This is an Important Month!

April is Prevent Child Abuse Month.  What does that mean?  Who cares about that?  Many people think that it is important.

Abuse is hurting somebody.  It can be with mean words, or physical abuse.

When you say mean things, or make fun of someone that says a wrong word, or does not know what that word means.  That is abuse. Others may laugh, and that makes things worse.  This creates painful memories for that person.  Those memories are there much longer than you think.

Hitting someone is not poking or nudging them.  Sometimes bigger kids do not realize how they can hurt a smaller child.  It still hurts.

Parents, teachers, and coaches use discipline.  Discipline does not always involve punishment.  Discipline is teaching.  Parents teach their children proper behavior to get along in the world.

Teachers are teaching the students how to study, and learn.  Coaches are teaching their athletes how to prepare for their sport.

A good athlete, or student, or child wants to learn, and they welcome good discipline to become the best at what they are doing.

Coaches know that some great athletes without discipline will never go very far in their sport.  It is sad to see a great athlete waste their talent.  Teachers are saddened when they see a great mind wasted, and not used to learn and accomplish the things it could do.

Parents are disappointed when their child refuses to learn, and just does not try.

Some young people have parents or teachers that do not discipline or punish them.  The young person thinks that because they got their way, it is good. 

You can look around and see many young people that are paying the price for not having been disciplined.  It is easy to see the emptiness in their life.

The Prevent Child Abuse council is available to help, and make a difference in lives.  They offer parenting classes for the parent and child to learn better ways of handling each situation.

They have prenatal classes to encourage new mothers, and teach them better ways to help the new family.

Their office is called the Resource center, because they offer many resources to the family. It is there for you.

So you can say thank you to those that work for and support our community at the Resource center.