The Lonely Child

Growing up, Susan always felt something was missing in her life. Then, at age sixteen, her parents finally told her their Big Secret. Susan was adopted. With no information regarding her birth family, but with hope and determination, Susan ventured into the unknown to put together the pieces of her own personal puzzle. The child of closed adoption, she would encounter many obstacles as well as many amazing discoveries in her quest to uncover the biological family she never knew. The Lonely Child is one woman's incredible thirty-year journey of search to find the answers to her unanswered questions: Who Am I? Where Did I Come From?

From texting and social networking sites to after-school activities, young people have many opportunities to interact with one another, and yet loneliness and isolation trouble today’s youth in increasing numbers. Many children and teens report feeling lonely even in the midst of family and friends, and childhood loneliness is a prime risk factor for adult alienation. Lonely Children and Adolescents: Self-Perceptions, Social Exclusion, and Hope illuminates seldom-explored experiences of social isolation among young people as well as the frustrations of the parents and teachers who wish to help. This groundbreaking book conceptualizes loneliness not simply as the absence of social connections, but as a continuum of developmental experience, often growing out of the conflict between opposite needs: to be like one’s peers yet be one’s unique self. The author draws clear distinctions between loneliness and solitude and identifies genetic and environmental characteristics (i.e., social, psychological, familial, and educational) that can be reinforced to help children become more resilient and less isolated. In addition, therapeutic approaches are described that challenge loneliness by encouraging empowerment, resilience, and hope, from proven strategies to promising tech-based interventions. Highlights include: • Developmental perspectives on loneliness. • Schools and the role of teachers, from preschool to high school. • Peer relations (e.g., cliques, bullies, exclusion, and popularity). • Lonely children, lonely parents: models of coping. • Loneliness in the virtual world. • Prevention and intervention strategies at home, at school, in therapy. Asking its readers to rethink many of their assumptions about social competence and isolation, this volume is essential reading for researchers and professionals in clinical child, school, developmental, and educational psychology; allied education disciplines; social work; and social and personality psychology.

In The lonely child, this resilient soul faced life's relentless blows with an unwavering spirit. Despite enduring unimaginable hardships, including the trauma of sexual abuse, incarceration, and the heart-wrenching act of self-defense that led to a tragic outcome, she never succumbed to despair. Through each dark chapter, she found strength within herself to rise again, refusing to be defined by her past. Her journey, though fraught with pain, was a testament to the indomitable human spirit, demonstrating that even in the face of harrowing circumstances, one can find the courage to persevere and rebuild their life with newfound determination and hope.

“At times I felt like I was going to my own execution.” This personal story entails my birth and my growing up with estranged, unknown parents who forced me to become an adult while still being a very young child. The disappointments and sufferings that I confronted as a child were horrible and overwhelming along with the agony and the intense physical anguish of the forced departure from my grandmother who, like a mother, raised me from birth As I was yanked from my grandmother’s arms, I was forced to leave my childhood and heaven behind to enter into a different world while enduring and tolerating the abuse of my unwanted parents. I was always treated like a maid or a stepchild. Finally, I was brave enough to escape from them to begin my life as an adult to face new challenges. I could see my memories, my past, and all the events being projected in front of my eyes as I escaped from the parents as well as the struggles I endured as I entered my adult world, encountering different abuses with toxic relationships that forced me to face situations of life and death. This is the chronicle of my journey to the horizon of my life.

Three barely felt like a family. It felt like it did not count. Like we were unfinished. Incomplete. There was always a gap at the table, room to set places for others. Visitors were few and far between. Mostly, there was only me. Only is a memoir of an unconventional childhood that explores what it means to be an Only Child -- as both child and adult. Also what it means to be the daughter of two people damaged by trauma and tragedy, particularly a domineering and explosive father. Secrets are revealed and differences settled. Caroline Baum's moving and gripping memoir is for everyone who has felt they are the fulcrum of a seesaw, the focus of all eyes and expectations, torn between love and fear, obedience and rebellion, duty and the longing to escape.It is also for anyone who has felt the burden of trying to be a Good Daughter -- what that means and why it is so hard. Revelatory, lyrical and unflinching. 'With a glamorous mother and a successful father, Caroline Baum's prosperous childhood seems like the epitome of privilege. Yet below the shimmering surface, rolling currents from scarred pasts buffet her girlhood, creating dislocations that resonate into adulthood. This beautifully rendered, searingly honest account becomes, in the end, a testimony to the enduring power of love, no matter how imperfectly enacted or expressed.' GERALDINE BROOKS, author of The Secret Chord 'A rich and rollicking tale that deepens into the tenderest of daughterly tributes.' HELEN GARNER, author of This House of Grief 'A conflicted love letter to her European origins and the uncrushable spirit of her glamorous, at times difficult parents, this lyrical page turner made me laugh and made me weep.' MAGDA SZUBANSKI, author of Reckoning 'An unflinchingly honest exploration of what it takes to be a good daughter, with a heart-melting scoop of ice cream.' ELIZABETH GILBERT, author of Eat, Pray, Love 'A vivid and moving account of life as an only child: there's glamour in this world but terrors aplenty.' RICHARD GLOVER, author of Flesh Wounds 'Only is a wild and deeply felt tale. With her unflinching gaze, Caroline Baum explores the inheritance of being an "only", contrasting an exotic cast of the glamorous and the famous with her unconventional, often solitary childhood.' AILSA PIPER, author of Sinning Across Spain

A glamorous, haunted life unfolds in the mesmerizing biography of the woman behind a classic children's book In 1957, a children's book called The Lonely Doll was published. With its pink-and-white-checked cover and photographs featuring a wide-eyed doll, it captured the imaginations of young girls and made the author, Dare Wright, a household name. Close to forty years after its publication, the book was out of print but not forgotten. When the cover image inexplicably came to journalist Jean Nathan one afternoon, she went in search of the book-and ultimately its author. Nathan found Dare Wright living out her last days in a decrepit public hospital in Queens, New York. Over the next five years, Nathan pieced together a glamorous life. Blond, beautiful Wright had begun her career as an actress and model and then turned to fashion photography before stumbling upon her role as bestselling author. But there was a dark side to the story: a brother lost in childhood, ill-fated marriage plans, a complicated, controlling mother. Edith Stevenson Wright, herself a successful portrait painter, played such a dominant role in her daughter's life that Dare was never able to find her way into the adult world. Only through her work could she speak for herself: in her books she created the happy family she'd always yearned for, while her self-portraits betrayed an unresolved tension between sexuality and innocence, a desire to belong and painful isolation. Illustrated with stunning photographs, The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll tells the unforgettable story of a woman who, imprisoned by her childhood, sought to set herself free through art.

This is a story about a man named King who transformed an abusive childhood into a criminal enterprise worth millions. He left home with his younger brother when they were teenagers to escape constant hunger and violent abuse of their mother. They used what they learned from their mother and their criminal step-father to build an income through armed robbery and murder. During one big robbery, they were caught and king’s brother and most of his gang members were killed. King went to jail and was sentenced to death for his crimes. Just as his execution was about to take place, he was rescued by the remaining member of his gang. King then went on to start a new criminal enterprise in a new location. He later discovers that he has family connections to both the police officer who killed his brother, and the judge who sentenced him to death. King’s school days is the most amazing part of the story.