My name is Deidre and I am seven. I like jumping on the trampoline (all the way up to the clouds), watching Saddle Club after school, and sneaking an extra Chocolate Crackle when Mummy and the dandy fairies are not looking.

Mum caught me yesterday arve and now I'm grounded! Them dumb fairies must have told on me. I"m not allowed to watch T.V or to go to Donna's house to play. It sux! At least Mum didn't smack my face like she used to. I hate that.

Mum's not always mean. Sometimes she's so good that she lets me sit in the front seat on the way home from school. I love that. Dad growls at Mum when she does that but, becos he reckons it's illegal and the Cops will take me away. Dumb Government. They hate kids so they make dumb rules to punish us all.

So what dumb thing will I do this afternoon? Mum's busy and she's cranky anyhow. Better to stay away from her. Ill just lie on the grass here and do cloud discovery. Dumb clouds. They all look like horses. I wonder what's on Saddle Club right now?

Hey! What's that tickling my underarm? A dandelion! Pretty. I like them. They make wishes come true becos when you blow them all the little furry bits turn into fairies and race each other to take your wish to the Fairy Queen. The more furry fairies that get there, the bigger the chance that Fairy Queen will make your wish come true.

Blooooooooooo.....look at them fly all over... I dandelion wish that my Mum and Dad didn't fight all the time .

Hey! I hear Daddy's car in the driveway. He's home early. Hooray. Uh oh. He's singing, "Isn't it a Dandy Day." That's bad. That means he got drunked at big lunch and didn't go back to his job. Now he's going to be all feral and there's going to be a big fight. Mum will act like a farocious lion too, and they'll get into it. Hey you dumb fairies! I didn't wish for a Dandy Lion, I just found a dandelion and wished for no fighting. Even the fairies are dumb and feral. That reminds me, I used to see a lady called Megan. She was a feral ferapist. I called her that becos she used to take her shoes off, real feral like, and she was a ferapist.

She told me that when Mum and Dad fight I had to carry out my safety plan. The plan we made up together was to go and sit in the front yard under the Frangipani tree where all them nosey neighbors could see me. It doesn't matter how much Mummy screams when Daddy hits her I am not allowed to go back inside the house. Megan also said that if a Cop car comes they ARE NOT coming to take me away becos I sat in the front seat. They are coming to help me not be scared. But I'm scared now becos Daddy is yelling that he has to tame the lion. This is not dandy so I'd better go out front and sit under the Frangipani tree. Dumb fairies! I hate them now. I wished that my Mum and Dad didn't be fighting all the time.

My name's Deidre and I don't like it when my Daddy hits my Mummy becos I get scared.

Saturday, November 25 is the International Day of the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Perpetrators of violence against women, give up. Today is the day of surrender.

White ribbons will today fly across the globe to symbolize that every day men, men like you or your husbands, have taken a pledge to no longer stay silent when they see violence occurring. The men who choose to don a white ribbon on their lapel do so as a personal pledge not to commit, condone or remain silent about violence against women and children.

Go you men. It is about time you found the testicles to stand up and say, “We cannot treat women and children like this.” Granted, some women perpetrate domestic violence against their spouses and many more women perpetrate violence against their children. However, the statistics overwhelmingly support that domestic violence is a gendered crime: a crime perpetrated by men against women and children.

To violence against women, Australia definitely says no. The power of White Ribbon Day has been harnessed by Australian men in an unprecedented act of responsibility, conciliation and empowerment for their own men’s movement. Whether it is our violent convict past, our violent atrocities against our Indigenous peoples or our brutal life of surviving the elements, violence against women and children in Australia has gone on for far too long and it has to stop.

Australia’s favorite daughter, actress Nicole Kidman, is UNIFEM’s Goodwill Ambassador. Her high profile and gentle nature has become the face of non-violent Australia. Her commitment to UNIFEM makes her my new heroine. Thanks Nic, you are a great Aussie woman.

Have a white day everyone: clothes, ribbons, white noise or white goods. May your thoughts today fly to ending violence against women and children. Surrender to your sense of right and wrong. It’s easy, always choose the white thing to do.