt to be a child."