September 16, 2005

• Awful. Just awful.
• Sounds like they took on more than they could handle.
• Words fail me. 21st century. Wonderful. Might as well be the 18th.
• Well, they didn't mean any harm... /beats head against wall. hugs son.
• Obviously, they took on a few more kids than they can handle. But what should they have done with the kids? If they are starting fires, destroying things, and attacking each other, what should they do to stop it?
• 11 adopted children??? Huh... and all this time I thought it was uber-tough to meet standards for adopting a child.
• They get money from the state for each disabled child they take in.
• So let me get this straight -- conditions here were pretty much the same as at Guantanamo, and now the government has a problem with it?
• 11 adopted children, all (or almost all) with serious problems. The state must have been quite happy to find a family to take care of them, but (as everyone said) ELEVEN? Try taking care of one or two of these children, and see if you don't get stressed. This does not sound like a household of love, but a broken child warehouse.
• I can't help but think about those people who hoard dogs and cats...
• So let me get this straight -- conditions here were pretty much the same as at Guantanamo, and now the government has a problem with it? I thought we were calling it "gitmo"? It sounds fuzzier.
• Gitmo? Like Elmo? Done.
• I adopted a developmentally disabled child and another child who was not disabled. Add that to the two biological children I had and I had my hands full. I can't imagine how this couple thought they could handle 11 children with disabilities. Perhaps they should have asked for professional assistance with these children. There aren't enough details for me to make a judgment about this situation, but something doesn't smell right to me. No harm intended they say. I wonder though.
• You have my unstinting admiration, bratcat. I agree more details would help - as described, it could be not much worse than putting a toddler in a playpen. But it sounds horrible.
• Shameful. Their excuses ring hollow. If the children were too much to handle they had other options they could have pursued.
• It seems to me that the most creative, weirdest, and most appalling tales of child abuse often come from foster homes like this one, where the parents have 731 children locked up in a disused planetarium, and are training them to be human mailboxes or some such crap. Why is that?
• thursday, it's called collecting, and it's something all animal shelters & sanctuaries are terrified of. There are parallels here, too. Apparently these people went to lots of different states to adopt their children, which is also what collectors do (except lots of different agencies). They adopted kids who they feel wouldn't have a chance at a happy life, which is what a lot of collectors do, and when their situation got out of hand, they completely lost touch with reality, as do collectors. That's looking at it from a mental health problem point of view, though. Another explanation is that they adopted all these kids for the monthly checks, and are cruel, heartless people who simply caged them as a means of control. That sort of situation plays itself out way too often with fosters and adoptions. Problems like these were found in Florida in 2001, when a foster-mom killed one of her fosters. The article I linked to talks about monitoring foster homes with more than 5 children closely... guess they never did impliment it.
• What's the big deal? I was kept in a cage for most of my childhood and it didn't affect my...WHAT'RE YEW LOOKIN AT??!?? I'LL KILL YEW!!!
• I can see the twisted "logic" in that, and collecting, too, which makes it that much more sad to me. It's like they're thinking "they'll be abandoned / dead without me!" and really believe that they're the only ones who can save these unfortunates. And it probably looks like doing the right thing to them. "At least they aren't out on the streets." Not that I agree with it, but I can see how it might end up that way. Lots of people have white-knight fixations, and lots of people don't understand the reality that can result from their decisions, and lots of people don't understand that there are other options or resources when things get out of control. This story is particularly strange and sad - the kids weren't being beaten, just...crated like dogs. The road to hell, etc.
• a one year old setting fires?
• Bratcat- What Plegmund said: props and bananas to you. We adopted two normal kids and sometimes I wonder how we make it through the day. (We do, however somehow make it through the day without having to cage anyone though the cattleprods do come in handy.) Having kids with special needs could only be an extra heaping helping of stress that we would be hard put to deal with, so my hat is most definitely off to you and your partner.
• Plegmund and Kamus,I only did what what was needed. The brothers, one disabled the other not, needed my love and support and so I adopted the two boys. It wasn't easy and I had help. But I would do it again. For all the stress I was blessed with four wonderful loving children. These people took on more than they could handle it seems. I hope that is all it was, and not intentional warehousing and collecting money.
• Parents at the end of their rope or child abusers? Child abusers. But they *should* be at the end of a rope.
• I read another story about this when it was first discovered, and apparently the parents claimed that a child psychologist told them to lock up the children for their own safety (???) I think this does sound like an instance of collecting. It's so sad.
• Also, why is it so hard for some people to adopt and so strangely easy for the (ok, I'm judging here) crazies to get nine million kids? Is it because they're willing to take in disabled kids? A friend of mine just paid the equivalent of a nice house (150K) and waited years to adopt, yet these people seemed to have easy access.
• I thought the supply and demand situation was fairly well known. Angelic little white babies are in short supply; older kids, with or without "issues", are not. Though I wouldn't fault anyone who does want a from-the-catalog baby; I certainly couldn't handle the enormous pressure of rearing a child, so more power to them regardless of their preferences.
• gah. "them" == adoptive parents. But not the ones in the original post.
• meridithea: I also read that a psychologist supposedly advised them to cage the children during sleeping hours. The was a brief mention in the article, as well, that another couple who had moved from Ohio to Florida (I think) with disabled adoptees were found to be caging their children. I didn't find the latter metion in on-line news, but it did make we wonder if state personnal might share the blame.
• *wants him a --nice-- $150Kh ouse*
• But they aren't cages! They're enclosures! Seriously, god bless anyone who embraces these kids is blessed. But know your limits.
• Absolutely no one should be able to try and raise eleven children from ages one to fourteen with conditions ranging from autism to FAS. There is no way any of these children are getting the kind of attention and care that they would most definitely need. I think there is a serious lack of information in this article, but just looking at the number of children in the household is enough to know that something is wrong in this situation. While my husband and I have two young kids of our own we have also taken over the custody of a seven-year old boy who has been raised in a drug-infested atomosphere. While he has no obvious/overt problems that need intense caregiver attention, he does need a little extra because he has to re-learn some things in his life. Ours is a relatively easy situation but I know from experience how much time and attention each child needs. Some more than others. Unless these people have other caregivers coming in to help them, they are doing those children an injustice by having so many. While I might applaud their original intent, they are going about it in the wrong way.
• es el Queso -- Yeah, I was talking in TX dollars there, where 150K can still get you a nice house :) path -- yes, I would bet that the psychologist or whoever told them to cage the kids would bear some responsibility. At the very least, the system that allowed these people to adopt and foster waaaay too many kids (in this situation, with these conditions. I know families with 11 average kids who get along just fine) bears a lot of responsibility, too.
• Wow... there's a headline for you.
• Who needs daycare when you have duct tape?
• Dear God, Why do people suck? Awaiting your reply, tracicle