Sunday, August 10, 2008

Story of a Child

This is a well-written story. It is long, but worth the read, if you can manage to get all the way to the end. Ultimately, in my opinion, the reason this could happen is because authorities and the general public don't imagine that a mother can be an offender.

Here is the story.

Good hearts will help this child, but "normal" will never be anything but a dryer setting in her life. She had the will to live, but she will forever be limited because her first years of life were starved for love and appropriate interaction.

Neglect is as evil as inappropriate attention. Every child is a miracle. Every child deserves to be loved and cherished. Love is an amazing inoculation against the speedbumps one will experience on the road of life.

(I first saw this story at Washes of Color.) If you're a parent, hug your kids, just because.

4 comments:

watercolordaisy said...

The girl, you just want to hug. The mom, you just want to drop kick. She just never does understand what she did. I guess her IQ is too low to fully comprehend it. What a mess. What a blessing the family is who is loving this dear child.

Anonymous said...

Psychologists call parents such as these "pathologically selfish," among other things. Some really do not understand what they are doing, because they can only see the world through their own eyes and how everything affects them. Very sad. That is why this woman still sees the removal of Dani from her home as an offense against her, not a rescuing of Dani from a deadly situation.

My opinion is that it does not matter whether or not you understand just how bad your actions are or that you hurt someone else. The fact is, you DID hurt someone else, and in this case, someone you were supposed to love and protect. Her heinous crimes are deserving of at least life in prison, because she has created a lifelong prison for her offspring. I would say daughter, but that indicates that she is a mother, but in the foster care and adoptive world we refer to people like her as "egg donors."

This is yet another reason that I think that people should have to pass a class and apply for a special license in order to be allowed to have children! But then again, neither Joann nor I and my siblings would exist if that was the case.

Anonymous said...

Stories like this, while uplifting on Dani's part and her new parents,
make me wonder what CPS is doing. I know of cases where the children are removed on a false whim and others where the children are obviously being abused and are left in the home. There is something really wrong with the system. Irreparable damage is done to children who are wrongly removed and to children who should be removed and aren't. We have to do something about fixing this horrible system.

Anonymous said...

I could never do anything like that to a child (mine or anyone else's). And I would do my very best to take care of my child. But I also don't think I have it in me to volunteer to take on someone else's. It is good thing there are people like Bernie and Diane in the world.