{"id":480,"date":"2008-11-23T22:02:01","date_gmt":"2008-11-23T22:02:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/switchingtime.wordpress.com\/?p=480"},"modified":"2008-11-23T22:02:01","modified_gmt":"2008-11-23T22:02:01","slug":"karen-answers-jasmine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/?p=480","title":{"rendered":"Karen answers Jasmine"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Comment by Jasmine on November 21, 2008 10:39 pm<\/span> <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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Hi Karen,<\/span><\/p>\n

I just finished reading your book. I can\u2019<\/span>t believe you survived all this stuff. Are you like the strongest woman on earth? I know my life was bad not compared to yours but bad in a different way. My boyfriend hits me all the time. Today I have displayed one black eye and a busted lip. He hit me because we live together and I have a cold and didn\u2019<\/span>t make him dinner last night. I guess I deserved it, huh? I read your book and my question is how long should I take being beaten by my boyfriend? I am not strong like you so how did you decide when it was the right time? <\/span><\/p>\n

Jasmine<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Dear Jasmine,<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

No, I am not the strongest woman on earth, just one of many. \u00a0<\/span>All women, each of us, has a unique personal strength and individual determination to survive if we want to. \u00a0<\/span>I admit, it’s easy to blame ourselves for the acts of others. \u00a0<\/span>I know how\u00a0being abused can wear one’s\u00a0spirit down. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I am so sorry to hear your boyfriend\u00a0abuses you. \u00a0<\/span>It’s never okay to suffer abuse at the hands of anyone, especially\u00a0a boyfriend.\u00a0I can’t speak for you and have made many mistakes myself, however, if I had known beforehand how being abused would’ve affected me all through my life, I would’ve reported my abuse to the police much earlier, like after the first time my husband hit me.\u00a0 Please don’t blame yourself that your boyfriend hurt you. Even if you do something to anger him, he has lots of choices on how to handle his response, and striking you is never an appropriate one.\u00a0 <\/span>Have faith,\u00a0believe in yourself, do the right thing, and leave him. You can be strong, too!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It was during therapy that I\u00a0first learned that being abused was not okay, for any reason. I had to come to accept that I was being mistreated. No woman deserves to be hurt, ever! \u00a0<\/span>You have asked me how long you should take the abuse. \u00a0<\/span>In my opinion, not more than one second. \u00a0<\/span>I would\u00a0end this abusive relationship immediately. I don’t believe your boyfriend respects you, for if he did, you two would’ve discussed the issues between you in an adult way without violence. \u00a0<\/span>There is never room for disrespect and abuse.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The right time to do something is now! \u00a0<\/span>Be safe, trust your instincts, and seek professional help. \u00a0<\/span>I wish you my best.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Karen<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Comment by Jasmine on November 21, 2008 10:39 pm Hi Karen, I just finished reading your book. I can\u2019t believe you survived all this stuff. Are you like the strongest woman on earth? I know my life was bad not compared to yours but bad in a different way. My boyfriend hits me all the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-karens-answers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}