It is not uncommon for children to feel guilty for having fun. Many children do not want to leave their battered mother alone. If intervention does not occur, these children's feelings of anxiety, accountability, guilt, grief and embarrassment will begin to take command of their lives. Each year, an estimated 3.3 million children are exposed to violence by family members against their mothers or female caretakers. In homes where partner abuse occurs, children are 1,500 times more likely to be abused.
Many parents minimize or deny the presence of children while the mothers are being assaulted.
However, interviews with children of battered women reveal that they have seen, heard and can describe detailed accounts of violent behavior that their mothers or fathers never realized they had witnessed. In a national survey of more than 2,000 American families, approximately 50 percent of the men who frequently assaulted their wives also frequently abused their children. Children's lives are frequently disrupted by moves to escape domestic violence. NDVH is a project of Texas Council on Family Violence.