Molested by my dad

Question:

Thank you so much for writing the Alice books. About a year ago my dad molested me and I didn’t tell anyone for a few months, but then he wanted to start spending more time with my brother and I, (him and my mom got divorced a few years ago) and when he asked about spending more time with us my sister who was 18 then told our mom that our dad molested her when she was younger, so my mom asked If he did anything to me, and I don’t think I would have been able to tell her if I didn’t read about Elizabeth going through it with her parents friend, and how she felt better after she told her parents. So I just wanted to thank you for writing the books, they really helped me through all of this.

Phyllis replied:

Thank you for your email, but especially for the help you may have given to many readers of this blog.  Adults who take advantage of children and teens use many ways to keep them from telling:  some, of course, actually threaten harm if they tell, but more commonly they tell their victims this:  “You are so sexy I just can’t help myself;” “I get really tense and you’re the only one who helps;”  “You want it just as much as I do;” “I’m helping you learn about sex so you don’t learn about it from the wrong kind of guy;” “A father is entitled;”  “I’m not the first and you know it;” “Come on, be nice to me;” and the list goes on and on.   No matter how this began, no matter who started it, no matter if you did it before, no matter if you liked it, no matter if you only pretended to like it, no matter if you took gifts for doing it, remember that it is a crime for an adult to molest a child, including his own child or relative.  TELL SOMEONE WHO WILL BELIEVE YOU.