The Voices Heard during Childhood Silences

I was at a networking even the other evening and someone was talking about how young children who live in dysfunctional families (which is 98% of the world) process silences from their parents.
And, it made me think about my life and how it was not until I was 57 did I learn that I could actually choose my thoughts. Pretty powerful stuff. Learned it from Chellie Campbell.

So, what has become so clear to me now is: when young children live in an unpredictable home, there is usually a lack of boundaries, various forms of abuse (even ignoring a child is form of abuse), and they are charged with the awesome responsibility to process what they cannot understand. So, their imagination starts to create explanations as to why their father won’t play with them, won’t allow them to even sit on his lap while watching TV. Why their mother is constantly on the telephone talking to her friends, why their parents are arguing, doors slamming, silence at the dinner table.

The child is thinking: “ Oh God, I am going to be alone, who will feed me, where will I sleep, who will play with me…?” Kids go to the dark side real fast…and it doesn’t go away as one gets older…it gets worse; the monsters in the closet invent what we think is reality, when in the real world, what we are worrying about is not the case at all. And, we have power and choice as we get older, but emotionally we are still four years old.