Here’s an update to a blog I wrote about what I considered to be an example of bad parenting. It involved a 3-year-old Indianapolis boy found wandering down Interstate 465, clad in a t-shirt and diaper. You can read the blog here.
The mother was charged with four counts of child neglect and the kids were placed in state custody. Initial reports stated that the boy’s sister was found eating spaghetti off the floor, in fact she was eating canned spaghetti out of the trash (the can had been placed in the trash the night before, according to the mother).
Not only was the apartment filthy but there was feces on the walls, there was trash everywhere and the daughter was wearing an “extremely filthy diaper”. The mother plans to sign over parental rights of the boy and his sister to her father and his wife. The couple had previously adopted the woman’s oldest son, now 15. She also has two other children who live in Florida.
The woman’s father says that his daughter wants to finish school and try to get her life together so that maybe one day she can be reunited with her kids. He also stated that he didn’t believe she intentionally tried to hurt her kids but she lacks “good parenting skills”.
She had recently moved to Indianapolis from Florida to be closer to her family because she was in debt. She currently receives an inheritance check from a trust fund but says she plans to look for work. She stated she was unable to find work until she could find childcare.
The leasing agent at the apartment complex where the woman lived is the one who recognized the boy as he darted about in traffic. She says that she took care of the boy for about an hour a few days before this incident when she found him wandering in the parking lot.
Investigators said that when they told the mother about her son, who had been gone for over two hours, she seemed like she didn’t care at all. The children are currently in protective custody, and the mother is not allowed to have any contact with them.
See also:
Selling Our Kids and Using Them As Weapons
Make Sure You Know Who’s Watching Your Kids