Childhood is a part of ones life that should be enjoyed. I did not enjoy my childhood. One person ruined my childhood for me; my father. My dad could not hold a job for more than a year. This made it hard for the family. There were four kids in the family and with my dad hardly working it was a struggle to get by. I was on free lunches at school and did not understand why my mom made me eat school lunches when all my friend’s had packed lunches from home. My family was not well off and there was one thing I blamed; carcasses.
I hated trapping for what it did to my family, but also for what it was. My dad would usually quit his job in October and if we were lucky get a new one around May. I did not understand when I was young that his quitting the job hurt us. I just new I hated when he brought the carcasses home.
Every time he brought the carcasses home. He made a mess. His hands always had blood on them which meant everything he touched got blood on it. I rarely left my room because I did not want to have to touch things he might have touched.
I never had friends over to my house because my mom didn’t like the way our house looked. Which meant I hardly went to friends houses because if they can’t go to your house why should you be allowed to go to theirs.
There is one story I remember vividly in my mind. We were sitting in our eight passenger van, the four of us and my mom about to go to McDonald’s for dinner when my dad comes out of the garage and slams a muskrat carcass on the windshield without the skin on it. I was shocked. I do not understand to this day why he did it.
We were children, he should have thought better. Little did he know this would effect me for many of my childhood years; giving me bad dreams, wishing I never had a father, wishing I had some terrible disease and was forced to live in the hospital, and more. We should have been protected from things such as blood and dead bodies.
I believe adults should think before they do stupid things. These things often end up messing up their own children’s lives. My example of how trapping affected my life is just one example. Many things a parent does can effect a child’s life including; alcohol, drugs, verbal abuse, physical abuse, and more. I believe these things should be prevented to help children. Nobody can change the past, but we can change the future. We should do something so children do not have to live with parents they do not trust.