The woman’s being fatherless or having a father or parents who do not support the woman is a bonus for the abuser because he knows that eventually it will be very hard for her to get away.
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I think that’s what saved my mom from physical abuse. My grandfather (her father) would have killed him in a heartbeat.
Dad mellowed out when he got old and truly loved us and Mom, but he was a lot like his grandfather. My grandfather, his dad, was one of the gentlest men I knew but his dad was a tyrant. He was born in 1865 and the fists flew before his brain was engaged. I knew my GGfather and he was gentle with me but he knocked my grandmother out of her chair a few times. That caused a lot of problems between my grandparents. Dad must have spent too much time with him growing up. LOL The violence seems to skip a generation. I’m not a hitter but my daughter is.
I agree that your mom benefited greatly from having a strong, protective father.
It’s interesting to read your comments about abuse skipping a generation.
I wonder if that has happened in your family partly because children who love their mother and see her abused are determined not to put their own children through that trauma?