Realities of Dating Violence - The Yeardley Love Murder

I have been blessed to work with the amazing team at on the Minds of Moms Magazine on and off for the last year. They work hard to provide entertaining and relevant information on parenting. The approach parenthood as the hardest and most wonderful job we will ever have. As I blogged about in an earlier post I had the opportunity to write an article on Teen Dating Violence for their newest issue which they were kind enough to feature on their latest blog. I have been blessed over and over again to use my experiences to help others. The reality is I wish my words, my story, my example weren't needed. Dating should be one of the happiest and most exciting times in life. Instead it is a time of fear and secrets for many.


Dating Violence is a topic that parents like to think will never touch their children. The reality is that 1 in 5 teens reports having been involved in a abusive relationship and that makes them 73% more likely to be involved in a domestically violent relationship should they reach adulthood. The scary reality is more and more of our kids are being killed at the hands of their partners.



This reality was brought home to even more people when the news broke this pass weekend that 22 year old University of Virginia student, Yeardley Love had been murdered by her boyfriend George Huguely. Both attractive, smart, good looking kids with their whole lives in front of them. Now one family will have to face the rest of their lives without their daughter and another will have to deal with the fact that their son is a murderer. When does it end?


It ends when we stop making excuses for the abusers and stop keeping it secret. It ends when we make the penalties for abusing a person more severe then those for abusing an animal. It ends when we say no more. When we educate our children on what a healthy relationship actually is and when we open the lines of communication so they can come to us when they are in over their heads. It ends when we as parents stop putting our heads in the sand and start looking at reality. This problem is ours. It isn't going away and only when we teach respect and demand it for ourselves and our children will we see a decline in the issue of dating violence. When that days comes it will give us hope to put an end to domestic violence. The two are intertwined the solution to one will be effected by the ending of another but none of it will happen until we make sure everyone knows that any behavior that allows another control over someone or that allows disrespect and hurt to be the primary feelings in a relationship is not allowed. How many more Yeardley's will have to die before we make it our business and get involved??

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