Why do so many people turn a blind eye ?

[Opal93]

I like to think this doesn’t happen as much as it used to, but when I was growing up in an abusive home it would have been very difficult for teachers/other adults to have completely missed that something was seriously wrong. I’m talking bruises, extreme anxiety, weight loss and falling asleep a lot in school. I have spoken to many people who survived abuse in my healing journey and a lot of them have said they too feel there were people who could have stepped in but chose not to. Nowadays, I wouldn’t hesitate to report anything I felt necessary but maybe it’s only because of my own experience..because I know it’s something that actually happens and not just something you read about etc. What would it take for you to be concerned about a child’s welfare? And why do you think some people have dismissed it? Possibly not wanting to believe it or just not want involved? And do you think it has gotten better in recent years?

I'm so sorry to hear of your abusive past .

I do get the impression people are much more tuned into safeguarding now than they were, say, 20 years ago.

If I look at the era I grew up in (70s/80s) physical punishment was totally normalised, with the cane being a standard punishment in schools, and it was far more common for parents to beat/smack their children than it is nowadays, and so I think it would have been harder to draw the line between abuse and what would (by the standards of the time) have been regarded as reasonable chastisement.

Nowadays, we have come a long way from that and most people rightly view any physical punishment of children as abuse, so it would be much harder for an abusive parent to explain away bruises or other marks.

It's sadly human nature that some will turn a blind eye to wrongdoing - they don't want to get involved, they are in denial, or (more charitably) they have their own pressing problems which blind them to what's going on.

But I think on the whole we are far more switched on to signs of child abuse in all its forms in 2021 than we have ever been at any point in history.