Hi there
Thanks for your letter. I’m really glad you wrote in to share what’s happening for you at the moment. Firstly, I just want to say you have taken a huge step by sending this letter in and it’s incredibly brave of you.
You’ve told me you’ve been suffering abuse from your dad and he’s been hitting you and treating you badly. I’m really concerned to hear your dad has been grabbing you by the neck and chucking you on the stairs, kicking your legs, and smacking you. It’s really wrong for anyone to hit you and really wrong for your dad to be treating you this way. You have every reason to be fed up by it. From what you’ve told me, it really doesn’t sound like home is a safe place for you at the moment. It’s important for you to know that you have the right for to feel safe and be free from harm.
You have talked about not wanting to tell anyone else about this, as you are worried that doing so could mean losing the house, or you and your brother being taken away. It’s natural to be worried about what might happen in the future or how things could change. However, your safety is most important and I’m really worried about the impact this abuse is having on you. If you are ever feeling immediately in danger, you have the right to call 999 and ask for the police for help.
If you did feel like you wanted to get support, an organisation called Social Services might be able to help. Not everyone knows about Social Services and what they’re for. Social Services are there to try to help families stay together safely and would only consider taking you away if there was an immediate risk and they felt you were not going to be safe at home. I can imagine it might be quite scary to hear this, and it’s not something you would have to do on your own - ChildLine can support you through any decision you choose to make.
I hear that you feel this might be something you can get through, however this is definitely not something you should have to put up with, especially on your own.
There are a number of other ways you can get in contact with ChildLine and speak to one of the counsellors – by email, 1-2-1 online chat (similar to MSN), or phone (0800 1111). ChildLine operates a 24 hour service and could be a place you could talk some more and receive ongoing support for what’s happening and how you are feeling.
Take care
Sam