It all started when I was born. I was a sickly baby and had no idea how life would change. For me and my siblings, it was a very hard life because of parents who did not care for their children. I was born prematurely and my mother did not recognise her own baby.

“Where is my baby?! This thing here, it is not my baby. I do not conceive premature babies but healthy normal babies who are born full term!” she apparently shouted when I was born.

This is where all my pain and suffering started. My father was in the army at the time when I was born. So when it was time for me to go home, my mother did not want me. She said I was an ugly baby and she did not believe that I was her child. It was hard for her to accept the situation. Because it was difficult for her, my father made arrangements for me to stay with my grandparents until he figured out what to do with the situation.

As time went by my mother had another baby girl but she was the perfect baby and looked like her. It was hard for me to know that my mother did not come for me. I lived with my grandparents for a time while my father was trying to get my mother to come and take care of me. My younger sister and I grew up knowing that she was the baby our mother wanted and I was the baby she’d left at the hospital, not worrying what would happen to me.

But life goes on.

Life was hard for me. I felt like I was not my parents’ daughter because they treated me badly as if were not their child. Another baby boy came along but our lives didn’t change at all. We had ups and downs and our parents were always fighting about small things that didn’t matter.

We, three kids, were always together because we did not have friends. Our father was very strict and used to beat us for nothing but we got used to him. He was a good man but we don’t know what went wrong because he changed and every time he got home he was angry. We quickly learned that Wednesday was “fighting day” with him. We cried our hearts out because he beat us up like we were not his children.

As we grew up, we learned to clean and cooked for ourselves. Our parents were always busy and we did not get the affection and attention we wanted from them.

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Tell us: Do you think many South African children experience the same kind of treatment from their families? Why is this?