Get Tough Or Die

Book excerpt: By the time Barbara was four years old, she already knew what she would have to do: Get tough or die. Before DVDs existed, Barbara's childhood trauma was permanently recorded and embedded in her head. Long before surround sound technologies were available, she captured all of the sights and sounds of her childhood in vivid detail. To write this book all she had to do is press "play," and that scared her because many of those details were not a pretty picture. Some looked more like an old Alfred Hitchcock horror movie. During her childhood, Barbara often wished she was simply playing a part in a movie where a director would yell "cut," and everything would be okay. Unfortunately, her childhood was no Hollywood movie. It was real life - a situation she was born into and had to endure-severe child abuse at the hand of her father, while her mother was too afraid to protect Barbara and her siblings. Now, as an adult, Barbara looks back and knows it was only by the hand of God and many miracles that she and any of her siblings survived at all. Two of their sisters were not so lucky. Some parents used to say, "I brought you into this world, and I can take you out." Some of them meant it. We had laws to protect animals before we had laws to protect children. We now have the Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act of 1974, and yet, statistics show more than four children are dying every day in the United States from child abuse and neglect. That is more than any other industrialized country. By telling her story, Barbara hopes readers will be inspired to do whatever they can to help prevent spouse and child abuse.