Concern over children’s abuse of parents

THE angry, aggressive and antisocial behaviour of children causes the most heartache for parents today.

Annual Parentline statistics — obtained from more than 6,000 calls received by its anonymous helpline in 2006 — reveal children abusing parents is among the principal areas of concern.

Manager of the service, Rita O’Reilly, revealed that in the region of 700 calls received were actually from parents who had been abused.

“Of all calls, abusive children would now be the second highest category behind antisocial behaviour.

“There is a lot of different types of abuse ranging from physical abuse to what children say and do about the house,” she said.

The figures also reveal that just under half of the calls from abused parents were caused by the behaviour of daughters.

Ms O’Reilly went on to say that the majority of parental calls were from parents of teenagers.

She suggested the peak time for issues of anger and aggression came in boys between 15 and 17-years of age and in girls between the ages of 15 — 16.

The Parentline helpdesk can be contacted on 1890 927 277.