It Can't Be All That Bad

I have a friend who tells the story about shopping with her mother when she was a young girl.

Her mother was walking a few yards ahead of her and as Jenny entered Dayton’s Department Store a woman was walking out. She looked down at Jenny and said, “Honey, don’t look so sad, it can’t be all that bad.”

Jenny wanted to scream “IT IS ALL THAT BAD!”

Her mother was sexually abusing her and Jenny didn’t know how to make it stop.

When ever an adult gave me a big smile when I was little, I said to myself, when I get big, I’m going to smile just like that. It gave me a little hope that my life would get better when I got big.

A smile will do a lot more for a child that is being abused than to tell her, “It can’t be all that bad.”