October is Domestic Violence Month - Children often the overlooked victims

Children are often overlooked victims of domestic violence and with October being Domestic Violence Awareness Month, it is the perfect time to have these difficult but necessary conversations.

Some 10 million children in the United States are witnesses to domestic violence between their parents or guardians each year. There are immediate effects and long-term implications for children who survive domestic violence.

The immediate trauma includes behavioral changes, academic struggles, and emotional withdrawal. The long-term implications can include struggles with relationship dynamics, mental health, and repeating cycles of abuse.

There are ways society can help and step in when there is abuse going on that is impacting a child, and it is important to do so especially considering how often children are overlooked victims of domestic violence, and the impact it can have on them.

“In the shadows of domestic violence, children often bear silent wounds. While they may not always be the direct recipients of battery and sexual abuse, they are involuntary witnesses to the storm that rages around them. The shouts, the tension, the fear—it all seeps into their young minds and hearts, leaving deep scars from the echoes of conflict. often overlooked, the woulds  are more than just memories. They become emotional and psychological burdens. As these burdens fester, they influence relationships, self-worth, and a maturing child’s worldview. The result is violence to others, including the youngest and most vulnerable among us: children. Fortunately, healing is available–in no part provided by long-term and long-lasting work that happens to bring attention to child abuse during Domestic Violence Awareness and Prevention Month,” explains award-winning author Alle C. Hall.

For author Alle C. Hall, the topic of domestic violence is a personal one.

“When I think of domestic violence, I think of trying to shrink into my chair at the dining table as my mother screamed at my father about his extramarital affairs–just waiting, waiting, knowing it would come–and then it did: he snapped. Luckily, this time, he didn’t take it out on one of us kids. He grabbed the roasted chicken my mother had made for dinner and threw it out the window,” Hall explains.

As a child experiencing domestic violence, she never would have been able to fathom a month dedicated to domestic violence awareness.

“If you had asked that shrinking, silent pre-teen what she thought about “domestic violence month,” she would have laughed. When I was growing up, in the 70′s, there was no “month” about it. Domestic violence was as pervasive as it was unmentioned. Unnamed. It gives me such hope to have a month dedicated to naming the violence and to talking about it; to giving hope for everyone, from the society writ large down to the child whose trauma can be identified by a kindergarten teacher,” she states. 

Alle, much like the main character in her award-winning novel, “As Far As You Can Go Before You Have To Come Back,” moved halfway around the world to embark on a healing journey from her experiences growing up.

She goes on to say that, “When the first Domestic Violence Awareness Month took place, I was literally moving halfway around the world, to Japan, so that I could feel safe enough from the family I was born into and to begin to explore how the violence in that family damaged me. It is a life-long process, which I am thrilled and relieved to report can have a good outcome: I have a strong marriage of almost 20 years and have raised two young adults who have never been abused.”

Now available as an audiobook, Alle C. Hall’s award-winning novel, “As Far As You Can Go Before You Have To Come Back,” is a story about a survivor of abuse who discovers the path to healing after she escapes her abusive family.