feral child

[Cumberland]

Not sure where to put this, maybe debates?, but it was a powerfully sad article.

http://www.tampabay.com/features/humani ... 750838.ece

[SuzySunshine]

Re: feral child

Wow, I will never understand how someone could let things get that bad. I'm glad she's found a family who loves her and will take care of her.

[Deebs]

Re: feral child

I read this somewhere else (maybe Reader's Digest?)... and cried. I literally just can't imagine how a human being, let alone a few human beings, could treat another person like this. It's so sad.

[rainbabies]

Re: feral child

Re: feral child

I bawled. It is unbelievable.

I spent plenty of extra time hugging & kissing my kids today.

[HouseofWool]

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The lack of human regard is just stunning. She is a very luck girl to have found just the right people to be her parents.

[Phoebe]

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very sad!

[Momo]

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GMAFB "The only thing I was guilty of was having a messy house and for that, they took her away from me."

It blows my mind the plea deals they offer child abusers!!!!

[diggitydot]

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You just have to wonder what's going on in her head, y'know?

With the IQ of 77 stated in the article for the mom, my guess is "not much".

[GreyhoundsRUs]

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It's scary when I have to go through more testing, questioning, interviewing, etc. to adopt a dog than I will when I decide to have kids...

Some people should not be allowed to procreate. What amazes me is that, like others have said, she did raise two sons to adulthood...

[Auspicious]

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What amazes me is that, like others have said, she did raise two sons to adulthood...

She was married, then, though, but widowed when the daughter was born. I'm guessing the father kept things together when the sons were children. Seems like a bunch of pieces had to fall into exactly the wrong spot for the situation to reach the point that it did.

Re: feral child

She was married, then, though, but widowed when the daughter was born. I'm guessing the father kept things together when the sons were children. Seems like a bunch of pieces had to fall into exactly the wrong spot for the situation to reach the point that it did.

Yes, the mother was definitely a victim of poverty, widowhood, low functioning ability, etc. BUT - she was offered help! And she didn't take it. What I don't get is why no one (CPS) stepped in when she wouldn't make use of the resources they were offering to help her get through. Did they think things would magically get better without help? (Slight hijack, but I had a high-functioning friend like this - became even MORE of a burden on others simply because she wouldn't face the fact that she had some insurmountable odds and needed a hand.)

DH has said the same thing as he's delivered babies - some people shouldn't be allowed to procreate.

[diggitydot]

Re: feral child

DH has said the same thing as he's delivered babies - some people shouldn't be allowed to procreate.

My DH said the exact same thing after delivering the second child of a 13 y/o "mom".



Proof once again that just because you can doesn't mean you should.

[Rapunzel]

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Well, we walk a fine line here - and one that has been discussed in the debate forums at least once before.

My father was the victim of horrible child abuse and neglect (almost died from neglect at the age of four - but was sent back to his mother, the abuser, after the hospital discharge). His mother was severely mentally ill and his father was a raging, thankfully almost nonexistent, alchoholic.

I'm sure you all would agree that they shouldn't have procreated.

However, then my father wouldn't be here (and, he is a wonderful person) and I wouldn't be here either. My children wouldn't be here today if two decidedly scary people (their great-grandparents) hadn't procreated.

So, I cannot and will not start down the slope of "Some people shouldn't be allowed to have children" because that means a whole lot of wonderful people in this world "shouldn't have been born" following that argument through to its logical conclusion.

This woman is clearly a case of someone with less than stellar faculties and a hard life just not functioning. Should she be punished? Yes. To some extent she had an idea as to what babies and children need in order to be taken care of. She had somewhat successfully done so in the past (with two other children). To that extent she cannot be excused for her behavior and crippling of her youngest child. She should be held responsible for her actions.

It is crazy the hoops that some animal nutjobs will make people go through to qualify for an animal to adopt. Unfortunately there are people in our wealthy society that have the luxury of regarding useless animals (such as pet dogs) as onpar with human beings. That in no way justifies the extreme behavior of deciding who should have the ability to procreate among the human population.

[spotty_dog]

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I appreciated that the article presented the interview with the mother, because there is something really messed up there and I feel like she's been failed by other humans and by the system almost as much as has her daughter. Yes, she did an awful, awful thing. But it sounds like taking her daughter was a very serious punishment, no matter how horrifically she was treating her. And it doesn't sound like she's going to be in the position to be a repeat offender either.

It's really a sad story all around. Did that other child-neglect story make it to this board? The one with the girl with cerebral palsy who'd been abandoned by her father to his ex-wife and ended up dying of just this sort of severe neglect while she took adequate care of her other children?