Stories from Victims

Victim #3 - A Scared and Crying Mother

My boys were 14 and 19 when I finally made the move. The oldest one had been interjecting himself into our arguments for the last year or so; he had finally started standing up to his dad on my behalf. It was heart-wrenching because he was small and so unsure of himself, not knowing if he was going to get knocked down or hurt or even if he had the power to stop the screaming and fighting. His method of intervening and turning my husband's rage toward him was by stepping in between us. It worked, but too well. My husband would instantly turn on him with a renewed rage in a flash. It worked to divert the anger and danger from me, but it turned it onto my son. My son exhibited a lot of courage, and that scared me too.
Eventually, my son not only stepped in between us, but he began calling him ugly names and saying very ugly things. All of his repressed anger from seeing the abuse over the years came out. My husband hit my son in the face more than once during these arguments, which only further served to upset the whole family. My boys and I would all be crying and yelling at him to stop and get out of the house. The police were called many times in the last year of our marriage. My younger son also threatened to get involved. He supported his brother and me and did what he could to prevent violence and calm everyone down. The day my youngest son told me that he'd put a baseball bat in his room and that if his dad ever came after me again he was going to bash his brains out, I knew I had to do something soon or there might be some disastrous consequences. Not only for my husband, but more importantly, for one or both of my boys.

Excerpt taken from Had Enough? by Debra A. Smith