Dave Pelzer s A Child Called It - 2095 Words

Dave Pelzer was born in San Francisco, California in 1960. At 18 years old he enlisted in the Air Force, serving during Desert Storm. He is a successful motivational speaker, voted 1990s California Volunteer of the year, top ten young Americans in 1993 and 1994, recognized by three presidents and surprisingly an abuse survivor. Dave’s mother was a struggling alcoholic and forced Dave into eight years of physical, psychological, and emotional abuse. For years both his father and various adults in his life ignored his abuse. Eventually, after a nurse reported a series of odd marks Dave was placed in foster care. In 1995 Dave wrote A Child Called â€Å"It† to share his story of abuse, a story that many other children likely share. Dave says he did†¦show more content†¦Dave’s mother, Catherine, would decorate the family’s home for each holiday and enjoyed cooking different meals for the family. His dad was often away for days at a time due to work, y et loved his family. However, things started drastically changing with his mother. She begun to drink heavily, and became short tempered. Dave quotes himself as the most difficult of his siblings, and believed this to be the reason his mother singled him out to be abused whenever he was â€Å"bad.† At first Dave’s father protected him from the abuse, but eventually he begun to ignore the abuse. Dave’s punishments initially consisted of slaps, pushes, head slamming and making him repeat â€Å"I’m a bad boy!† The abuse only worsened, as Dave grew older Catherine begun withholding food from Dave, isolating him from his brothers, forcing him to eat feces and poisonous substances, and made him wear the same outfit for 3 years. She furthered his abuse by calling him â€Å"the boy† or â€Å"it,† instead of his given name and ordering the other boys to abuse Dave. Majority of the punishments Dave endured were so nauseating that no one should have to face them. At one point Catherine lit the stove’s burner and forced her naked son to lie across the scolding stovetop. Dave also describes an incident when he was 10 and was starved for three days, and then required by his intoxicated mother to clean the kitchen and do the dishes in less