Should Children Be Taken Away From Any Parent (Unmarried or Married), Whether Natural or Adoptive?
Question by gypsywinter: Should children be taken away from any parent (unmarried or married), whether natural or adoptive?
if they are found to be addicted to drugs and/or alcohol? I noticed on another question that many thought that addiction should be grounds for immediate removal from the natural mother. What about natural parents that are married, single or divorced or adoptive parents who are married, single or divorced who are abusing drugs and/or alcohol…shouldn’t their children (any age) also be immediately removed from the parents as well? Is there a difference in regards as to who is addicted and who gets to keep their kids or not? If so, why or why not? Personally I think alcoholics are just as damaging to their children as any drug addict…it’s still substance abuse. Should all alcoholics/heavy drinkers lose their children as well to fostercare, should the occasional pot-smoker lose his/her parental rights as well? Should only absolute non-drinkers (of the alcohol variety to include beer), no drug use of any kind people, be allowed to parent? Who determines who is engaging in total drug addiction vs occasional use or the died-in-the wool alcoholic vs the social drinker? Is there a double standard for substance abuse for women vs men, i.e. the married husband is the alcoholic/addict, should his children be removed from his household? At what point do people believe that alcoholism/drug abuse is damaging to the children who live in these households…do we hold different levels of acceptability based on marital status, economic status, home owner or renter?
ETA: The Brain said: “”Love how you throw the poverty issue in — trying to imply that “poverty is a reason children are in foster care.””
UH! Excuse me where did I write the above in my question? If you are going to quote me, please, at least quote me correctly and not *falsely*. Thank you!
Guess my question has been diverted to “poverty”..OK!
http://www.faqs.org/childhood/Fa-Gr/Foster-Care.html
“”Others maintain that the inadequacy of the child welfare system stems from its inability to address the primary issue contributing to child neglect, abuse, and removal: poverty. Indeed, the overwhelming majority of children in foster care are born into poverty and some studies show that the primary predictor of child removal is not the severity of abuse but the level of the family’s income. Critics noted that in the early twenty-first century the United States had the highest rate of child poverty of any industrialized Western nation and argued the income and social supports more typical of Western European nations, such as family allowances, government-supported day care, family leave policies, more generous benefits for single mothers and their children, would reduce the number of American children in foster care.””
ETA: Guess I didn’t get my point across in my question. I heard women screaming for the immediate removal of newborns from addicted mothers…no 2nd chance…yet now I hear it a little differently. Chances? for whom..the married couple, the single mom..who rates more chances? I also attended AL-Anon and ACA for a number of years, my life as a child was an absolute nightmare..no matter, looking back I still wouldn’t have wanted to be taken from my own mother…never! Best thing in our family…her husband dropped dead suddenly on the kitchen floor when some of my sibs (their bio dad that had a fed gov’t job) were quite young, they were spared the worst of the worst, for that I was most thankful! We all have our tales of woe.
Best answer:
Answer by Aurora
I think too many kids are taken away from their parents too fast. If the kids are being hurt or neglected, someone should be there to help. If the kids aren’t being hurt or neglected, the parents should be helped with the kids there. Children, in my opinion, should only ever be taken away as a last resort, and only when in significant danger – but I know first hand that is not the case with the social workers (I am not at all addicted to drugs or alcohol – don’t even touch them – and never abused my kids, but still lost them because my Christian values – modesty, avoiding violence and inappropriate scenes and such in movies, and not wanting my kids told their wasn’t a God – were too high according to the social workers. They were 4, 6, and 10.)
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