Whether they’re physically abandoned by parents or emotionally left behind by their partners, children who have experienced neglect and abandonment have to work hard to regain their sense of worth. Abandoned kids may have trouble trusting others, find it difficult to form romantic relationships and struggle with feelings of shame and guilt. They may also suffer from a number of other emotional difficulties including depression and anxiety.
The most common type of abandonment occurs when a parent is either unable or unwilling to provide for a child’s basic needs such as shelter, food and medical care. This form of abandonment is often due to a variety of factors such as divorce, military service, financial limitations or illness. In other cases, a mother might decide that she is not ready to be a parent or is unable to provide her child with adequate physical and emotional attention.
Emotional abandonment can be defined as the failure to provide affection, nurturing and interaction with a child. This is more subjective than physical abandonment and can include a variety of actions such as failing to visit children or interact with them regularly, refusing to take care of a sick or injured child or simply not providing for their emotional and social needs. Emotional neglect can result in serious consequences for a child’s health and well being including emotional problems, mental health issues, drug abuse, eating disorders, self-destructive behaviour and even criminal activity.
When a parent is unable to provide for their children, they can either choose to surrender them to a Safe Haven agency or they can choose to hide them somewhere. If a parent is found hiding a child, they can be charged with child neglect and could face criminal charges. Most states have laws that prohibit parents from leaving their babies outside of a Safe Haven location. If a parent fails to uphold their legal parental rights, they can be terminated of their child custody.
Many children who are abandoned by their parents are mystified as to why they were left and believe that they must have done something wrong to cause their parents to leave them. This can lead to a cycle of guilt and shame where the child believes that they deserve to be abandoned because of their own poor choices. This can be a serious barrier to successful interpersonal relationships in adulthood.
It can be very difficult for parents to overcome their own feelings of guilt and shame when they are unable or unwilling to rekindle the relationship with their children. However, it is possible to help children who have been abandoned by their parents to build healthy relationships. This can be done through therapeutic interventions such as talking openly about their experiences, addressing their feelings of shame and promoting the development of positive self-esteem. It can also be done through a support system which may include family, friends or a support group. In addition, parents who are struggling with abandonment trauma should consider seeking treatment themselves in order to better understand their own experience and learn how to deal with it.