There had to be other stuff going on here. Antoinette seems to be minimizing the fact that CPS has already been contacted regarding her family several times before. Smoke and fire and all that.

Does she have a PhD in Theoretical Mathematics? I think she kicked off the commenting above ^

And look, the grief is understandable. Everyone has their own pain. But the judge is considering the best interests of the children. The judge isn’t going to shrug and say “Oh you were depressed? Well then nevermind.”

I’ll admit, very confused why grandma didn’t go to the mom’s house in that one. Makes me wonder if more was going on.

You’re seriously advocating the government pay for a child’s great grandmother’s house to be cleaned so that the mom can go party her woes away. What the ever loving fuck.

Yeah, nurses are mandated reporters. If they called CPS it was because there was evidence of abuse.

What’s worse is that she doesn’t seem to get that the scenario was likely more severe than she describes. To her, she’s just a victim.

When I read

I read this four times just to make sure I didn’t miss some justifiable reason for outrage and unfair treatment labels. Folks, your kids were taken away from you because you’re shitty, harmful, neglectful parents. What in the fucking fuck did I just read?

It is odd coming into these entries wanting to be completely on the side of the parents and coming out thinking, “Thank you CPS for taking those kids away so that the parents can finally get it together.”

The person relating the first story also admits she purposefully lied to a psychologist that could have actually HELPED her, and insists that a judge said something that could get said judge removed from the bench, while glossing over the multiple CPS calls that were already made before this instance.

It wasn’t her first report to CPS though and that’s the difference.

Bravo to Jeffrey Mays for getting his shit together and becoming a dad. That’s a good story to read.

While I feel for Antoinette, it seems like CPS and her lawyer did their job properly in this case. While it sucks to have the guilty plea on her record, it sounded deserved. I hope that her and her kids are doing…

I love how the people whining about the comments don’t stop and think “what if any of these commenters have suffered from being abused as kids.” Because there’s quite a lot who have, or have witnessed abuse or worked with abused children. Like no shit they’re annoyed at the apologia.

While I agree, having worked as an attorney in the system on all sides (parents, Acs, and attorney for the child) one thing that always amazed me, although I guess it really shouldn’t when I think abt it harder, is that almost universally, no matter how bad the situation was and how abusive the parents were, if you…

If it is a dumpster fire, it is well deserved. I am a Black woman, 43, not affluent and survived various forms of abuse in childhood. I was raised by a single mother in generally poor, minority neighborhoods. These folks don’t get a pass from me.

No, the comment section correctly called out myopic naval gazing thinkpieces that apologised for child abuse. Jez should be absolutely ashamed for enabling this.

“By my second time in court, I also learned that the judge I had had a reputation for being tough. She expected parents to be accountable for their actions and address the issues that had brought them to her court.”

That second essay was nicer to read than the first. The father was against so many biases, yet he kept coming. His perseverance obviously changed some minds in his case. Plus, he seemed to have a much better understanding of what he was responsible for, what he did wrong and what he did right. I am so happy that his…

The whole series would SO benefit from having the kids’ voice involved. Kid who feel they shouldn’t have been pulled but were and why, kids who should have been taken away but weren’t and why, looks at how the various separations affect the kids in general (which I have found lacking in every story so far). The…