Some of the people who responded were very helpful in suggesting ways that I could get her to take her Tylenol so the growing pains wouldn't hurt her anymore. I finally ended up putting her Tylenol in cupcakes and she went right to sleep. Poor thing was exhausted. 

What was concerning for me was the number of women who went straight to abuse, saying that I should interrogate the people in her life or that she must have been traumatized. Some said they knew FOR CERTAIN that she was being abused, based on my post, without ever having met her. 

While working in social justice, it became clear to me that we as a society jump to the abuse conclusion way too often. But I didn't believe these attitudes still existed. I honestly thought that with the huge amounts of information available about social workers planting false memories (based on their own belief something happened) and about people coming to false conclusions about parents, not to mention all the case law I've read about racial, gender, and age-based discrimination on the part of social workers, we'd be more savvy to the issues and understanding of the very real struggles faced by parents. 

The "blame the parents" mentality should really be a thing of the past, and I feel like it's an easy cop-out to distance ourselves from offering any real help. 

If you're not family, you can't know, and it might be best not to jump to conclusions. Regarding my neice, yes, she has "growing pains" which are a combination of a growing body and physical activity. She's a very active little person who never stops running around and moving. That's genetic. I suffer from migraines, leg pain, and yes, night terrors as well in the ABSENCE of childhood trauma. 

When I was diagnosed with a sleep disorder the psychiatrist seemed genuinely angry that I had not been a victim of childhood trauma. She kept attempting to suggest to me that I had. 

My brother, when he fell down our front stairs, had to yell at the doctor who kept refusing to understand that nobody had pushed him. 

People are way too paranoid these days, especially when crime is at an all time low and in a country where you can literally look up all sex offenders on the internet. 

If a child in the ER had signs of abuse they would know, since it's their go-to position. Child abuse has physical effects: unexplained bruises, broken bones, cigarette burns, black eyes, puncture wounds. I saw a LOT of abuse cases working with them.

I also saw those children NOT getting help, because of social workers who preferred to focus on children who "seem" normal but "must be hiding some deep dark secret because he cried once at school" and refusing to accept the children's reasons that make perfect sense to them.

Sometimes a kid cries because he's angry, frustrated, in a bad mood, has sore legs, doesn't want to do something, or because it's Tuesday. And there are abused kids out there NOT getting help because all of us have watched too many episodes of CSI and we think we're all master sleuths. 

My friend who is a police officer once told me that detective work is no where near as interesting in reality as it is on TV. He said "99% of the time theres a dead body, and a guy with a knife, and the guy with the knife is responsible for the dead body."

I think that might be a good lesson for all of us. Not everyone has some saw-level memories buried deep down that will come out of only you plant them enough.