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NEARLY 800 CHILDREN contacted Childline on Christmas Day this year.
Volunteers with the charity answered 793 calls, online contacts and texts from children yesterday.
Childline runs a 24-hour listening service for children and young people, with 42 volunteers working yesterday to respond to contacts from children.
Last year, the charity received 1,267 contacts from children and young people on Christmas Day.
John Church, the CEO of the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, said that Christmas Day was an “upsetting time for many”.
“Many who expected to enjoy the day awoke to a very different scene from that which they had imagined. Tensions can be heightened at this time of year and often children are left feeling frightened, or alone,” he said.
“We are hugely grateful to each of those who give up their time with their own loved ones throughout the holiday season to be there for children who seek support,” he added.
Some of the children who contacted Childline yesterday told the charity that they were feeling distressed because of anxiety, grief, loneliness and substance abuse in their homes.
Volunteers also received messages from children who wanted to thank the charity for its support throughout the year.
Childline can be contacted by phone 24 hours a day at 1800 66 66 66, while online chat and text services can be contacted between 10am and 4am by visiting Childline.ie or texting to 50101.
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Fair play to those who gave up there time with their own family to support children.
You are all hero’s…..
I hope this Dublin kid called Childline to report his insane parents:
@Eddie Michael: Absolutely. Those poor kids, what a thing to have to do.
I wonder how many of the calls were from drink related behaviour from parents. It’s alarming how many parents see Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as a time for getting off their face drunk despite having young children relying on them to make the day something special.
@Rochelle: With the colossal amount of booze I saw being hoisted into supermarket trollies the last few days, it’s sadly no surprise. I was lucky enough to grow up in a household where the only drink at Christmas was a gifted bottle of Sherry and that would probably have remained on the sideboard until the following Christmas! Childhood is so fleeting and precious and Christmas is a milestone which should be treasured in the memory, not in snatched fragments of a hungover haze.
@Rochelle: Exactly..and they will blame alcohol, and they will blame christmas, and the pressure, they will blame anyone and anything but themselves. Selfish, not fit for purpose.
On Christmas Day, honestly curious if a number of them are related to gifts they don’t like or didn’t get…
@Beer Wolf: You mean like mammy didn’t get me that Ipad I wanted because she spent all her money getting sh*t faced everyday? Kids these days, it’s all about material goods with them! *Insert eye roll here*
@Beer Wolf: like seriously, if that’s all you care about from this story…
@Rachel O’ Meara: maybe the mammy was locked drunk. So called disadvantaged family maybe. Mommy don’t give a f about kids. Only has/had kids for the sake of having kids.
@Waj Kahn: Maybe it was a Dublin 4 Mummy, hitting the prosecco all day everyday. Addiction doesn’t really discriminate it’ll take anyone that comes along.
@Beer Wolf: pathetic comment
@Beer Wolf: Oh no,most of these are very serious calls from children living with druggies.
@Rachel O’ Meara: Unlikely tho Rachel
@Beer Wolf: Not one bit funny. No child would even know the number of childline unless they felt someday theyd need it. Can you imagine the sadness, fear and desperation a child would have to feel to dial that number. Grow up.
Yeah good luck to them. Good if childline works for you but they send you such generic paragraphs
@Lisa Rowe: oh would you ever give up. They do their best.
@Lisa Rowe: they are front line volunteers. They are there to do nothing other than be an ear to listen to and give generic responses
@LittleBee: Does that matter, as long as they make a child feel a little better?
@Lisa Rowe: they have to be careful what is said you can cause bigger issues If you say something and can’t follow through. Childline has no legal standing
@LittleBee: You putting down frontline people?? better than a vice president or a CEO wgo will be making money of charities and most certainly will NOT be working christmas day, generic answers or not. They would not be doing that anyway, they will be listening, empathising. More than what you would ever do,im betting.
@Liz O’Neill: totally missing my point yo Lisa Rowe there
@Pauline Gallagher: also missing my point
@LittleBee: sorry, i get you now, too reactionary!
Alcohol is abused at Christmas more than any other time and for many families it’s a horrendous. Well done to those volunteers .
That is appalling especially around Christmas. What’s going on like children should b happy but there not somethings not right !
Whatever happened to Tusla, I thought it was their function to look after children in need, or is that just a romantic notion.
@Liam Mernagh: a child can call Tusla and many other organisations but those phone calls mean their life can change dramatically such as their family being broken up immediately as a result of that childs disclosure. A child is not always in the right place or frame of mine to make that disclosure sometimes they need to make an anonymous phone call to just talk and be listened to. Often we have the answers within ourselves but talking about our problems our loud and unjudged is the first step. This is where the wonderful work of front life voluntary staff makes and incredible difference to children suffering trauma. The world they do complements Tusla because they direct them to Tusla or any other services qualified to deal with their issues.
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