[RnMomof7]

There is a tendency to have a spilt personality on abuse in the family...there is usually 1 identified "client" one kid that acts out...but then you have the other children playing different roles..

In Alcoholism treatment we always looked at it as the elephant in the living room. It is HUGE put no one admits it is there. To believe that every child that is abused physically or sexually acts out is false. I have a good friend that was abused sexually as a kid ,she blocked it out of her consious memory ..but she was an overweight achiever..several graduate degrees..(she also went into the convent).....she was a dream child ...

[Jaded]

I lived next door to this couple growing up. Everybody thought that they were perfect with perfect kids. Did all the little league, dancing, nice clean home, mom was room mother and all that. They were happy well-adjusted kids. On the surface they looked great. Much later I found out that the husband/father cheated on his wife since weeks after they were married. His own mother abetted him in this. He also beat his wife, sometimes after drinking, sometimes not. He caused their first child to be miscarried. He always made a point not to hit her where it would be seen. Later on he would hit is daughter. As I said, outwardly they were what every family would like to have been.