Heartbreaking...

I don't normally watch shows like Inside Edition because, well to put it mildly, it's mostly just trash tv. (Sorry folks over at Inside Edition. Truth hurts. That's okay.) Today however, as I was working, it was playing in the background. I hadn't taken the moment to switch it over to music yet. I happened to look up as I saw one of the most heartbreaking stories.

A woman and her boyfriend duct taped her two year old child to the wall. They showed pictures, and the ones on tv were detailed enough that you could see that child's face contorted in confusion, pain, and anguish. Granted, when our kids are driving us nuts, we all joke about duct taping them to the ceiling or some odd thing. Most mothers could never even consider doing it though.

This woman not only did it, she thought it was funny enough to show to her friend as she bragged about it. The show kept referring to her as a teenager, (she's 18) but if she's old enough to be raising babies and terrorizing them, she is a full grown adult.

I found myself reaching my arms out to the child on the television, wanting to hold him and promise him he would always be safe, cared for and loved. I wanted to promise him that nothing like that would ever happen to him again. That child is now emotionally scarred for the rest of his life and in a couple of years, he won't even know why. He won't remember it.

The great injustice here though is yet to come. Dear old boyfriend gets three years in prison for child abuse. Mom? She gets five WEEKENDS, and she retains custody of the baby. Yep. You saw that correctly. Five WEEKENDS. The emotional damage to this kid will follow him for the rest of his life, and she gets five weekends!

If either one of them had done that to an adult, they'd be facing kidnapping, false imprisonment, assault charges and would not get out of prison for a very long time. But it was a kid, her kid, and they were high so that makes it okay.

And where the hell are this girl's parents? Don't we, as parents, have a responsibility to make sure we raised our kids correctly? To make sure our children do not abuse or neglect their children? Did her parents pass this behavior down to her, or did she just go down the wrong path? Why didn't they call the authorities before it got to this point?

I am angered by the court's decision to let mom serve five weekends and retain custody. I close my eyes, and I can see myself as that child and feel what he was feeling. Any parent can do that. It's called empathy.

Dear courts, if your decision was based on the over crowded foster care system and you don't have a loving home for him, send him to me!

Want to hear the truly sad thing? Once the child is three years old, his chances of being adopted successfuly dramatically reduce. Once he hits five, he is more likely to live the rest of his life in the system than to be adopted. The emotional damage.... *sighs*

That poor baby. Maybe in a few days, I'll also be saying "that poor mom" too. I doubt it.

I'm no where close to being done with the ranting here; but at some point I must shut up. I guess this is that point. All my love goes out to that baby tonight. He's gonna need it.

http://www.insideedition.com/news/5107/toddler-taped-to-a-wall-by-his-own-mom.aspx