Smashing Dishes

One of my memories was of a night where I was doing the dishes. This night in question she had been especially nasty with what she was saying. So at some point I had started to cry. This then enraged her even more and she began threatening me. One of the most seemingly ridiculous comments where if you don't shut up now I will smash this plate over your head. Now this comment did the complete opposite of shutting me up it then made the crying harder. That night was a night I went to my brownies club meeting. So after I had finished the dishes my friends mum picked me up. Then while everyone was laughing and having I fun I was deep in thought. I was thinking for the first time that perhaps the way I was growing up was not normal. I was about 11 years old at this point.

The introduction of the speed hump

When I was about 6 years old the arrangement of going to be with my dad on weekends was to be short lived. This was due to my new stepmom. My family did not much like this new introduction into my fathers life. So within two years of her being in our lives my nan stopped me from going there on the weekends. So this now meant that 7 days a week i was with my nan. For a few years this was the only life i knew. I slowly became more and more distant from my father. I would only see him on major holidays and birthdays. This left me with no escape from the following years of hell as i became more and more aware of my nan's drinking problem.

The start of my life

My name is Maria and i am a survivor of child abuse. The first three years of my life were what would have been seen as a normal childhood. But just after my third birthday my parents separated.  My dad was the one to take me with him. He tried to look after me but as a single father who was working he found it to hard to look after a little girl so he enlisted some help from his mother. So this was the start of an arrangement where during the weekdays i would be with my nan and on weekends I would be with my dad. This worked well for them both. I can remember going to my dad on weekends and being taken to parties where i would often fall asleep on the lounge with people partying around me. But slowly things were going to change with the convenience of this arrangement.