Hi. Like Scott and Soberwolf said, abuse is abuse. Also, verbal abuse and "putting his hands on you" but not physically hurting you can and usually does escalate. I was in a similar situation and I never thought that it would become as scary as it did -- it's too bad that I waited until I was terrified before I left. So you have to think about your safety and the safety of your son. Abusive behavior is never just about "isolated incidents", specific "types of non-physical abuse", or just abuse towards "one person". That said, it's very hard to leave such situations because of feelings. Damn those feelings. Logic makes things easy. Feelings are not exactly logical.