OCTOMOM

Reading all the information on the internet, it seems odd to me the fascination with "Octomom". Not that I don't understand the bitterness. Taxpayers have a right to feel like suckers. Here we are struggling to feed our small families while the government skims from our meager earnings to support an irresponsible parent. I understand further why people believe that it is harmful to children to be raised by a single mother with twelve children eight of which are infants. There is not enough parental time to help them learn the skills to become productive adults.

My confusion is why now and why with such a small time case? Maybe, because of the recession, people feel the government is broken. Maybe, people see the recession as proof that as a nation our moral compass is broken.

The reason I call "Octomom" small time is I have seen how the juvenile abuse and neglect system in Illinois works. I have seen women having far more then eight children, all born exposed to cocaine. This is worse then a one-time mistake, or error in judgement, this is the same mistake over and over again. Of course the children are taken by the authorities. In Illinois, proof of abuse or neglect of one child can be used against you in cases involving other children. Of course all of these children are special needs children permanently in need of costly special care. Not only are they born exposed to drugs but the mother was unlikely to have received good pre-natal care. Of course these children will grow up to have their own children who will also be taken by the government and raised by taxpayer dollars. This cycle of abuse has gone on for a very long time and yet no one seems to care. This is a daily occurrence and all people talk about is "Octomom". What of the mothers with AIDS or HIV who have more then one child exposed to this deadly virus. I certainly consider the victims of the horrible diseases to be just that, victims. I also hope that some day soon we find a cure to this nightmarish virus. That does not excuse a person from getting pregnant when they know they have the disease. No one should be subjected to that type of life. That is especially true of innocent babies. (If you find out you have HIV or AIDS after your pregnant, go to a doctor. It is possible to at least increase the odds your child will not be born with the virus.)

What makes it worse is that the Department of Children and Family Services tries to place children with relatives when at all possible. So the mother of the drug addicted parent are often provided the grand children as a foster parent. A grandmother who we know has failed to raise her own child successfully. Yet she is given tax payer payments to raise her grandchildren as a foster parent. She will likely go on to adopt these children as a subsidized adoption so that tax payers can pay to raise these children as well. The Department even pays for a collage education in the rare case one of these children go on to higher education.

This blog is not large enough to go into solutions to this national problem. It is large enough to ask people why "Octomom" when we have much larger cases in our own backyard. Maybe, this national financial crisis will make us reconsider what the government can and can't pay for.