Neglect

Neglect

Neglect is another form of child maltreatment, and the harm it causes to the child is disastrous. In child neglect, the child suffers a lot because they are at the mercy of people who do not satisfy their minimum physical or emotional needs. Neglect is the most common type of all child maltreatments, and they are all very harmful, ending up destroying the child’s present and future life.

Emotional neglect

In emotional neglect, your child needs you, and you are not there for them. Here, the parents show indifference, carelessness, and are not interested in knowing the child’s feelings. The parents don’t take the time to talk, to ask them:

• “Hey my child, how are you feeling?”
• “Do you have any problem or concern?”

Parents also fail to notice what overwhelms their child, if they are sad, feel insecure about something, or are afraid. Parents fail to give advice or guidance on how to behave in life or in life’s challenges, not teaching them a direction, not educating them about what is right or wrong, or about the consequences of their actions.

In emotional neglect, the developing brain of a child can be affected due to toxic stress in neglected children or youths. Sadly, as the brain is not optimally developed, children are placed at high risk for the following disadvantages: 

• Learning disabilities 
• Low academic performance 
• Poor reading ability 
• Low mental ability 
• Problems relating to others 
• Frequent negative thinking 
• High level of apathy 
• Distrust of others 
• Poor control of emotion 
• Deficit in executive functions:
  • concentration, memory retention, emotional control, planning, initiation and prioritization tasks, unexpected situation adjustment, self-monitoring behavior 
• Personality disorders: 
  
  • borderline, paranoid, antisocial, obsessive-compulsive, narcissistic, schizotypal, schizoid, avoidant, histrionic, dependent 

Physical Neglect

In physical neglect, there is a failure in providing basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter, hygiene, medical care, and education. As this is another type of child maltreatment, it will also cause a lot of damage to the physical, emotional, and mental health of the child and future adult. These are some of the consequences:

• Malnourishment
• Failure to thrive
• Injuries due to non-supervision
• Developmental delay
• Frequent sickness and infections

It is very heartbreaking to see the horrible face of this cruelty inflicted on children. Why do parents or caregivers feel they have the right to destroy the life of an innocent child? Why does this innocent child have to suffer at the hands of their own parents or caregivers who are supposed to protect them? Why do innocent children always have to remember with pain:

• My parents never cared about me
• How little I am worth to my parents
• My parents never loved me
• My parents didn’t care if I went to bed without eating or not
• My parents didn’t cook for me, and they didn’t care if I ate well or not
• My parents didn’t take care of me when I was sick
• My parents didn’t take me to the doctor when I was sick
• My parents didn’t take me to checkups
• My parents were not aware of my health, nor the medicines I had to take
• My parents did not provide me with clean clothes
• My parents sent me to school with dirty clothes
• My parents didn’t take me to school
• My parents did not supervise me or help me with school assignments.