Last night a story in the news caught my attention: A woman had collected 8 or 9 dollars in coins and was taking her 3 girls to Wal-mart to drop the change in a Salvation Army bin. When she got to the store, her 2-year-old was asleep so she parked the car in the fire lane in front of the store, locked the doors, and turned on her hazard lights. She walked 20 feet to drop the change in the bin, took a few pictures, and as she made her way back to the car was apprehended by an officer for child endagerment. Her 2-year-old was taken under custody of child protective services and she was arrested. Now she's going to court. Ironically, when her husband came to the scene he found his other two daughters totally ignored by the police (and by the way, frightened to death by them), ALONE and shivering on the bench outside the store.
Child Endagerment? Give me a break. That little girl would have been more disturbed if she had been woken up! All moms know how important sleep is for little kids--not to mention the fact the car was in full view of mom the whole time. This mother "broke" the law (although that is even under debate) for using common sense? The laws that protect children from being left alone in cars are to protect those children who truly are being neglected and are in danger of being harmed.
What world do we live in that a mom who's teaching her children about giving to charity is classified as a criminal? When I think of the amount of money that was spent to investigate this woman by Child Protective Services (they found no evidence of abuse or neglect) and the money spent to prosecute this woman, I can feel the smoke coming out of my ears. This is evidence of our country over-legislating and nitpicking until common sense is taken out of the picture (note: cough medicine for children taken off the shelves because a few stupid people gave their kids too much).
As this woman is betrayed by the law, news anchors and columnists are debating why prostitution should be legalized. Where are our morals? Why aren't the legislators from Illinois standing up for a good mom (hello, Barack)? Someone with the power to help this woman needs to step in. The officers that arrested her should be disciplined. The DA that is prosecuting her should be fired. The law is there to condemn criminal activity, not trap honest, hard-working mothers who truly know when their child is safe or in harm's way.
What am I (a good mom) to learn from this story? Am I supposed to haul all my kids out of the car and into the weather just to drop Eliza off inside a building for dance? There have been times that Davis has begged me not to take him into the grocery store because I just had to grab a carton of milk. Honestly, he probably would have been just fine for a minute or two on his own in a locked car, but I can't even honor his wishes for FEAR of being classified as a terrible mother. When can a mom just rely on her instincts instead of being bullied and bossed by the "letter of the law?"
Here is a website with updates on this woman and her story: http://www.mahalo.com/Ellen_Treffly_Coyne
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2 comments:
Thanks for bringing this story to my attention. It's sickening!
Every time I buckle my little one in the car and then remember something and run back in the house or have to check a kid in/out of school and although I'm parked right outside the school door and at the office a brief moment to sign a notebook, I worry about getting "caught".
It's absolutely ridiculous!
BTW, I'm completely peeved about the children's cough syrup thing! You're getting me all riled up again, stupid people.
It really is disturbing and somewhat frightening that something so simple could escalate so quickly into total insanity. It's also disturbing that an agency set up to protect children can so often and so horribly miss the mark. And then to totally compound the insanity,they can't seem to figure out whether they missed the mark or not and then when they realize they did, there's so much red tape involved that parents have to suffer even longer before the misguided agency can get their act together and reunite parents with their children. This has obviously set me off as I have been living a somewhat similar nightmare via blogland with a friend of a friend of a friend. A one month old of a sweet family had some health issues form birth and was being seen by several different docs. They took him in one of the times and it was found that he had several broken bones. (Am I the only one that thinks that it might be very possible that with all his health issues, he might also have issues related to bones as well?). But he was immediately taken away by CPS and the devastated parents are still waiting to get him back. It's completely insane. And it will apparently be quite some time before they can even think of getting him back. They are missing so much of his life, not to mention worrying constantly because of the separation and the health issues. They are showing an amazing amount of faith and trust. It's such a heartbreaking story though and it makes me angry. There must be some way that the protection of children could make more sense and not get it wrong so much of the time.
Wow, this is obviously an issue which can set us moms off.
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