Mud Babies (child abuse 1)

I will try to preface all of these with saying that as I write them I am 42 years old, I am mentally scarred so badly I do not work outside the home or leave it unless I am with my husband. 

How you are raised will mess you up. Abuse will leave scars on a child for life, and may stunt them as they grow older. Don't do this to your kids. Listen to your kids. If they say, "That hurts me, it's not helping", please take it into consideration. Don't simply say you know what's "best" for them, because my family told me all my life they did what was "best" for me.

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One day when I was young I went off to play with the neighbors. I can't recall how young I was, but you can take a guess if you know what our game was: making dirt pies.

Actually, it was more like sand pies. We lived close to the beach so dirt in most of the yards wasn't rich soil, it was sandy. 

Well, we went to their backyard and turned on the hose and played. Their mother could see out out their kitchen window, and she was keeping an eye on us and smiling. Their father walked around the side at one point to leave for something work related, and he also smiled and waved cheerfully at us four kids playing happily.

Then my mother saw me.

Screaming like a horror queen she ordered me to come home right now. I knew that tone - I was in trouble. I would be in far, far worse trouble if I didn't do what she said, so I immediately went to her side. She took hold of my ear in a firm grip and pulled me in, speaking loudly in a shaming voice. I don't remember what she said but I do remember she insisted on saying I was playing "mud babies", over and over again.

It hurt.

I was at the age where I didn't want to ne a "baby". She knew this, so grinding on and on about how childish I was being she yanked me inside. The neighbor kids just stared with wide eyes.

I do recall trying to reason with her. As young as I was I was far more mature in my mind than I should have been, and I reasoned that both the other adults had seen us playing and smiled. Why was I in trouble? I didn't know I had done anything wrong! 

Long story short, they were "wild Indians" and "filthy" and "I should have known better".

I heard "mud babies" the rest of the night as she humiliated me with it as my grandfather and stepfather came home, each time being subjected to the torture although I had already promised never to do "that" again. 

There's many a Rugrats episode where the babies make mud pies. It makes my stomach hurt when I see them.