Usually I see this post too late to comment, but I am enraged by it every week. My mom’s story would sound exactly like this, that she was a good mom and every external force in the world separated us - it was my dad’s fault, it was the neighbor’s fault who reported her, it was my fault for telling my teacher I didn’t…

Thanks so much for sharing your perspective on this. I know that the purpose of this series is to highlight the parents’ perspective in the system, but having worked on the “child’s” side of the system, I think the children’s stories are necessary to give a complete picture.

I’m an adult now with a good life, but I was a child with a mother like the women in these stories. She was stripped of her parental rights by a Midwestern state in the early 90s. I don’t know how much you all know about the Midwest, but for my home state to decide that a woman was not fit to parent, her behavior had…

A link to the Past! Snes Classic FTW!! I now remember that I never even beat that game when it originally came out. I’m having a blast and I just got my hookshot baby!

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…

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…

I’ve done that long time ago, it’s the best relationship i ever had.

I have been both a parents attorney and GAL/legal counsel for children. There are many parents who go into this refusing to admit that they did anything wrong. Their completion of requirements to get their kid back appears to be for show in that nothing happens until 10 days before the next hearing. They flip out in…

I’m a Guardian ad Litem volunteer as well. It’s tough. Lack of transportation, lack of education, lack of family members (or financially and emotionally stable family members) to help out, make climbing out of the system and completing a treatment and case plan very difficult.

I’m adopted, as is my younger sister. My family has also been fosters and guardians ad litem. If you’d like to hear what happens to the children whose parents whose rights were terminated and families who adopt them, I can tell you about heartbreak and an absolute lack of advocacy as well.

So...I was a Guardian ad Litem (volunteer advocate for the children in these cases) for years. Often, the parents would tell their friends and family members that the kids had been taken from them for just a “light” spanking, or that they had left their kids alone for “just a second” while they went next door.

THANK YOU. Seriously. I was in foster care for three years and then put back in the home of my abusive mother. Those three years were far from perfect but, on some level, I still don’t think I’ve recovered from being put back in that household. I understand the experience may be traumatic for some parents that have…

I’m not going to take the position that the system is perfect or even good. But I’ve worked in it as a guardian ad litem and I promise you that for a lot of people it does cause self reflection.

We are all General Kelly.

I went through a period of time in my teens when I had a weird crush on James Woods. Reading this, I guess it’s a good thing I wasn’t anywhere near his orbit. What a disgusting person he is and what a wonderful op-ed by Amber Tamblyn.

Or, I AM JOAQUIN PHOENIX!

As a very young Gen Xer, please keep up the good work.

Counterpoint: No, they do not.

But Mama, that’s where the fun is!