Thursday, November 12, 2009

How is it . . .

How is it that there are so many wonderful, caring people who yearn to have children and never get that opportunity when I see children every day with parents who are unable to care for them or just don't want to? For instance, there is a little four week old girl I have been taking care of since she was a few days old whose mother was in jail for most of the pregnancy, did not get adequate prenatal care, was taking four different types of narcotics including heroine and came to visit her daughter zero times during her hospital stay. The baby stayed in the hospital for over three weeks because she was withdrawing from narcotics.

And then there is the 15 year old girl who was pregnant and kept it a secret until her water broke and she was in labor. And she has no idea who the father is because she had three partners at the time.

Then there is the 20 year old who has toddler twins and a six year old at home, all of whom should probably be in foster care because she is unable to care for them. She told me they weren't brushing the twins teeth everyday because "they can't really hold the toothbrush." Right. I let her know that as the mommy, she was supposed to be brushing them! Sometimes it is really hard to hide my feelings of amazement at peoples' low levels of functioning. People should have to take drug tests and parenting classes before they can get pregnant.

How is it that parents are allowed to name their children ridiculous things like Meconium, La-a (ladasha), Genocide, Unique, King, Nevaeh, (heaven spelled backwards) and Desire? I am not kidding around, I have met children who have been unfortunately labeled with each of these names. Seriously, meconium? You know what that means right? Baby poop. Wow, right? What were these people thinking? Maybe choosing the name of future children could be some sort of screening test to weed out those people who shouldn't be allowed to have children.

How is it that one psycho lady has so much control over my life and happiness? I am speaking of, you guessed it, our landlady. Super crazy. Completely irrational. And she continues to cause all sorts of emotional distress in our lives. This is one very big reason I will be excited to leave this place soon.

Ok, I guess that's all I have for now. Sorry for the rant. Sometimes it is the only thing I can do to help myself cope.

5 comments:

Camille said...

I would not do well in your job! I have a hard time with parents not caring for or neglecting their kids! So sad to see how they "grow up"! Thank goodness for those wonderful couples who are willing to adopt these children or foster them! And you DO have a crazy lady ruining your lives! I hope a house falls on her. Is that bad to say?

KC said...

It is so sad to see these innocent children being treated badly. I understand where you are coming from, I am just so glad I don't have to see it in my daily life...the news is hard enough!

Connie said...

You must see a lot of sad things in your line of work! It is always confusing to me that some people are allowed to have children!
So sorry about your psycho landlady!
I think the two of you need a break! Hope to see you at Thanksgiving time!

Erin Ann said...

We have a list of interesting cases at work, as well as a list of our favorite names...we had a child come in for an ultrasound with the name of "machineoperator" - no lie. It fascinates me as well...

Sara said...

Couldn't agree more, as you know. One of the other judges has a child abuse homicide case right now where the mom's boyfriend killed the 13 month old baby boy. At least you're involved in helping be the solution, right? That's really the only consolation when people are so aggravating. And I'm sorry that your landlady is ridiculous.