I was smacked around as kid. The neglect was probably worse. And the drinking (my mom, not me lol). When we had family over for dinner, my mom used to grab me if I looked sad or something and twist/squeeze my little arm and subtly remind me that I wasn't to "ruin anyone's dinner" by blabbing about her "private" behavior.
So I always had a strong sympathy for fellow children who were abused or neglected. Most of my friends in school had some backstory of mental or physical abuse/neglect. I did not seek them out. It just happened to be this way.
Now I interact with children as my profession and many confide their entire lives with me.
It is as if the majority of children in my area are being abused. Often in conjunction with divorce but, ironically, this kind of situation tends to manifest in neglect rather than physical abuse due to the childish "parents" being afraid of stories of abuse being used against them in the custody battle.
And no, I'm not a councilor, so I am dealing with a relatively representative sample of the population.
The abuse being articulated to me isn't benign either. It ranges from pretty serious neglect, moms who did drugs and invited strings of boyfriends to the house to also shoot up, straight up abandonment (and the mother no less), some really psychotic disciplinarianism that involves making the kid eat on a dog bed for (imo) extremely minor infractions, and lots of hitting, kicking, smacking, drinking, and mild malnutrition. No, they're