Children's Needs - Parenting Capacity: Child Abuse, Parental Mental Illness, Learning Disability, Substance Misuse, and Domestic Violence

Abstract

It is probably true to say that, for most people, childhood is a mixed experience where periods of sadness and loss are balanced with moments of happiness and achievement.Such complexity, however, is rarely represented in the literature of childhood.Indeed, much of the written word in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries depicts childhood in one of two contrasting ways.For example, A.A. Milne's poem 'In the Dark', first published in 1927, (Milne 1971) shows childhood as a golden era where children are loved and nurtured by caring parents.It is a time characterised by innocence, unqualified parental love, irresponsibility, peer friendships and a thirst for adventure and knowledge.I've had my supper, And had my supper, And HAD my supper and all; I've heard the story Of Cinderella, And how she went to the ball; I've cleaned my teeth, And I've said my prayers, And I've cleaned and said them right; And they've all of them been And kissed me lots, They've all of them said 'Good-night.'But never far away is the alternative experience, typified by parental desertion, illness, isolation and poverty.James Whitcomb Riley (1920), who penned uplifting poems of perhaps questionable quality for children during the 1890s, paints a much bleaker picture in his poem 'The Happy Little Cripple'.I'm thist a little cripple boy, an' never goin' to grow An' get a great big man at all! -'cause Aunty told me so.When I was thist a baby onc't, I falled out of the bed An' got "The Curv'ture of the Spine" -'at's what the Doctor said.I never had no Mother nen -fer my Pa runned away An' dassn't come back here no more -'cause he was drunk one day An' stobbed a man in thish-ere town, an' couldn't pay his fine!An' nen my Ma she died -an' I got "Curv'ture of the Spine!"We acknowledge with sincere thanks the many people who gave generously of their time to help us with this work.We particularly appreciate the expertise and advice offered by Arnon Bentovim,

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