ABSTRACT
At some stage in their young adulthood, most people form a committed relationship and have children. For some, this means the traditional marriage-for-life. At the other extreme, an adult relationship may endure only long enough for a pregnancy to result, so that the stable relationship is between the baby and one parent, usually its mother. Some babies may never know either of their biological parents. This chapter deals with the situation as the majority of people experience it: a long-term heterosexual relationship, often a formal marriage, with children. Men who, as children, were treated in an inappropriately sexualised way display adult behaviour just as predictable as that of female sexual abuse victims. When parents experience problems with one or more of their children, these problems are to a degree predictable. Custodial parents can accept responsibility for their own present behaviour, and begin to alter it.
