Was it the one in Washington? Where the mom was wearing one baby on her back and softly strumming her guitar to the other baby when CPS showed up? Such a biased article. There was SO much more to that story.
Ugh. One of my friends believes to her core that CPS kidnapped those children. To the point that it seems her whole beef is "but she was breastfeeding!!!!"
Same. I'm really tired of people doing shitty things and then claiming innocent by breastfeeding. There was a big social media hoopla with some blogger who claimed she got kicked off a plane for breastfeeding her toddler. In reality she got kicked off because she wouldn't stop breastfeeding her 2.5 year old to put them in their seat so the plane could take off.
Anyway, that Washington case is crazy. The police had been called to the home 21 times in the past year. There was a warrant out for the dads arrest, he hadn't completed anger management from a DV arrest he plea bargained down. A DV arrest when his wife was eight months pregnant. But it was the breastfeeding!
Ugh. One of my friends believes to her core that CPS kidnapped those children. To the point that it seems her whole beef is "but she was breastfeeding!!!!"
Same. I'm really tired of people doing shitty things and then claiming innocent by breastfeeding. There was a big social media hoopla with some blogger who claimed she got kicked off a plane for breastfeeding her toddler. In reality she got kicked off because she wouldn't stop breastfeeding her 2.5 year old to put them in their seat so the plane could take off.
Anyway, that Washington case is crazy. The police had been called to the home 21 times in the past year. There was a warrant out for the dads arrest, he hadn't completed anger management from a DV arrest he plea bargained down. A DV arrest when his wife was eight months pregnant. But it was the breastfeeding!
Same. I'm really tired of people doing shitty things and then claiming innocent by breastfeeding. There was a big social media hoopla with some blogger who claimed she got kicked off a plane for breastfeeding her toddler. In reality she got kicked off because she wouldn't stop breastfeeding her 2.5 year old to put them in their seat so the plane could take off.
Anyway, that Washington case is crazy. The police had been called to the home 21 times in the past year. There was a warrant out for the dads arrest, he hadn't completed anger management from a DV arrest he plea bargained down. A DV arrest when his wife was eight months pregnant. But it was the breastfeeding!
I honestly think my friend believes that there is pretty much never a reason to separate a mom & a breastfed baby. All other facts be damned.
Having dealt with Washington State CPS (one county and two counties south of Whatcom) and having dealt with Whatcom courts in the past (Kiddo was born in Whatcom and we had paternity issues filed and hearings held there) the courts there are extremely reasonable and bend over backwards to assist the families. CPS had oversight of the girls for more than two years, assigning parenting classes, anger management (mom and boyfriend fought a LOT), overseeing medical appointments (Kidlet had medical issues that weren't being closely monitored) and whatever else they though was necessary before they went from reunification to termination status. None of what they had asked, to my knowledge, was "out there" or unexpected, based on what I've heard from the girls and what CPS probably gleaned from interviews with them, their teachers, neighbors and family. (Yes, I bent over backwards with excuses and rationalizations for DD, suggested testing (MRI, not drugs) for her due to a TBI when she was a child to see if medical intervention could be mandated, etc.)
Just as in any other court in the country, the problems start when the court and the departments are doing their jobs and the charged parties (the parents in this case) are resistant because "they're my kids and I can parent them however I want." That is true, within reason. You can parent them as long as it isn't to their detriment...drugs, failure to thrive, emotional or physical abuse - most or all of which seem to have some basis in this case. There are cases where the parents say "I'm doing what they tell me but they keep changing the rules and what I need to do!" While that may *seem* to be the case in some instances, the fact of the matter is they have long-term goals to make sure the kids don't fall into the same trap and the parents don't revert to their former habits, and too often those goals need to be reached by making shorter-term goals, in an effort to make longer-term habits. Such as "you need to be drug-free for X number of months" but going at it on a month-to-month, or "you need to make all these appointments" but the child needs continued care so after THOSE appointments are made, future ones need to be followed through on, so the child and family remain under scrutiny. It's the crunchy, holistic "go your own way" or anti-government "keep out of my way" or simply the "I am who I am and you don't boss me" that have the most problems with the "rules" handed down by the courts. But yes, if the child is at risk, it's the duty and obligation of CPS to make sure they are safe, because that's their job...and the kid doesn't have any choice in how it's being raised so sometimes outside intervention is required.
CPS needs to figure out their priorities. Too often I hear of babies and toddlers being handed back to abusive households where they are ultimately murdered.
I have worked with a lot of cps workers and none of them had a crystal ball. If anything had happened to this baby CPS and the hospital would be raked through the coals. Mom refused drug test, checked out of hospital AMA, erratic behavior from her and her partner, history of arrests for drugs, sketchy access to pain meds without prescription, refused entry to their home, further refused drug testing, and then they couldn't test the baby. If she actually was on drugs? And something happened? This is how it would go: Oh, so CPS couldn't get in the gate? So the lazy worker just left and wrote some paperwork saying mom refused and left baby wallowing in its own filth without even seeing the crib. Oh, so she left the hospital AMA and the staff suspected drugs? But instead of doing something they just focused on the bottom line and ignored the poor vulnerable one day old baby.