More wife-beatings are reported on Super Bowl Sunday than any other day in the year, a Twin Falls counseling agency says.
The holiday season, running from Thanksgiving to Super Bowl Sunday, can add pressures that strain most family relationships, some to violence, said Janis Quinn, director of Volunteers Against Violence. The organization offers shelter and counseling to abused women in the Magic Valley.The incidences of reported abuse increased this holiday season, Quinn said. The group received more than 400 calls in November. A year earlier, 130 women called for help in November.
"What we've seen is a marked increase in the middle class coming in for counseling," said Lauri Woolworth, Volunteers board chairwoman.
Quinn said the holiday season can add new pressures to already tense family settings. Children see toys advertised on television, for example, which their parents cannot afford.
Although it can be dangerous for women and children to stay at home, most do during Christmas. Post-holiday blues and financial problems caused by overspending continue to build up.
Then comes Super Bowl Sunday, which some men view as an obligation to drink, wager and leave their wives to tend children alone. It often becomes the last straw in a holiday celebration binge. More battered women seek counseling on this day than any other during the year, Woolworth said.
This year, the group received $33,000 from the state Council on Domestic Violence, which administers state and federal funds. That is $7,000 less than the group received last year and about half of what it needs to meet expenses.