Re: Do not assume damage.

Do not assume damage.

Well, given that the girl came forward to, in her words, stop the "bad stuff" from happening, I have a hard time believing there isn't some emotional damage there. And in my experience there is always emotional damage when a family is broken up, regardless of the circumstances.

This is one of the problems with how society treats sexual abuse victims.

What, erring on the side of caution? Well, actually I agree with you to a point, but given that the girl came forward and obviously wanted the situation to end, I think we have to assume harm here. Society may over-assess harm in children, but I think a lot of MAPs under-assess it. If we are to take youth rights seriously, that means we have to listen to and help kids who are really being hurt by or forced into sex. It works both ways, amigo.

They just assume irreparable damage.

Wait, where did I say her harm was irreparable? I made no such claim. My point was that this situation is going to be hard on her for awhile. The younger children will be more resilient; that's generally the case. The older daughter though made a very tough call and it put both her parents in prison. That alone is going to be traumatic for her for quite awhile, I think. She needs to see a counselor to make that assessment. In an ideal world she would see a counselor who wasn't biased against consensual CASC. We both know that isn't going to happen, but I think an assumption of harm must be made here, given the circumstances. The counselor should at least not influence her in that direction, but she should be sensitive to the girl's needs, whatever they are.

I am telling you, how the aunt and uncle handle this is so incredibly critical. They could be the difference between happy life and lifetime issues.

I would say that's true of all of the adults in her life now, but especially them, yes.