Any mother’s worst nightmare is founding out that your child is cutting themselves. I say child and not teenager. Cutting is not just a teenage problem, but younger and younger children are starting the craze. How young? I know ten-year old girls that have been cutting themselves.

Parents….we must be aware that this may be happening in your home and with your own children. No child is protected from this horrible situation. It happens to children from poor family environments to affluent families with the mother and father still in the home. The epidemic does not discriminate. It has no prejudice. It is happening more and more each day.

Ten years old is about 5th grade – 6th grade aged peers. Seriously? What does a 10-year-old have to stress about? But they do. It is sad, but real. Peer pressure plays a heavy part in it. Other factors may apply; such as a sense of isolation, pressures to be perfect, and depression.

Parents….read and look at your children’s text messages, e-mails, SnapChats, InstaGram, Kik, ect. Don’t think that your child does not fall into this category of “cutting”. It is happening and in our media. Children have too many resources to connect with people who they think “care” and are there to listen to their insecurities and fears. When you are 10 years old or 11 years old, you trust people who seem to care. But in reality , who are these people that our children our connecting with and talking to about their utmost secrets and insecurities? They pretend to be their friends, their peers, their same age groups, but really? Who really knows who is sitting behind that text message or computer typing words of endearments and concern….it may be the pedophile on the Amber Alert.

It is wrong to say the least, but we as parents, can not pretend it doesn’t exist…it does exist and we must put a stop to it. Parents…if you find that your child is using their phones, computers, and iPods inappropriately…take them away. We lived without this technology and they can live without it too. It isn’t worth the price of losing our children to this epidemic of cutting to “technology”.

Here is a great website that I found. It is simple and to the point on this horrific subject matter, called cutting.
http://kidshealth.org/teen/your_mind/mental_health/cutting.html#
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Written By: Ask Ms Mandi