"Parentage is a very important profession, but no test of fitness for it is ever imposed in the interest of the children." - George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
Recently in Bad Parents Category
Police: Children Lived in Filth
Why do we let things like this happen and THEN react to them instead of trying to prevent them in the first place?
Seriously...we need a license to drive a car, run a business, and own a dog, yet we don't need any certification whatsoever to raise children. Do we care more about the welfare and living conditions of dogs than we do our children?
These kids will grow up and join society one day...we owe it to them to ensure their parents, or whoever is going to care for them, are fit and willing to do the task. Certification that the parents are reasonably responsible doesn't seem like an undue burden to me...after all, these kids' very lives are on the line.
From CNN comes a video story about a California mom who used her three young daughters (ages 10, 9, and 5) to help her sneak stolen clothing out of a Sears.
From the story on the KXTV.com website, it sounds like this mother has been previously convicted of theft and been a prior subject of investigation by Child Protective Services.
You know, I like to see people enjoying quality mother-daughter time as much as anyone, but this makes you wonder what can be done to help prevent children from being raised by such unfit parents.
It seems that we're hearing more and more cases of parents, guardians, and especially "the mom's boyfriend" convicted of "child endangering."
Take this story of three moms charged with child endangering; one of them is only facing jail time after endangering her second child (her first child was killed in her home in 2005).
Let me get this straight: the courts said "you're a bad mom" and put her on parole for four years for endangering her child (letting it be killed), yet had no oversight over this new kid? That seems pretty short-sighted.
To relate it to drunk driving, which seems to carry similar penalties, imagine that I'm convicted of driving my Camry while intoxicated, so the court says I have to install a breathalyzer-style monitoring system in it. But, if I buy a new car, there's no such requirement. That seems to be the same sort of approach the courts take regarding child endangering.
So here's the question: How do we prevent people who put their children in harm from harming future children they may have? A related question is what do we do with all these kids who get taken away from their bad parents when there aren't enough foster homes and adoption parents to go around? Short of forced sterilization (which I think would be a hard sell for most people), I'm stumped.
Sound absurd? It apparently didn't to a Florida woman who pulled into a car wash to turn a sprayer on her 2-year-old daughter (CNN.com) to punish her. According to the car wash owner, the water pressure is sufficient to strip skin from bone. Thankfully, the little girl wasn't injured.
But get this: the mom is 5-months pregnant.
If she can't properly parent her current child, why should she be allowed to have another one without some form of training and/or certification that she's fit to do so?
Police: Couple Abandoned Baby So They Could Party
GLENDALE, Wis. -- A Glendale couple said they couldn't afford a baby sitter, so they strapped their 14-month-old son in his stroller at home while the couple went out, police alleged.
Rachel Anderson and her live-in boyfriend, Mitch Laputka, were ordered to stand trial Thursday on charges they neglected baby Gabriel so badly that his body was covered with diaper rash, his body temperature was 12 degrees below normal and he stopped breathing, requiring 21 minutes of CPR to revive him. Police said the couple admitted to leaving the boy home alone because they wanted to party.
The couple recently got jobs at Pizza Hut, police said Anderson told them, and the couple used the money for drinking parties. Police said Anderson told them that she often left Gabriel strapped in his stroller when the couple went out or to work, and that she changed Gabriel's diaper once per day. Police said Laputka told them that he didn't do diapers, that was Anderson's job.
Read the whole story (WISN.com)
We need a government permit to hunt, fish, drive a car, run a business, return to the country after traveling outside it, build a house, dig a well, camp, boat, and own certain types of animals, but not to create and raise a new human being, perhaps the biggest responsibility there is.
How in the world does that make sense?
There are many, many ways a parent can be supportive of his/her children's extracurricular activities and outside interests, but dropping off and picking up your kids so they can rob a house just isn't recommended.
Police: Mom Drove Kids To, From BurglaryATLANTA -- A young boy's mother drove a getaway car for her son and other local teens involved in a burglary spree, police said Friday.
Police continue to look for Lakechia Woodard, 36, for driving her 12-year-old son and three friends to a house off Flat Shoals Road where they stole 14 rifles. The rifles were collectibles worth thousands of dollars. Electronics and clothes were also stolen.
Woodard then picked the young boys up after the burglary and drove them to the west end to sell the items on the street, police said.
Read the whole story (WSBTV.com)
Soccer, band, and drama club are much better alternatives.
Apparently, at least one drug-influenced mother felt that her infant might make an effective missile weapon when she flung the child at a police officer.
Police: Irate Woman Throws Baby At TrooperNORTH EAST, Md. -- A Maryland mother was arraigned on drug and child abuse charges after police said she threw her 6-month-old child across a room at a police officer.
The child struck the trooper's chest and he caught the baby just before it hit the floor, according to court documents. Doninger then shoved the trooper, striking both him and the baby.
Read the entire story (WBALTV.com)
I'm glad the baby's fine, but when you risk doing more damage to your assault weapon than to the person you're assaulting, it's time to find a different weapon.
This post from The Last Psychiatrist blog -- "The Scariest Thing I Have Ever Seen" -- is both amusing and shocking and describes a situation in which I hope I never find myself, for I feel I'd do something I'd regret (like grabbing the kids and sprinting for the nearest police station).
On the screen is a murder so grisly I cannot actually describe it, but I don't even see it, it doesn't register at all-- I'm looking instead at this. What I see cannot be real.A second later I breathe, and it's an audible gasp. And what I see, what I see-- is this: [image deleted]
Maybe the picture is too dark. Or maybe it's your unconscious deliberately blocking it out. So I'll tell you: it's a double stroller.
Good grief.
Thanks to Mitch for the link.
Oh, good grief.
School Bans Tag After Parents ComplainCOLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- A Colorado Springs elementary school is banning the game of tag on its playground -- after some children complained that they'd been chased or harassed against their will.
Assistant Principal Cindy Fesgen of the Discovery Canyon Campus school said running games will be allowed, as long as students don't chase each other.
Read the whole story (TheDenverChannel.com)
I predict the next thing to go will be the formation of single-file lines, as that might make students near the back of the line feel demeaned by the students ahead of them. Or maybe we should get rid of the jungle gyms; after all, the fat/weak kids who can't pull themselves up might feel socially inadequate in front of their peers. And we can't have that, now, can we?
As a general rule, guns and children should never be within a mile of each other, for it's inevitable what will happen if they are.
3-Year-Old Shoots 6-Year-OldPolice: Man Stored Gun Behind Stove
MILWAUKEE -- A 6-year-old boy is recovering after being shot Tuesday night.
Milwaukee police said a 3-year-old girl found a gun inside a home near Teutonia Avenue and Chambers Street and pulled the trigger. Investigators said the bullet hit the 6-year-old in the stomach.
A 32-year-old man who lives in the house told police he stores a loaded gun behind the stove and that the girl got a hold of it somehow and walked into a room where two 6-year-old boys were playing.
Read the entire story (WISN.com)
The fact that our gun control laws are ineffective doesn't mean we shouldn't have gun control laws, it just means we need better (and more consistently enforced) gun control laws.
Parenting while drunk is bad.
Beating your kids is worse.
Being drunk and beating your children while on a commercial airplane, and then threatening the flight attendant who asks you to stop beating your children is just a terrible idea.
Mom charged with beating kids on planeA California mother was charged with beating her children, ages 2 and 4, on a commercial aircraft and interfering with the flight crew.
Tamera Freeman, 38, who appeared in court on Wednesday, was arrested on Monday at Denver International Airport upon her arrival on a Frontier Airlines flight from San Francisco, California.
An FBI affidavit quotes passengers as saying Freeman appeared intoxicated, was abusive with her children before she boarded the plane and repeatedly hit and yelled at them during the flight.
The affidavit also alleges Freeman threw a drink at the feet of a flight attendant and followed her into an aisle yelling and pointing her finger, causing the attendant, who had intervened on the children's behalf, to feel threatened.
Read the whole story (CNN)
From CNN Video comes a wonderful story of a family trying to work out its dispute over the family car...at 55 MPH:
KARE's Boyd Huppert reports on a mother who reportedly rode with her baby on the hood of a car her boyfriend was driving.
Watch the video...it's too ridiculous to try to explain.
Adults who routinely abuse children deserve nothing less...or more.
Man accused of biting off 3-year-old's lip, earNEW BEDFORD, Massachusetts (AP) -- A man accused of biting off the lip and ear of his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter pleaded not guilty Thursday and was ordered held without bail.
Bryan James, 34, was charged with assault and battery upon a child causing substantial bodily injuries. Police said the attack left the girl so mutilated doctors could not fully repair the damage.
The child's mother, Jessica Silveria, 26, pleaded not guilty to permitting substantial injuries to a child under 14 and intimidation of a witness. She was also ordered held without bail.
The girl lost the upper part of her lip and her ear was so mutilated that surgery could not return it to its natural state. The child also suffered other human bites on her body, New Bedford police Capt. Richard Spirlet said.
Read the whole story (CNN)
From Detroit comes a story about a 19-year-old man fathering a child by an 11-year-old girl (12 when she recently gave birth). What is perhaps even more disturbing is the fact that both his and the girl's mothers were fully aware of what was going on and allowed it to continue.
2 Moms Charged In Role In Impregnated Girl RelationshipECORSE, Mich. -- A 19-year-old has been charged with three counts of criminal sexual conduct after having a relationship with an 11-year-old girl, police said.
Blake Blythe of Ecorse is accused of having a relationship with the girl and getting her pregnant last summer.
Blythe's mother and the girl's mother are also charged because they knew about the relationship. Police said both mothers consented to the two having sex.
It's stories like this that make me think the conceptual basis for the movie Idiocracy is actually non-fiction.
From the Cincinnati Enquirer comes one of the most embarrassingly funny stories ever about bad parenting:
Deputies arrest 'Dr. McDreamy'In a two-minute video that aired on "Access Hollywood" for an "Are You the Real Dr. McDreamy?" contest last fall, Dr. Jeffrey Betts drove off in a yellow Porsche convertible.
Months later, his yellow Porsche reemerged in a less favorable spotlight. Betts was arrested Friday, accused of leaving his two young daughters in the car, unattended.
Betts, 41, of Indian Hill, was charged with two counts of child-endangering Monday after the incident in the parking lot of the Lowe's store on Mason-Montgomery Road in Deerfield Township. The misdemeanor charge carries a possible maximum sentence of six months in jail.
According to police reports, this is what happened on Friday:
Warren County Sheriff's Deputy Jim Doddy was on patrol around 2 p.m. in the parking lot when he was flagged down by a woman in a red van and told there were two small children unattended in the Porsche.
When Doddy approached the car with the vanity license plates "KEPT GUY," he found the girls, ages 2 and 4, were unresponsive inside. The car was turned off and windows were rolled up.
After knocking on the window, the 4-year-old woke up but couldn't open the door.
Doddy broke out the driver-side window after unsuccessful attempts to unlock the door.
When Betts ran out of the store, he told deputies he went into the store for only a few minutes, and that the car was cool.
"We determined Betts' decision to leave his children in the vehicle unattended created a substantial risk to the children's health and safety," Lt. Brian Tinch wrote in the report.
Betts was arrested and later released. The girls, who were uninjured, were turned over to their mother.
Betts could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
The former pediatric radiologist at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center is now a self-employed physician, according to police reports.
Betts left the hospital about a week after his video - which showed him stripping off his hospital scrubs into a Speedo - aired on Nov. 10 on "Access Hollywood."
Regardless of its justification, I'm sure the officer was almost giddy with the thought of bashing in a Porsche's side window.
From CNN:
Pittsburgh moms charged after 5 children die in firePITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (AP) -- The mothers of five children killed in a house fire surrendered to police Thursday to face involuntary manslaughter charges for allegedly leaving the youngsters alone while they went to a bar.
Wearing a T-shirt that read "Mommy Loves You" and "God Loves You More," Shakita Mangham, 25, arrived at municipal court early Thursday. Furaha Love, 25, turned herself in at police headquarters a short time later.
Mangham initially told police she left the children with a baby sitter, but later admitted she lied, according to a criminal complaint. Love also said later that she knew there was no baby sitter, and that the children had been left in the care of two 8-year-olds.
Authorities said the early morning fire June 12 was started by children playing with matches.
Love was taken from police headquarters in handcuffs to a patrol car and was arraigned. Her attorney, Ernest Sharif, said they were ready to fight the charges.
"We're in a very emotional climate right now," the attorney said Thursday. "Five children died. Automatically people want to make the connection it was her fault. But from a legal standpoint, it was not her fault."
I'm constantly stunned by the ridiculous stories of awful parenting that appear in the news (which also makes me wonder about what doesn't appear). Just to keep track of some of these terrific examples of terrible parenting, I've created a new content category: Bad Parents
So, if you're ever feeling a tad guilty for saying 'no' to your kid's request for ice cream or for just not having the time to take him to band practice and soccer practice and drama club and Scouts, etc., check back here for some positive reinforcement; at least you're not as bad as these miserable parents. Alternately, send your kid a link to this category to remind him how lucky he is.
To kick off the new category, here's a story from the AP as reported by CNN:
Couple finishes restaurant meal while child tied in hot carCHATTANOOGA, Tennessee (AP) -- Police in northwest Georgia have rescued a boy from a hot car where his mother's companion is accused of tying him up.
Ringgold, Georgia, police say a Cracker Barrel restaurant employee called police after seeing Raymond Minchew take the 6-year-old out of the restaurant and return without him -- then finished eating his meal. Ringgold is about 13 miles southeast of Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Police found the bound boy sitting in the car, crying.
Sergeant John Gass says the child was soaked with sweat and had a rope tied to one of his ankles. Gass says the temperature was in the 80s Saturday in Ringgold.
The 61-year-old Minchew and the boy's mother -- 35-year-old Rachel Gilchrist -- were arrested and charged with cruelty to children and concealing a weapon. There was a handgun in the car.
Investigators believe the boy was in the hot car for about a half hour.
Police Sergeant John Gass says the couple contended the boy had misbehaved, although witnesses at the restaurant disagreed.
The boy has been placed in protective custody.
Original story (CNN.com)
From the Associated Press:
Calif. Husband, Wife Leave Sons Home Aloneby JULIANA BARBASSA
Associated Press WriterMANTECA, Calif., Jan 5, 2006 - A husband and wife who found a dog sitter for their new puppies, but left their 9-year-old son home to care for his younger autistic brother while they celebrated the new year in Las Vegas, were arrested Wednesday, police said.
Jacob Calero, 39, and his wife, Michelle De La Vega, 32, left Calero's sons _ Joshua and Jason, 5 _ at their San Ramon home early Friday while the newlyweds headed out of town for a five-day trip, police said.
The children's mother, Cristina Calero, died of breast cancer in 2003 and Jacob Calero married De La Vega last year.
Joshua, interviewed Wednesday at his maternal grandmother's apartment in Manteca, said his dad and stepmother got each other puppies for Christmas, and went so far as to bring the pug and the poodle-Maltese mix to De La Vega's mother before leaving town.
"I thought they loved them more than us," the boy said.
Read the whole story (ABC News)
And more...
S.D. Woman Admits Putting Baby in LandfillBy CARSON WALKER
The Associated Press
Wednesday, January 4, 2006; 9:30 PMELK POINT, S.D. -- Saying she was afraid of how her boyfriend would react, a woman admitted Wednesday to throwing away her newborn, whose body was found in a garbage bag at a Nebraska landfill.
Lori Schultz, 21, pleaded guilty in Union County court to second-degree manslaughter, in an agreement with prosecutors. She could receive up to 10 years in prison at sentencing, set for Feb. 28.
Read the whole story (Washington Post)
I feel sorry for the kids, but the parents certainly don't deserve to be parents. It's amazing to think that we need a license to drive a car, own a gun, and even fish, yet there's no qualification for being a parent other than having a functional reproductive system.
Update: And one more, just because it's so apalling:
Mom Jailed After Deputy Finds Kids, 7-Day-Old Outside Without CoatsUPDATED: 9:08 pm EST January 7, 2006
NEW CARLISLE, Ohio -- A woman was jailed after a deputy said three of her young children and her newborn were outside alone Friday in freezing weather -- without coats -- as she slept soundly on a sofa.
Rosetta Welbaum, 25, faces four counts of endangering children, a misdemeanor that carries up to a $1,000 fine and six months in jail.
Three of the children, ages 2, 3 and 4, were still outside when Clark County Sheriff's Deputy Chad Eubanks arrived at the home, where the door stood open. The youngest was covered in urine and feces, and none had coats, hats or gloves, the sheriff's office said in a release.
Temperatures hovered around 30 degrees on Friday, and wind made it feel like 17 degrees.
Eubanks found Welbaum sleeping inside. As he tried several times to wake her, the 4-year-old girl alerted him to her 7-day-old brother, lying face down and covered on a chair. The baby had reddened, cold skin, and the children indicated they'd been playing outside with him.
The infant and 2-year-old boy were treated for hypothermia at Mercy Medical Center of Springfield. All four children were released to their father, who was not at home when they were outside.
Read the whole story (NewsNet5)
It just boggles my mind.
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