RE: When "Neglect" is Not Necessarily Abuse.
I wouldn't wish that experience on anyone and all I can say is full power to you for surviving it. I'm glad at least some of your family were reached soon enough to be rescued from that and the cycle broken with them. Everyone reacts differently to abuse (this I know) and some can't be reached, but some, like yourself, can learn from it and break the cycle. I'd never down play what you or anyone went through. It's revolting what some people are capable of. These cases need intervention and the majority of the time the CPS does the right thing by them when they do intervene. I know some amazing foster carers and I know that they have been saviours for many children. I've written about a couple.
The times that CPS fails children aren't very common, but if left unaddressed mistakes could be seen as what is being implemented is working well and it could escalate. I realise that what you see familyprotection doing goes against what your experiences have been, but the people who started it have experienced mistakes which have harmed from the other side and feel a need to highlight it. Those particular people have never said that CPS never does good and have resteemed stories where CPS intervention was the best thing that happened. Some people who write for the tag are embroiled in a situation where they are being hounded by CPS for one little mistake and it's hard for them to see the wood for the trees. No institution is secure from bad elements getting in and for the person on the receiving end it's their whole world.
Parents make mistakes, but that doesn't make them irredeemable if they learn from that and determine to make things right, then systems should be in place to facilitate that. This post was highlighting the ambiguity of using neglect as a reason for removing children and my opinion is that it's too open to interpretation and sticking with proving abuse should be the goal. It's not hard to prove abuse from neglectful behaviour, so I don't think it's a bad step to take to be sure they maintain a balance which keeps them from overstepping the mark.
The activism from familyprotection is important to make sure those who run afoul of the foibles of the system are heard, but so is your activism as a voice for those harmed by abuse. Thank you for sharing your story, I know it's not easy and hope you'll always continue to speak out. Activism is necessary on both sides of any argument to get a balanced middle, but the fact is that both sides will end up clashing; it's just the nature of it.
I sit in the middle, drawing information from both sides because I've experienced both sides either directly or indirectly. Sometimes it can start to get unbalanced as the majority of stories come from one side, which is why we need the stories to come in from the other side too.
Again, thank for sharing this here.
I fully understand that, and I totally agree there are people who should never have been foster parents, my sister and her husband were perfect examples of that so would the 85 foster children who died in foster care for the last year statistics would be available for, obviously those parents should have never been foster parents. Every bureaucracy will find it has offenders in the system, whether it's those who fraud or those who abuse children. We don't have to even go government when you consider the Catholic Church and their abuses.
My main gripe with this site is you have to bash the system for acceptance, you are only allow to be rewarded for portraying the abusive side, when it comes to the stories I have to tell I could only tell one side the story, the rest would be a complete waste of my time. There's no telling of the positives of foster care on this site, I have yet to see it. What I do see here quite a bit is slanting of the stories. I would consider this one a slant even, we all know that rats aren't the total reason for her child being malnourished. Rats can get into a lot of things but unless they can open a refrigerator door her excuse that the rats were eating the fresh foods her doctor wanted her to feed her child just doesn't cut it. There's more to this story, I often times when I go look if a name is provided I find the same result. People on this site scour the internet and leave out crucial information of the parents behavior. They know this is a easy site to make a few bucks quick so they take advantage of it. Yes I find stories that given a name were very much true to the core, I've even taken some crap for pointing out the validity of a claim after looking at it a couple times. (Those I think were based on political bias being involved when someone in politics had shady record towards children) It's so easy to come on here and tell your story incognito, for all we know someone could just be making that up, money is a funny motivator that way. At a minimum these people could redact their identifying information and post pictures of their court record(s), charges or segments that backup what they are saying. How hard could it be to show a paragraph describing one's only charge was a rat infestation?
I could do like someone else on here and scour the internet for profit by picking all the bias stuff out of articles, or make reports based off organizations who have a bias, even find stuff that's been posted on here time and again and I could even make myself another account and come up with a fictitious story of how I lost my children and spend a year making money off it here even though there's no truth behind it at all, but that's not me, just like it's not me to tell the bad side of a story while leaving out the good, it just wouldn't represent me as who I am or who I am as a whole.
I'm with you; when it comes to a lot of media articles, journalists can often grab a part of a story and run with it. There's often a lot more to it than they report. I try to avoid them or at least do more research before quoting anything. It's why I don't post that often in this area. I felt a bit more comfortable with this one as it was coming from a defense attorney who would have had more intimate knowledge of the case. I wouldn't expect them to release details of their client either.
I too wondered about the fridge, but Then remembered that not everyone has fridges. When you're used to a certain standard of living it can be hard to comprehend that there are people in your own country who can't even reach that basic standard of furnishing. It surprised me when I first came across the fact, but I guess it makes sense when the cheapest fridges rarely last and cost more to fix than buying a new cheap one.
I feel your frustration with this site. I try to avoid that side of it and keep our of the arguments most of the time. I don't use this account for earning, all liquid rewards get donated and would whether I get a big vote or not. A big vote on the family protection ones does benefit them, however. I don't often get such big ones for the education ones I do, but it's no skin off my nose either way.
Yes, my bias in this post is towards the faults in the system. It's what I'm trying to bring attention to. It's not an attempt to pull it down, more to address problem areas with the idea of neglect. Not that a few voices could ever bring the system down, but enough noise can hopefully cause them to address matters when things go wrong. I donate to FP because they have no funding to try and help those who do end up fighting the system. The CPS already has funding.
There may very well be people making up stories to try and get some money from the FP votes. You're right, money can make for dishonesty, but if I assume that's what they're all doing then I lump genuine people in with that and no-one's experience should be dismissed.
I have previously read a post about someone's good experience in foster care which was resteemed by FP. I've also read resteemed stories of family abuse from those who didn't go into the system. I believe they would have been pleased to have your story added, but I think it's a bit late for that as it looks like you've been muted. I guess you rubbed someone up the wrong way. ;) I get it, though, there is a preconception that they don't highlight things that have been good about the system, so most people don't think they can tag it for that. Barge tags his posts about child abuse to them and they aren't about the system, only abuse and healing from it.
Actually, I wish you would share you story of you are happy to. I agree that you should write a book. These stories need to be told, or we don't get to know they exist and they can be easily denied. Also, there are more sides to steemit than family protection. Perhaps you could start something along the lines of an abuse support community.