Link – The Conflicting Emotions of an Abused Child
This is something we have to understand if we are to ever grasp why it is so difficult for children to tell, and why it is so difficult when we react with verbal violence about people who abuse children. In order to get to a position to abuse a child, one has to convince them that you love them, and get them to love you. That is not something kids want to give up on so easily, even when they are being abused.
It must be understood that I, like almost all children, deeply loved my abusers. Such is the nature of children. To have someone you dearly love do horrible things to you causes a lot of emotions that a child simply cannot reconcile. Not only this but these conflicting emotions are made even more complex because a child can’t leave, can’t retaliate, and cannot admit to themselves that this person who hurts them doesn’t love them back. To do so is paramount to emotional suicide.
https://morgan6062.blog/2017/07/30/the-conflicting-emotions-of-an-abused-child/