The first instance I remember seeing was around my sixth birthday, my step father was drunk, abusive and looking for something or someone to take his anger out on and thus, on that night my mother became a victim of domestic violence.

Over the many years, he would make passing comments about her ‘leaving the gravy train’; assuming she never would.... and she didn’t.

She was stuck, terrified and every night she would cop some sort of mental or physical abuse, until one day she decided enough was enough.

She secretly planned to move out and by the next week we were gone.

Over the years, along with my siblings, we found new hiding places to go as soon as the abuse started and we always stuck together.

We never stood up for my mother, and to this day I feel guilty. I am a child of domestic violence.

To this day, I feel the pain of seeing my mother go through this, affects me, my choices, my life decisions.

To any mother out there with children, and who may be going through the same sort of issue, I encourage them to get out, seek help, not just for yourself but for your children.