What the Heck -- I'll respond...

I concur with my sister. Emotional abuse is the worst.

This is short and sweet because I'm busy and have better things to do today.

• G - has a 100 day project to work on.
• I have to work.
• F - has homework.
• They got their progress reports today.

This article defines four types of abuse in question - click here. If I'm reading it correctly - my children don't fall into any of these areas.

• "Physical neglect occurs when a child's needs for food, clothing, shelter, cleanliness, medical care and protection from harm are not adequately met. "
• "Emotional neglect occurs when a child's need to feel loved, wanted, safe and worthy is not met." - Not us.
• "Child sexual abuse occurs when a child is used for sexual purposes by an adult or adolescent." - Not us
• "Physical abuse is the deliberate application of force to any part of a child's body, which results or may result in a non-accidental injury." - Not us.
• "Emotional abuse involves an attack on a child's sense of self."

I don't think I like the term abuse and I honestly thing it has been misused in both the comments and in my blog posts in the past.

My children, when J**** is an active alcoholic, live a life similar, yet honestly not as extreme as the one that I lived growing up, and I really am not that bad, in fact I'm one hell of a woman. My dad was actually worst than J****.

I as an adult and in retrospect would spit in the face of anyone that even insinuated that my father ever in any way abused me.

So why am I so f'd up? Name me one person who isn't?

If I had married a sober man with a job and he turned out to be a workaholic - do I divorce him because he neglects our children and doesn't spend time with them or me. How many people have you heard complain that Daddy or Mommy messed me up because they didn't pay any attention to me? Mine get plenty of attention.

If I had married a preacher man and he turned out to be conservative and unswaying and very strict. Do I divorce him for his emotional neglect? Mine live in a home where we discuss issues and their insight and ideas are taken into consideration.

My mother says my PopawJ rarely told his children that he loved them or showed them any affection, but he is the greatest man that we all knew. Should Granny have divorced him for this neglect of his children? Hmmmmm.

Where do we draw the line between abuse and chalking it up to LIFE? No child will have a perfect childhood. Please don't take the stance of the liberal types that allow our adults to blame their childhoods and say that Mommy/Daddy didn't let me play football so I was abused. Daddy drank, so I'm a mass murderer. Pshaw! No excuse.

J**** is a much better daddy than a husband, employee, or friend. He has an alcohol addiction - that I can't live with when he is active. He is a much better daddy than a whole lot of so-called men that I know who are not alcoholics, as I say about my ex-husband, "It is a shame, but he was an ass-hole without alcohol or drugs. At least with J**** he needs the alcohol to give him the courage to pretend to be an ass-hole."

Hope I haven't made anyone mad - we may be estranged, but he is still the father of my children and they are half-him.