Some years ago I owned a business which marketed a product direct to householders.

My personal TM would set an average of eight appointments a day, so I went into a lot of very varied households. I have to say some were shit-holes beyond human decency, but most were modestly to properly tidy.

One day I was invited to the home of Mr & Mrs X. They live(d) in a posh suburb of Howick.

Everything about the property, inside and out was beyond pristine.

Upon being invited in I noticed two young girls eating dinner. They were dressed in perfect garb, their hair was tied just so with just-so ribbons. They ate in absolute silence, and ate with enormous delicacy. Between fork-fulls, they dutifully placed knife and fork parallel on the right sides of their plates, used the ultra-white napkins to dab their young lips, then repeated the cut, fork, and feed with incredible delicacy.

I was fascinated enough to watch this from the corner of my eye as I spoke with Mr & Mrs X. Inevitably, the children finshed their meals, placed knives and forks just-so on their plates, dabbed lips, then using thier rumps, pushed their chairs back, picked up their plates and very queitly, took them to the kitchen sink.

With that both girls held their hands, palms outward, and dutifully marched to the bathroom.

I was astounded. I asked Mr X why the girls walked in such a fashion. He smiled and Mrs X asserted, ‘Well, we don’t want their filthy little hands to touch any surface, do we?’

Do you see the message these poor little children are growing with? It is that they inherently ‘dirty’ little girls.

Before I blew my stack at witnessing this vile passive-aggressive child abuse of such monumental proportion, I quipped. ‘Gee, toilet time must be a trial.’ Whereupon Mrs X said, ‘Oh no. We always check to ensure the girls wipe themselves thoroughly.’

Can you imagine that? A twelve year-old girl being required to bend over, expose her most private places, so mother can inspect for remaining shit marks.

And just before I blew my stack I asked the woman, ‘What do you do for a job?’

You guessed right? Yup. She was a coordinator for several Mens anger management groups; employed by CYFS.

I normally have amazing control on my anger, but in this case I quietly closed my brief-case; having stopped in mid-sentence. Mr X, looking somewhat perplexed said, ‘Um. Um. Is that it? You haven’t told us all about your product. What are you doing?’

Through gritted teeth I replied, ‘In fact I am probably saving your lives. If I don’t get out of this house straight away, I just know I am going to physically assault both of you…extremely. You are the single most vile creatures I have ever met. How you can treat two innocent children in such a vile fashion is beyond my comprehension.’

With that, leaving the pair doing blushing gold-fish impressions, I left before I really went off.

And that, folks, is the face of real passive-aggressive child abuse. But would these folk ever be hauled before Boshier et al to answer for their crimes against these children? Oh no. After all, all they were doing was keeping the children clean.

As the Jesuit Priest once asserted, ‘Give me a child till seven and I will make hima Catholic for life.’

Mr & Mrs X, having savaged these children through to their seventh year, will create adults who will never see themselves as other than inherently filthy…..and they will pass it on.

Lastly. Give the Court and/or the CYFSterhood the opportunity to up-end a child’s life, before age seven, and they will have created yet another victim who will never understand why adult life is so difficult to navigate, and why happiness can be found only in a bottle, or a drug, or it is always just over the horizon.

That’s what really bugs me about these vile bureaucratic clowns. They understand as much about the development of children as I do about nano technology……BTW: I know zero about nano technology.

David.