Child Abuse: the People Next Door

Duration: 700 ft.

Year Published: 1970

Creator: Shire Prod./Barr Films

Complete Record: Husband/wife at home; feeding child; watching TV; grocery store; mother verbally/physically abusing kid; laundromat shots; 70’s appliances; trip to the “parent center; talk with counselor; old ice cream stand; mothers & children walk through park. from box: Abandoned by her husband and alone with her two small children, Mary is isolated and without emotional support. Her mounting frustration has led her to physically and emotionally abuse her children. Fortunately, Mary’s neighbor, Angie, is sensitive to Mary’s problems and helps her confront them honestly. Together, Mary and Angie visit a parents’ counselling (sic) center where they both learn about the individual and group counselling, crisis hotline, parenting classes and other support available to parents. Mary learns that she is not a monster, but a person in need of support and more effective methods of parenting; and Angie discovers that unless she and her husband, Bill, learn to cope better with the pressures they are experiencing, she could become a child abuser herself.