Sparkling Adventures in Child Neglect: Now with Rats!

[Sumeri]

This has ALWAYS been what has astounded me about this whole story. And why in the world didn't her parents have his number? At least they could have then called the police to say "so and so with this telephone number is lost with our child in the bush" so that someone could have looked for them?

One of my friends bought a house in a new estate SE of Melbourne, but close enough to the city to have a metro train station, she had to change her mobile phone to Telstra when she moved because the phone reception was so bad with her old provider.

It does, it probably would have given the local police a welcome change from booking 18 yr old boys doing 140kmhr on the highway.

[August]

Not to bash your system, when the one in the US is far less than perfect, but it seems to me like the government should pay freeloading parents like Lauren less, and put the money saved into better services for people who really need it.

What, and have people starve, be homeless, go without top notch medical care or be put in sub standard day care so that you can make sure all bereaved children have counselling?

[August]

This is true. Only a few kms outside my town and you lose all except emergency reception. BUT ... Why didn't he just call the police? Calling to say "I am lost in the bush with a child" seems quite a reasonable use of the emergency services.

Even "I'm lost in the bush with a child. We're fine, but her parents are probably worried and you don't need to have helicopters out for us. We'll come back down the path when it's light"

[justmissedquiver]

Can those girls ever process normal feelings, or will they ever be able to articulate the thought, "our parents were careless with our safety and could have done more to protect us"? For all the lip-service to free thought, those kids are being brainwashed. They aren't allowed to see getting lost, when you are small and scared, as a bad thing. If they were scared or in danger, they can't ever think that it was the fault of a parent, or that there was some other choice that an adult could have made which would have involved more thought and planning and care. If a baby dies, and a parent that they had loved and trusted disappears, they can't think that this is a bad thing. Right now, nobody is giving them any alternate view and they are likely seeing things Lauren's way - but I can imagine a breaking point when they get older. Either they will meet someone normal who, quite properly, reacts with horror and makes it clear that responsible parents don't lose kids repeatedly due to bad planning and neglect, and they certainly don't drown children. At that point, the girls will either react by defending the crazy thinking (sort of like the Pearl children defend the plumbing line) or they will face to suddenly confront the fact that what they had considered to be a wonderful childhood and parenting was actually hideous.

This.

What I see in their future are teenagers who have no ability to judge when there is danger, who think they are invincible (more than the average teen). Who lack any serious decision making ability whatsoever. That Lauren has no ability to teach her children to self-regulate is extremely scary. I've seen folks here use the word feral and I think that is a good descriptor.

edited to add a proper quote

[ladyaudley]

Lauren has had her dreads fixed. She only posted the fixed version on fb (complete with wooden pearls et al), but if you go to The Rasta Masta's page, you see the before. :pink-shock: no wonder she thinks nothing of her girls' ratted manes!

[happy atheist]

What, and have people starve, be homeless, go without top notch medical care or be put in sub standard day care so that you can make sure all bereaved children have counselling?

If this is meant to be sarcastic, I'm missing it.

What I meant was, perhaps if people like Lauren had jobs and paid for their own month-long family vacations in Bali, there would be funds left in the system to provide proper intervention and foster care for those who need it. This is in reference to the above posts decrying the lack of communication between various state agencies, the overburdened case workers, and the little girl who was killed by her mother.

[ladyaudley]

If this is meant to be sarcastic, I'm missing it.

me too.

What I meant was, perhaps if people like Lauren had jobs and paid for their own month-long family vacations in Bali, there would be funds left in the system to provide proper intervention and foster care for those who need it. This is in reference to the above posts decrying the lack of communication between various state agencies, the overburdened case workers, and the little girl who was killed by her mother.

Even just actually charged rent on their house as an income. Or *lived* in said house.

[rward]

Everyone assumes that Luke didn't do anything to Aisha. No way would Lauren put that on her blog, or even allow Aisha to talk about being molested by one of parents' many, many "friends". Lauren won't let her kids mourn their dead brother, she sure as heck wouldn't let them complain about a little molestation.

I'm not saying Luke did anything, but I find his entire attitude, interest in the girls and explanation of the event highly suspect. Add to that the fact that children like Aisha- outside the mainstream, don't attend school, have inattentive, uncaring parents- are prime victims for pedophiles. Pedophiles know how to pick their victims and Lauren has made her children the most attractive possible victims. She couldn't have done better had she planned it that way.

[happy atheist]

Btw, I love this thread title HA. It always makes me smile.

I wanted to say "Now with 300% more rats!" but it was too long :(

[Kailash]

Everyone assumes that Luke didn't do anything to Aisha. No way would Lauren put that on her blog, or even allow Aisha to talk about being molested by one of parents' many, many "friends". Lauren won't let her kids mourn their dead brother, she sure as heck wouldn't let them complain about a little molestation.

I'm not saying Luke did anything, but I find his entire attitude, interest in the girls and explanation of the event highly suspect. Add to that the fact that children like Aisha- outside the mainstream, don't attend school, have inattentive, uncaring parents- are prime victims for pedophiles. Pedophiles know how to pick their victims and Lauren has made her children the most attractive possible victims. She couldn't have done better had she planned it that way.

I worry the most about Aisha. She is the least photographed of the girls and she never looks happy. I feel so sorry for all of them though.

[August]

If this is meant to be sarcastic, I'm missing it.

What I meant was, perhaps if people like Lauren had jobs and paid for their own month-long family vacations in Bali, there would be funds left in the system to provide proper intervention and foster care for those who need it. This is in reference to the above posts decrying the lack of communication between various state agencies, the overburdened case workers, and the little girl who was killed by her mother.

No, not sarcastic. Where do you want to cut the money from is what I'm asking. Starting with who deserves hunger and homelessness and who doesn't deserve it. Obviously you'd prefer $6000 a month of taxpayer dollars go into daycare for the younger three so that Lauren pays her penance of working to earn a couple of thousand. And to prevent her saving any of her cash for airfares how about having her submit receipts for reimburement for each expense? It should only cost a couple of hundred million to employ enough people to institute that kind of a checking system.

Am I fucking annoyed that she spends twenty hours a year at the hair dresser at taxpayer expense (equivalent of about $70 every six weeks)? Yes. But, the alternative is worse. I'm about to head off to the supermarket. If it wouldn't be invasion of privacy I'd take a couple of pics of the people who live in their cars next door to it. That's the end result of making sure absolutely no one ever takes advantage of the system.

[August]

I wanted to say "Now with 300% more rats!" but it was too long :(

It's pretty awesome just as it is.

[happy atheist]

No, not sarcastic. Where do you want to cut the money from is what I'm asking. Starting with who deserves hunger and homelessness and who doesn't deserve it. Obviously you'd prefer $6000 a month of taxpayer dollars go into daycare for the younger three so that Lauren pays her penance of working to earn a couple of thousand. And to prevent her saving any of her cash for airfares how about having her submit receipts for reimburement for each expense? It should only cost a couple of hundred million to employ enough people to institute that kind of a checking system.

How fucking expensive is daycare in Australia!?! $2000 per month per child? Seriously?

If that's the case, I'm emigrating and reopening my home daycare.

Nobody deserves hunger and homelessness, just as nobody deserves a month-long government-funded tropical vacation for 5. There's got to be a balance in there somewhere.

[happy atheist]

It's pretty awesome just as it is.

I'm glad everyone likes it. I get a little tired of the simple Part X titles sometimes.

[formergothardite]

How fucking expensive is daycare in Australia!?! $2000 per month per child? Seriously?

If that's the case, I'm emigrating and reopening my home daycare.

Nobody deserves hunger and homelessness, just as nobody deserves a month-long government-funded tropical vacation for 5. There's got to be a balance in there somewhere.

I'll be joining you! There has to be some happy medium between starving/homeless children and government funded month long tropical vacations while there isn't enough money to pay for proper child protective services.

[halfheartedheroine]

I worry the most about Aisha. She is the least photographed of the girls and she never looks happy. I feel so sorry for all of them though.

Amen. I forget how many children she has sometimes. (it's the four girls, names A through D, and the late Elijah, right? Do all of the girls live with her still?)

[happy atheist]

Amen. I forget how many children she has sometimes. (it's the four girls, names A through D, and the late Elijah, right? Do all of the girls live with her still?)

Four daughters, all of whom live with Lauren.

[ILoveJellybeans]

Its often hardest on the oldest kid when you have neglectful parents-especially the oldest girl, as girls are more likely to be expected to be the second mother to their siblings because of the gender roles in society.

As an oldest kid with neglectful parents, Aisha probably feels responsible for making sure her sisters dont die. She probably feels that she has to look after them because nobody else is doing. Shes also old enough to remember what life was like when she had a home, with clean clothes, a bed and a warm bath, and older enough to understand what is going on-that Daddy is in jail for murder and her baby brother is dead, and Mommy doesnt care.

[August]

How fucking expensive is daycare in Australia!?! $2000 per month per child? Seriously?

If that's the case, I'm emigrating and reopening my home daycare.

Nobody deserves hunger and homelessness, just as nobody deserves a month-long government-funded tropical vacation for 5. There's got to be a balance in there somewhere.

$70-$125 a day, average $100, times 20 days a month = $2000. That what it is here, too. But no 50% subsidy for me.

http://www.smh.com.au/money/planning/co ... 19uv9.html

On the face of it a month-long tropical vacation sounds outrageous. But I've travelled in SE Asia and it's crazy cheap. The lower living expenses probably outweighed the airfares. I looked on a website and got $2000 for five of them, return. If you're paying $200 a week for food in Australia, plus $200 in fuel costs, trading that for $100 a week total in Bali is not that bad. Except they were only there for 18 days. Fuckers.

If you want to get outraged about something, try the slack rope or the fuel to drive allover when she owns a house they could live in. Or the fucking $2000 blender she just bought. what the everloving fuck? :angry-banghead:

[Flossie]

Now my sister and I called our mother by her first name frequently because she taught us to. Her reasoning was that she was an individual with an identity other than Mum, too, and she wanted us to know and respect that.

I see where your mother was coming from, but with my own children I wanted them to call me 'Mom'. I reasoned that only three people in the whole world could call me Mom, and they were the only ones. I wanted our relationship to be special, unique. Of course, I set the tone for our relationship because I was the adult; I could have had my kids call me by my first name, but I didn't even think about it. I didn't want other people to assume I was the babysitter or a family friend, I was damned proud of being my kids' mom and I wanted everyone to know that. Perhaps some people would take that to mean that my own identity was suppressed in favor of my children, and they might be right. My greatest achievement is raising people that are empathetic and caring adults who will live good lives and help others whenever possible.

YMMV

[FreeJosie]

I worry the most about Aisha. She is the least photographed of the girls and she never looks happy. I feel so sorry for all of them though.

I feel sorry for all of the girls too. I just want to give them all a nice warm bath and a house to live in permanently.

[canbritam]

This is the first time I'm hearing of this woman and I'm just trying to wrap my head around how anyone can think this is a good or beneficial idea. I just keep thinking there is no way without a loy of therapy they'll probably never get that these girls will end up functional adults.

[ThatSnark]

Everyone assumes that Luke didn't do anything to Aisha. No way would Lauren put that on her blog, or even allow Aisha to talk about being molested by one of parents' many, many "friends". Lauren won't let her kids mourn their dead brother, she sure as heck wouldn't let them complain about a little molestation.

I'm not saying Luke did anything, but I find his entire attitude, interest in the girls and explanation of the event highly suspect. Add to that the fact that children like Aisha- outside the mainstream, don't attend school, have inattentive, uncaring parents- are prime victims for pedophiles. Pedophiles know how to pick their victims and Lauren has made her children the most attractive possible victims. She couldn't have done better had she planned it that way.

I had the same thought as you did. Since I live in the lawsuit-happy USA, I would imagine that a guy with an unrelated child would call the authorities just to ensure that there was no misunderstanding with the law-- if she'd been brought back from a US park with any sort of injury, many/most American men would have wanted to ensure that he himself had given an alert so that the parents couldn't lawyer up and say he'd taken advantage of her vulnerability. It just really looks bad otherwise.

[tuckerphez]

From Lauren's blog entry after giving birth to Delaney/Lana:

(Summary: Epidurals are way under-rated. Natural childbirth is way over-rated.)

And less than two years later was giving birth in the middle of the woods with no medical assistance. Or midwife. Or guaranteed way to a hospital in case something went wrong.

[August]

All her birth posts are a hoot, and explain the shell shocked look on her face in the pics after Elijah's birth.