Using the Children

Threatening or hurting someone we love is a tactic to insure compliance. Batterers know that many victims are willing to suffer almost anything to protect their loved ones. Has or does your partner:

• threaten to kidnap or kill the children
• punish or deprive the children when mad at you
• call you a bad parent
• use visitation to harass you
• tell the children things to affect their opinion of you or demean you in front of them
• refuse to participate in the care of the children
• use the children to make you feel guilty
• threaten to sexually abuse the children if you won’t have sex