Instead of thinking the law is “broken”, it is the families who are “broken”. Who’s helping them? Where is the support when the school calls Mom away from work, jeopardizing her job, because Junior is out of control, again? Who’s supporting Dad when the daughter’s prescription causes hallucination and induces mania?

It is well nigh impossible to find any sort of child care if your child has emotional problems. There is no help. There is no respite. No wonder the parents have reached the breaking point.

~Luke

Government programs cannot do that. We need people, like those who volunteer to be friends to adults with disabilities or take on other roles normally taken on by families who just aren’t in the picture in a lot of these situations. But if it isn’t forthcoming?

But simply removing programs will not make the private sector suddenly come up with solutions. The government moved in to a lot of these situations because serious problems were not being handled. But we are spending a great deal of money on existing programs which aren’t working. It would be nice by taking a closer look at how that could be better spent, how we can truly protect children and how we can preserve families as often as possible.

That Landry is annoying. He is quoted throughout these articles, and always seems completely insensitive, even making inappropriate jokes about attracting tourism. That is the attitude of HHS around here. The parent (and the foster parent, for that matter) is the enemy.

And we take away a lot of kids. More than most states and that is right here in America’s heartland.

In the example you gave of the mother, two jobs and a messy house, I have learned from parenting Marissa that some people will never, ever be able to keep their home organized and clean without help of another human. Marissa is not lazy. She just cannot look at the mess and know how to clean it without being given directions. She doesn’t need a class; she needs a real-life relationship with someone who will help her. I would way rather this kind of help come family and community than the government. But, I stopped living in my fairy tale perfect world a long time ago. Some people just don’t have help from community. Some people are so dysfunctional that they have burned out their support system. Their family and friend have set up barriers to protect themselves emotionally and financially. It would be cheaper to help this mom than pay to have several children in foster care. It would be better for the children too. But for some reason we are all willing to pay one expense and balk at the other.

Families are in crisis, and I, too, wish there was a simple solution. Even when my husband worked for social services trying to bring families back together, abuse still took place.

It breaks my heart to think about it, and makes me realize how important it is for us to be involved with those who ask for help.

And I’m wondering if part of the problem is thinking that we need to leave giving counsel to experts? There are issues in my own family I don’t really have the answer for, but sometimes just talking to the parent helps them get perspective.

And I wonder how many have heard of the law and broken down as they realized how much they wanted to do the very same thing.

Something is more seriously wrong here than just the age-limit.