Sparkling Adventures in Child Neglect: Now with Rats!

[Stephanie66]

In the US, welfare is punitive. A single mother with a child older than one year is expected to be working or looking for work (and proving that she is looking for work!) or be in school full time. The amount she receives wouldn't cover rent for an efficiency apartment, let alone vacations. I never understood the "welfare queen" stories. How can they be "welfare queens" on $400 a month?

Of course, food stamps are separate and can only be spent on food, and medical assistance is only for medical care.

[miffy]

and the story of the old aboriginal man has changed, hasn't it? in the original story iirc he never said "hello sister"??

I've never read anything about it before. Maybe he just smiled at her?

If its her reason for dreads, its really no different to taping her eyelids to look asian.

[Aurora rising]

Not to mention highly processed and full of additives.

Not necessarily, normaly it´s just another sort of grain (corn for example). But the handling is difficult, other machines, ovens etc. are needed - and if I remember it correctly some study suggested that it´s not healty to avoid it completely.

[ladyaudley]

I've never read anything about it before. Maybe he just smiled at her?

If its her reason for dreads, its really no different to taping her eyelids to look asian.

it was

I was walking through a busy shopping centre in Brisbane when I met the eyes of an Aboriginal man. He smiled at me and greeted me, and I greeted him back.

(8 feb 2012). I'll give her the benefit of the doubt, in that case. Still... ugh. and you're right. just like the incredibly patronising

I haven’t found that there are places that I cannot go because of my dreadlocks. Money talks, and if we have the money to be in a certain venue, then my hairstyle is irrelevant.

However, I have discovered that my dreads do grant us entry into certain places that we may otherwise not gain access to. Because I have chosen to wear my hair in this way, we are considered to be “safe†in homes where the average middle-class suburbanite family would not be welcome.

that's from the same post. She's basically saying "as long as you have enough money or are authentic enough, you'll be fine. just don't be an average middle-class suburbanite. those guys are THE WORST."

[lilith]

it was

(8 feb 2012). I'll give her the benefit of the doubt, in that case. Still... ugh. and you're right. just like the incredibly patronising

that's from the same post. She's basically saying "as long as you have enough money or are authentic enough, you'll be fine. just don't be an average middle-class suburbanite. those guys are THE WORST."

Or a poor dreadlocked person without middle class cash and accent, cause it's apparently fine if they're excluded from spaces cause they don't have enough cash to speak for them.....

Lauren is just such an awful person.

[Artemis]

Classic. She's a strong contender for the Darwin Awards. It would be funny if it wasn't so darn sad and didn't involve small children.

The Darwin Awards: Special Category: Not Just Removing Yourself From The Gene Pool But Taking Your Offspring With You To Ensure Total Genetic Deletion, AKA the 'Apres Moi, La Deluge' Award.

Only nominee and very probable winner: Lauren Fisher.

Most other people have the decency not to enter.

[Vex]

WHAT? Her kids smelling appetizing to predators is funny to her? Does she want them to get bitten?

Ratty girls is possibly the most accurate way to describe those poor, filthy, unloved little girls.

Except rats are obsessively clean little animals who constantly wash and groom themselves, and alas, the lost girls don't even bathe regularly.

[kunoichi66]

And then there's the one where the favourite toy is a sharp pair of scissors.

And the one where the sharp scissors are used to cut each others hair.

And the one where the older child attacks the baby with her fingernails leaving it's face all bloody.

And the one where they are encouraged to approach the back end of hoofed farm animals to pat them.

And the one where they visit a farm and wander around near hoofed animals, through dung, with bare feet.

And, my personal unfavourite, the one where one of the girls vanishes up a mountain with a young man they just met, is missing all night with him, and they don't look for her, or call the police, or even worry because perfect love brings the results you want, don't you know.

What?! ALERT ALERT! This is not normal behaviour!!!

[ladyaudley]

What?! ALERT ALERT! This is not normal behaviour!!!

26th of January 2010 (a month with delaney)

[kunoichi66]

26th of January 2010 (a month with delaney)

I would look, but I don't think I have the stomach for it...if the girls are taking their feelings out on the only person weaker than they are, then a) they have some problems with expressing emotion, and b) they are seeing that behaviour modelled in front of them.

[ILoveJellybeans]

Holy shit, that poor baby! That is terrible. I havent seen a baby have such injuries from an older sibling before, the most that happened in our family was older sibling slapping newborn sibling on the head, or too tight hugs and kisses.

Lol, Lauren shared this picture on her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =1&theater

[uber frau]

I didn't realise homeschooling exempted you. I guess my sister will never need to seek work either.

That really sucks. I have nothing against generous welfare, I was on the Single Parent's pension for a few years and am very grateful it was there. But homeschooling is a luxury, and it shouldn't be taxpayer funded, especially when the kids in question aren't actually being educated.

I'm almost positive Home Schooling doesn't exempt you unless you qualify for a Carer's Allowance. Her children are messed up enough that at least one would qualify as having special needs (they're really quite generous, I have w friend who was offered an allowance because her son had dyspraxia and required about an hour of 'extra' parenting time a day), but that would require having a mainstream doctor or social worker to sign off on it and I doubt she would want to do that.

[lizzielouwho]

I was reading early posts on her blog and googled the name of her boarding school and found this.

International Christian Academy (ICA) was an American boarding school in Bouaké, Côte d'Ivoire. It was established in 1962 as 'Ivory Coast Academy' by Conservative Baptist Foreign Mission Society (now WorldVenture) and its main purpose was to provide a standard American education to the children of missionaries in West Africa. In 2002, it had some 160+ students from 13 nations in grades 1-12.

In September 2002, during the Ivorian Civil War, children were trapped at the school for a week by fighting between government soldiers and rebels opposed to President Laurent Gbagbo. Eventually they were evacuated unharmed by French troops to government held Yamoussoukro. Some of the students and staff then relocated to Dakar Academy in Senegal in order to complete the school year. The ICA campus in eastern Bouaké was then used as a French military base in rebel-held Côte d'Ivoire.

ICA was accredited by the Association of Christian Schools International and the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools.

In February, 2005, the ICA School Board formally closed the school with no prospects of reopening.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internatio ... y_Coast%29

Just thought is was interesting.

[polecat]

First post, but I seem to remember that the girls did have a bath-time when they lived in their house. The Sparkling One called it a 'fire bath'. A bathtub of water suspended by chains, held by a forklift over open flames. Of course, the girls bathed in it by themselves.

I can't decide what's more dangerous for the girls. Her benign neglect, or when she has a Sparkling Idea for a new adventure!

Was she trying to *cook* her children?!

[CheeseDeprived]

I'm almost positive Home Schooling doesn't exempt you unless you qualify for a Carer's Allowance. Her children are messed up enough that at least one would qualify as having special needs (they're really quite generous, I have w friend who was offered an allowance because her son had dyspraxia and required about an hour of 'extra' parenting time a day), but that would require having a mainstream doctor or social worker to sign off on it and I doubt she would want to do that.

She was *offered* an allowance? How did that happen? Sheesh, my DD requires a bit more "extra" attention than that (dyspraxia is part of it) - in fact I would go so far as to say homeschooling is the only sensible option for her - and there's no allowance we qualify for. Not that I have a problem with that - it's just what it is; I don't expect to be paid for "extra" parenting. There's only a relatively short list of conditions that qualify you automatically. Either way, as you say, Lauren wouldn't want anything to do with mainstream medicos... She'd have to stay put in a place for long enough to actually go through an assessment, which can take months... that would seriously cramp the sparkle! ;)

Home schooling used to exempt you from the job-seeking requirements, I am quite sure about that, but the rules have changed again recently, so who knows...

[Aurora rising]

Aaaand here we go. Just found this on her instagram:

My morning cuddles now include a #pet #rat. Each night when we still have three to put to bed, I consider the day a success.

I bet that we won´t here much more from this poor rats. :snooty:

[Blahblah]

Aaaand here we go. Just found this on her instagram:

I bet that we won´t here much more from this poor rats. :snooty:

Soooo, she's letting the rats free range during the day then? And is surprised that they have managed to survive until bed time? Might give her an insight into how we all feel about her kids then.

[ILoveJellybeans]

Yeah, she probably thinks the same about her kids.

At the end of each day, when there are still four living kids, that counts as a success.

[already hungover]

Aaaand here we go. Just found this on her instagram:

I bet that we won´t here much more from this poor rats. :snooty:

Ugh. Lauren sucks. Poor ratties.

[Kailash]

Ugh. Lauren sucks. Poor ratties.

I do feel sorry for the rats to some extent, but my heart breaks for the 4 daughters who are completely at her mercy.

[already hungover]

I do feel sorry for the rats to some extent, but my heart breaks for the 4 daughters who are completely at her mercy.

I assumed that went without saying.

[Shoes Grace]

Sorry, but, where exactly are the crunchy hippies so shallow that you have to have special, magical hair to gain entrance?

Most of the alternative lifestyle folks I know radiate that vibe regardless of their exterior appearance. It's like a friend said to me: "If a guy ever tries to tell you he's a shaman or medicine man or whatever, he's trying to get into your pants. If a guy lives and breathes shaman and never says a word about it, he probably is one."

[Blahblah]

Sorry, but, where exactly are the crunchy hippies so shallow that you have to have special, magical hair to gain entrance?

Lauren has written a guidebook in her head that proscribes exactly how things should happen and exactly how sparkling everything is. She is also a narcissistic, judgmental fruit loop.

[ladyaudley]

Let the divine recognise the divine. When we stop to analyse another's motives, we're simply revealing the ungodliness within ourselves.

here we go again with the ungodliness...

[Blahblah]

New post up. Our sparkling friend appears to be advocating the use of fluoride in water, having had a discussion with a dentist about its positive effects on children's teeth. So her anti-vacc stance (Elijah was unvaccinated, not sure about the girls) could have been changed if she had managed to have a positive chat with a doctor? I can't get get my head around her ridiculous thought processes any more. :angry-banghead: