I just finished reading another report today that, to the credit of the writer, was fairly accurate. However, it had a quote from a psychologist who Mike had completely manipulated that ended with “Mike deserves a family who cares.” I would put the whole thing in here, but it would completely infuriate everyone who knows us and could possibly get back to the writer, leading me to endless repercussions.
When I woke up at 5 a.m. and couldn’t go back to sleep some of the thoughts that were running through my mind are ones I can’t share in court, thus I must share them here. I would love to stand up in front of the judge and give an excellent “LA Law” performance, but it would do no good whatsoever. So I’ll argue my points here. At least it will make me feel better.
The way that the Child Protection System works is that at every hearing the guardian ad litem and the social worker give a report to summarize what has happened. We do not submit a report. We get to read the reports before going into court, but we are not asked to provide one. Thus “our side of the story” is not presented. I suppose our public defender (who won’t be able to make court today because he has to go to a seminar) could be asked to present our side, but again we would look defensive and it may not make a difference any way.
The irony is that in these reports they are very careful to point out the many times that we disagreed with them and things did not go well. However, there were an equal number of times where we disagreed with their decisions and they did it anyway, and things did not go well either. However, this is not mentioned anywhere in the report.
The bottom line is that once people have determined that the family is the reason for the children’s behavior, it is very difficult to convince them otherwise, especially when they have the assistance of mentally ill, manipulative, attachment disordered kids.
Would I still do it all again? Yes. Why???? you might ask. Because I still have faith and hope that one day, like Cindy can now with some of her kids, we will be able to look at our children and say, “You put us through some mighty tough stuff, but we’re so proud of who you are today.”
When I woke up at 5 a.m. and couldn’t go back to sleep some of the thoughts that were running through my mind are ones I can’t share in court, thus I must share them here. I would love to stand up in front of the judge and give an excellent “LA Law” performance, but it would do no good whatsoever. So I’ll argue my points here. At least it will make me feel better.
The way that the Child Protection System works is that at every hearing the guardian ad litem and the social worker give a report to summarize what has happened. We do not submit a report. We get to read the reports before going into court, but we are not asked to provide one. Thus “our side of the story” is not presented. I suppose our public defender (who won’t be able to make court today because he has to go to a seminar) could be asked to present our side, but again we would look defensive and it may not make a difference any way.
The irony is that in these reports they are very careful to point out the many times that we disagreed with them and things did not go well. However, there were an equal number of times where we disagreed with their decisions and they did it anyway, and things did not go well either. However, this is not mentioned anywhere in the report.
The bottom line is that once people have determined that the family is the reason for the children’s behavior, it is very difficult to convince them otherwise, especially when they have the assistance of mentally ill, manipulative, attachment disordered kids.
Would I still do it all again? Yes. Why???? you might ask. Because I still have faith and hope that one day, like Cindy can now with some of her kids, we will be able to look at our children and say, “You put us through some mighty tough stuff, but we’re so proud of who you are today.”
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