Tag Archives: bad parents

When Okay Is Not Good Enough

I worked in TV news for more than a decade and during that time I encountered (and often had to interview) more than my fair share of despicable human beings, including parents who paid more attention to their cigarettes than their own children. There was the dad who told a courtroom full of people that he loved beer more than his son (which is why he threw the kid down a flight of concrete stairs while intoxicated) and the mom who let her drugged up boyfriend silence her toddler daughter with a sawed-off shotgun when the child wouldn’t stop crying. … Continue reading →

Poor Parenting Or Just Evil?

People do stupid things… and parents are no exception. However, there comes a point when you wonder where the line is drawn between poor parenting techniques and seriously deranged moms and dads who are inherently evil. My fellow blogger Andrea and I have written dozens of posts that feature parents who exhibit questionable behavior when it comes to raising their offspring. In some cases it’s hard to tell if their actions—-many of which fuel news headlines and land them in jail-—are the result of in-the-moment bad parenting decision making, stupidity, selfishness or a combination of all three. Case in point: … Continue reading →

Why Black Friday Shopping and Kids Don’t Mix

What kind of parent takes his/her children shopping on Black Friday morning? I posed that question last year in a blog and got a variety of answers. Personally, I wouldn’t dream of dragging my child out of bed at 3, 4, 5 a.m. on the day after Thanksgiving, so that she could sit in a cart while I tried to score deals on Christmas gifts. But that’s just me. Apparently, some parents don’t share the same philosophy. Take for example the Georgia couple that ditched their kids last week, so they could snag Black Friday deals. According to police, instead … Continue reading →

Bad Parents Have Legal Rights

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When our adopted children first came to live with us, the parental rights of their birth mother had not been resolved. This happens in many, if not most, adoptions. I will warn you that the process can be very frustrating. We have adopted five maternal brothers which involved two separate adoption proceedings. In the first one, there never was much doubt that she was going to drag it out as long as possible and then sign relinquishment papers. However, she threatened to contest the right to retain her parental rights in the second adoption. The birth mother of our boys … Continue reading →