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I Love you Mom: Please Don't Break My Heart
I LOVE YOU, MOM-Please Don't Break My Heart is the true story of one boy's journey through a childhood of physical, mental, and emotional abuse. John endured neglect, isolation, physical beatings, mental degradation and malevolent admissions into numerous mental institutions, and eventual attempted murder within the custodial supervision of his unscrupulous mother. This literary work is indeed John's factual account of his small, bruised body clinging to life, his struggle as a teenager fighting and winning against insurmountable odds, and his entrance into young manhood as a warrior for the young and innocent, protecting them from experiencing a similar childhood of hell on earth.
108 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2009
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22 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
August 25, 2018
Look at the cover of the book. That is John Borgstedt, a precious child crying as he runs toward his retreating mother as she abandons him yet again. Who can see this child's face and not feel something - anger, sorrow, sympathy, or maybe even empathy?
John Borgstedt's story, though so very painful to read, is a chronicle of his spirit of triumph against all odds. His story documents such painful suffering that is nearly incomprehensible to many, yet so prevalent in our society.
John was a victim of his environment, and he looked to his guardians to keep him safe. Unfortunately, he found neither the love nor protection he needed, and thereby suffered repeated abuse and abandonment. It breaks my heart that he never knew the security a child can feel in his mother's arms. That was withheld from him with malicious intent.
I have heard John speak, and I cried as he bravely stood before us recalling his suffering at the hands of adults. Society let him fall through the cracks, but he survived by the grace of God. I have cried again reading his story and watching his movie/documentary.
John's story gives us an inside view into the cycle of child abuse, and he shows us what could have been done to save him and children like him, and what we can do now. As adults, it is our duty to be aware our society's children and step in to help when we see that they are in danger.
John Borgstedt is a conqueror. He is a big man with a big voice and big message, and serves a BIG GOD who has called him to a great mission. John has overcome the challenges in his life, and is on a full-forward mission to help others. Nothing will stand against him and the God's call on his life.
Contact John Borgstedt and join him making a difference for the sake of our children
John Borgstedt's story, though so very painful to read, is a chronicle of his spirit of triumph against all odds. His story documents such painful suffering that is nearly incomprehensible to many, yet so prevalent in our society.
John was a victim of his environment, and he looked to his guardians to keep him safe. Unfortunately, he found neither the love nor protection he needed, and thereby suffered repeated abuse and abandonment. It breaks my heart that he never knew the security a child can feel in his mother's arms. That was withheld from him with malicious intent.
I have heard John speak, and I cried as he bravely stood before us recalling his suffering at the hands of adults. Society let him fall through the cracks, but he survived by the grace of God. I have cried again reading his story and watching his movie/documentary.
John's story gives us an inside view into the cycle of child abuse, and he shows us what could have been done to save him and children like him, and what we can do now. As adults, it is our duty to be aware our society's children and step in to help when we see that they are in danger.
John Borgstedt is a conqueror. He is a big man with a big voice and big message, and serves a BIG GOD who has called him to a great mission. John has overcome the challenges in his life, and is on a full-forward mission to help others. Nothing will stand against him and the God's call on his life.
Contact John Borgstedt and join him making a difference for the sake of our children
February 10, 2011
::::spoiler alert:::: can't be helped book is true story
This book is very daunting. The writer is telling his life story of horrific and habitual physical, mental and emotional child abuse. Eventual drug and alcoholism, being in the prison system and other very heavy subjects. At the age of 22, he finds God and his life is changed forever!
This is his life story.
The book is a very quick read. I was able to get into the story and stay into. I cried for the child, I hurt for the man.
However, me being me, I am skeptical of the "story"
I have no reason what so ever to doubt this man or his story. The book is being made into a movie.
The man speaks at churches and is a very huge proponent for Child Abuse and and raises money for the Advocacy center in our County. He is a huge asset to the community as far as his philanthropic ways! I commend him for his help to this cause and his continued support of the child advocacy centers and for his speaking out everywhere against Child Abuse!
This book is very daunting. The writer is telling his life story of horrific and habitual physical, mental and emotional child abuse. Eventual drug and alcoholism, being in the prison system and other very heavy subjects. At the age of 22, he finds God and his life is changed forever!
This is his life story.
The book is a very quick read. I was able to get into the story and stay into. I cried for the child, I hurt for the man.
However, me being me, I am skeptical of the "story"
I have no reason what so ever to doubt this man or his story. The book is being made into a movie.
The man speaks at churches and is a very huge proponent for Child Abuse and and raises money for the Advocacy center in our County. He is a huge asset to the community as far as his philanthropic ways! I commend him for his help to this cause and his continued support of the child advocacy centers and for his speaking out everywhere against Child Abuse!
November 16, 2011
This book is a must read for the health of the children of this nation. John Borgstedt tells his life story of torture, persecution, mental and drug induced agony, and solitary confinement forced upon him by his own mother from the time of his birth through the age of 22.
He was one of the lost children of the United States, and I Love you Mom, Please Don't Break my Heart is the tragic tale of this reality. I invite readers to be alarmed, to be challenged, and to be convicted to take action and pray. Let us get angry, and let us stop this onslaught against our children.
His story should not happen in America. We have too many resources for it to be so. Let us wake up to the reality of the necessity for repentance among Christianity so we can see the lost child found and restored.
He was one of the lost children of the United States, and I Love you Mom, Please Don't Break my Heart is the tragic tale of this reality. I invite readers to be alarmed, to be challenged, and to be convicted to take action and pray. Let us get angry, and let us stop this onslaught against our children.
His story should not happen in America. We have too many resources for it to be so. Let us wake up to the reality of the necessity for repentance among Christianity so we can see the lost child found and restored.
February 14, 2010
Autobiography about his childhood, his survival and how he is dealing with his past by helping children in similar circumstances. Short book-read in one evening. Read like a magazine article, preamble to what could be a novel. But more like getting his thoughts down but not dwelling on the past but explaining how and why he is where he is today—which isn’t a bad thing.
November 9, 2012
Great awakening to a sad truth in the world. Holds your attention.
January 26, 2014
This is a chilling true story of a boy and the abuse he suffered from his parents. It is a must read. John is now trying to help other abused children. I'm one of his biggest fans! Good Luck John!
October 12, 2024
I had to read this book for a class. Very violent baboon, to think that a mom and a dad had a kid to repeatedly tell him the things they did and the to do the things they to him broke my heart. It was so hard to read this book and want to hug my own babies.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 29, 2024
what a gut wrenching story. The severity of the story is just shocking.
September 20, 2015
This well documented and repetitive memoir was difficult for me to read. An unvarnished horror show of unbridled brutality and senseless cruelty inflicted on a little kid as John struggled to grow-up.
This work made my own difficult early childhood seem like a walk in the park for me. I too had a mother that rejected me even before my birth, withholding her breast milk when I arrived into this world. I was nursed, thank God, by an unwed devote Irish wet nurse and nanny. Which raises a question in my mind about the beginning of John's book. Did his mother nurse him with her breast milk from birth or use a substitute? If she refused to feed him, he would have certainly have died. This is a worrying anomaly for me as I read of her attempts to do away with her defenseless little boy as he grew up.
I was born physically speechless, Yes, I underwent constant torment from my much older siblings, particularly my sadistic sister, six years my elder. She inflicted mental and physical abuse on me as I grew up. On the other hand for some reason, even though my family considered me a dummy with no intelligence, she taught me to read to at a grade 2 level before I even attended Kindergarten at a public school.
My speech impediment was surgically restored when I was 8 years old. In retrospect being a silent observer of human nature has stood me in good stead throughout my long life.
I'm happy for John, who has overcome unbelievable deprivation and torture to emerge as a free spirited giving and forgiving complete human being.
I vow that this is the last book on childhood cruelty I shall ever read, it's all too evocative and painful to live vicariously through these battered young innocent lives.
Thank you John Borgstedt for recounting the horrors of your life for us to learn how to treat young kids the way the deserve.
This work made my own difficult early childhood seem like a walk in the park for me. I too had a mother that rejected me even before my birth, withholding her breast milk when I arrived into this world. I was nursed, thank God, by an unwed devote Irish wet nurse and nanny. Which raises a question in my mind about the beginning of John's book. Did his mother nurse him with her breast milk from birth or use a substitute? If she refused to feed him, he would have certainly have died. This is a worrying anomaly for me as I read of her attempts to do away with her defenseless little boy as he grew up.
I was born physically speechless, Yes, I underwent constant torment from my much older siblings, particularly my sadistic sister, six years my elder. She inflicted mental and physical abuse on me as I grew up. On the other hand for some reason, even though my family considered me a dummy with no intelligence, she taught me to read to at a grade 2 level before I even attended Kindergarten at a public school.
My speech impediment was surgically restored when I was 8 years old. In retrospect being a silent observer of human nature has stood me in good stead throughout my long life.
I'm happy for John, who has overcome unbelievable deprivation and torture to emerge as a free spirited giving and forgiving complete human being.
I vow that this is the last book on childhood cruelty I shall ever read, it's all too evocative and painful to live vicariously through these battered young innocent lives.
Thank you John Borgstedt for recounting the horrors of your life for us to learn how to treat young kids the way the deserve.
March 31, 2014
I just finished reading “I love you mom, please don’t break my heart” by John Borgstedt. I loved the book while at the same time hated reading about the abuse he suffered at the hands of those who were supposed to care for him and love him. Hearing about what John went through as a child was so hard to read about, yet, at the same time, the book resonated with hope. He talked about how he could see God’s protection and provision many times throughout the pivotal moments in his life. That made me smile because the God I serve is like that - He doesn’t leave us when we’re hurting but He’s right there protecting and loving us through the hard times. Mr. Borgstedt showed through his words how he refused to be a victim but instead took the tragedies forced upon him by others’ actions and used them to bring God glory throughout the rest of his life. That itself was truly inspiring. I’m so glad he shared a little bit about his life today - that’s he’s happily married and traveling around speaking out for children who otherwise would have no voice.
I had the privilege of meeting John in person at a book signing and he’s humble, kind, and inspirational. I will definitely be recommending this book to many of my friends. I was in the social work field for five years and our family has experience adopting children so I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for victims of abuse, any type. Thank you, John, for not allowing yourself to be another victim but instead being part of the process of positive change.
I had the privilege of meeting John in person at a book signing and he’s humble, kind, and inspirational. I will definitely be recommending this book to many of my friends. I was in the social work field for five years and our family has experience adopting children so I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for victims of abuse, any type. Thank you, John, for not allowing yourself to be another victim but instead being part of the process of positive change.
December 5, 2014
Must Read Story of Abuse, Hope, and Redemption.
It took me some time to write a review of this book. I wanted to do it justice because, John's story is one that should be told so that we may better understand the atrocities that occur under our very noses. In this, we may be moved to do something to stop these terrible things from happening to innocent children. I Love you Mom: Please Don't Break My Heart, is a testament to the power of will and courage it takes to make your life better no matter what the circumstances. Bless John for the work that he is doing.
It took me some time to write a review of this book. I wanted to do it justice because, John's story is one that should be told so that we may better understand the atrocities that occur under our very noses. In this, we may be moved to do something to stop these terrible things from happening to innocent children. I Love you Mom: Please Don't Break My Heart, is a testament to the power of will and courage it takes to make your life better no matter what the circumstances. Bless John for the work that he is doing.
August 20, 2016
I read this book in a couple of hours. It definitely pulled at my heartstrings and there were times when my jaw would drop open. This author exposes the nightmare of a childhood he had and how his parents, especially his mother, abused him both physically and mentally. A good read overall.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews