Sparkling Adventures in Child Neglect: Whee! Polyamory

[happy atheist]

Latest developments: Lauren is back from her European sex holiday. She and girls are still driving around Australia, ignoring basic nutrition, education, and safety. They seem to be accompanied by Lauren's new man, Marcus, but she's keeping him on the down low. Lately she's taken to spouting about her polyamorous lifestyle, which seems to involve shacking up with whoever's house they are parked at currently. She's not big on the details. Meanwhile, she took the kids to a historic prison for a visit, and they got to learn all about hangings and floggings and such, all while their father is incarcerated.

 

Some history: Lauren and David Fisher had 5 Children: Aisha (sometimes called Aïcha), Brioni (originally Stephanie), Calista (or is it Callista?), Delaney (now Lana), and Elijah. They quit their jobs and let other people live in their house rent-free while they travelled Australia and New Zealand in various modified trucks, practicing unchurching, unschooling and unparenting. The children forage for food, do not have to brush their teeth, or go to bed. David's sanity slipped away as they distanced themselves from anything conventional, culminating in an unknown amount of marital discord, and David's murder of 7-month-old Elijah.

 

In the year since Elijah's death, David has been in custody. His hearings keep being postponed, and little is known about his legal situation. It is speculated that he's being held in a psychiatric center.

 

Lauren and the girls lived in the shed/warehouse behind the family home for a couple months, until Lauren managed to beg enough money from internet strangers to purchase a Coaster, which is a sort of mini-bus. Now she and the girls are back to traveling around Australia. Lauren neglects the girls to a great extent, and denies them and herself the opportunity to grieve. Even though Elijah was drowned in a river, she made a point of pushing the girls into swimming and other water activities, and often posts photos of them playing in unsafe waterways while she herself hangs back to take pictures.

 

She proudly talks of how she's worked hard to have the girls not view their father's infanticide as a negative, but rather as neutral.

 

Things were fucked up with this family long before Elijah's death. In Africa after their wedding, they smuggled a child (possibly an orphan) across the border for medical treatment. They did not speak his language, and there was no plan to take him home after his treatment. Their oldest daughter was lost in the bush on Christmas Eve with a man the family had just met, and Lauren did not alert the authorities. At a Chinese New Year parade, the adults lost track of several of the children, including the toddler, and were unconcerned. While staying in a city, they befriended the local drug dealer in order to use her shower. In NZ, Lauren took the baby and hitchhiked to a city to buy a car, leaving David and the girls stranded. She did not tell David she was leaving. The list goes on.

 

They recently acquired 4 pet rats, which will travel with them in the bus and enjoy their sparkling adventures. We hope the rats do not share the fate of the Fisher's dog, which was "accidentally" poisoned when they could not find a new home for it.

 

Lauren ran off to France and Iceland for two and a half weeks without the girls. She left all 4 daughters (ages 3 - 8) in the bus, in the company of a woman named Alice. Lauren met Alice in Bali a few months ago, and watched Alice's child while Alice ran off for the weekend to have an affair. Lauren asked on Facebook for another adult to be "present" for the children, and for a place to park the bus (and children) while she's gone. Alice was utterly overwhelmed, cried frequently, and had to go treat herself to a spa day, abandoning all the kids with someone else.

 

SparklingAdventures.com - be aware that there is a link on the homepage that will take you to photos of dead baby Elijah in the morgue

 

FJ discussion:

Part 1: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=11137 An Australian (Former Fundie) Blogger's Son Dies

Part 2: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=14804 Sparkling Adventures Blog

Part 3: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=15960 The Return of Sparkling Adventures

Part 4: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=18273 Sparkling Adventures in Child Neglect - Now with Rats!

Part 5: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=19315 Sparkling Adventures in Child Neglect - Vive la France

[thoughtful]

As ever, Happy Atheist, a fine new title. :lol:

[happy atheist]

As ever, Happy Atheist, a fine new title. :lol:

Thank you!

[ladyaudley]

as someone who has been involved in a poly relationship in the past: fuck Lauren. Being poly is *hard work*, based on mutual trust and putting in effort from all sides. No one gets to just mooch off of it. grr.

[Annasopinion]

as someone who has been involved in a poly relationship in the past: fuck Lauren. Being poly is *hard work*, based on mutual trust and putting in effort from all sides. No one gets to just mooch off of it. grr.

She's like the Madonna of dreadlocked hippies...she keeps reinventing herself and looking for the most unusual of least heard of practices to give her hippy cred and distinguish her from the great unwashed company she keeps, but we all know she's nothing near being truly poly anything. Its just another faze to explore her lunacy from a new angle.

Hey Lauren, I know you read free jinger so I'd like to suggest Kaballah - you haven't tried mystic jewish yet AND you get to wear a red bracelet. Yes seriously there's a movement out there wearing YOUR colour and you need to be on that shit, STAT!

[Cheetah]

Thanks for doing the reviews at the start of a new part to the thread, Happy Atheist! I'd love to see these catch on in other threads.

[happy atheist]

Thanks for doing the reviews at the start of a new part to the thread, Happy Atheist! I'd love to see these catch on in other threads.

I'd like to see that, too. I don't follow most other topics thoroughly enough to do it myself, though.

[heidi]

She's like the Madonna of dreadlocked hippies...she keeps reinventing herself and looking for the most unusual of least heard of practices to give her hippy cred and distinguish her from the great unwashed company she keeps, but we all know she's nothing near being truly poly anything. Its just another faze to explore her lunacy from a new angle.

Hey Lauren, I know you read free jinger so I'd like to suggest Kaballah - you haven't tried mystic jewish yet AND you get to wear a red bracelet. Yes seriously there's a movement out there wearing YOUR colour and you need to be on that shit, STAT!

I'm really surprised that she hasn't formally broken ties with Christianity. She still carries around her Christian veneer.

[bionicmlle]

Great summary! May I make one suggestion - at the bottom where you post the links to the threads, could you include the entire title? The titles (Vive la France!) I think give a great soundbite summary! And they are all so funny. :)

[happy atheist]

Great summary! May I make one suggestion - at the bottom where you post the links to the threads, could you include the entire title? The titles (Vive la France!) I think give a great soundbite summary! And they are all so funny. :)

Done!

The first few don't have terribly exciting or humorous names, unfortunately. :cry:

[bionicmlle]

Wow, you are fast! Can some of your industriousness rub off on me?? :)

[SiameseIfYouPlease]

I read the new title as WHEEL polyamory and actually cackled. Woke up my cat. :shifty-kitty:

[thoughtful]

I read the new title as WHEEL polyamory and actually cackled. Woke up my cat. :shifty-kitty:

Is that anything like the cock carousel? :lol:

[happy atheist]

Wow, you are fast! Can some of your industriousness rub off on me?? :)

I'd have to ask my headship about that, as we are not polyamorous. :embarrassed:

[dilannsmom]

Pardon me if I'm a little behind, but I have actually been busy being a parent, taking care of my house, and working a full time job...has Lauren actually come out and said that she is practicing polyamory? (I also don't have facebook, so if that's where the info. is coming from that could explain why I'm out of the loop.) The last thing I read on the blog was that they returned to the zoo (with no shoes--oh. my. gross!). Or is this just speculation? I'm just wondering what all she has "admitted" too versus what she has "hinted" at. (Uuuggg--English teacher ending a sentence with a preposition--too lazy to fix it, and it is Saturday.)

[August]

She had a FB AMA and said because she had fuck buddies all over the country she's poly. You may not have heard her say it over the sound of a thousand poly people's heads exploding.

Vex wrote:

August wrote:

Is there a way into university without exams?

ETa: interesting. Provided they're willing to wait until they turn 18 there ia a two hour multiple choice test which doesn't cover any specific knowledge, called the STAT test. I wonder if it's really that easy?

I took the STAT because I dropped out of year 12.

In a word - yes. It is that easy.

I scored in the 98th percentile over a 5 year period with my essay portion and I was in the 80th percentile or so for my logic/maths portion. I got into my university of choice and I'm doing a BSc.

Granted, I was doing IB instead of SACE in high school so the level of difficulty was somewhat higher, but I sincerely doubt I could have scored as well in SACE/IB as I did in the STAT test. My strongest facet of academics is certainly my essay writing, but I doubt I'd have been in the 98th percentile of all the people who sat the SACE English exam over a 5 year period, for example, like I was with the STAT.

With my STAT score combined with my university grades I was actually eligible to sit the UMAT and even be accepted into my university's medical school if I passed the test and the interviews, although I'd have required bridging classes in a couple of subjects. I couldn't have scored the 99.8% SACE grade required to sit the UMAT and study medicine.

The essay subjects aren't anything academic. I can't really remember the choices but the subject I remember choosing (or one of them, I can't remember if I had to do more than one short essay) was 'is capital punishment a deterrent?'. Other questions I remember are things like defining worlds like altruism, reading graphs and stuff like that. I think it was multiple choice the whole way through apart from the essay portion.

It was certainly easier than my IB work, which for my higher level subjects was college curriculum. Just as a comparison, the UMAT also has a reading comp section (understanding people, I think it's called), and a logic/maths section. I did several practice tests and while I always got full marks in reading comp, my first time through the logic/maths section was something like 65% (and I don't think I ever did better than 85% for those areas, which was part of why I didn't pursue a medical degree). Those are the only college entrance exams I have experience with since I never finished year 12.

You dropped out of year 12, but you would have had an understanding of how to answer questions by then? formulate answers to satisfy someone elses question? etc? Is that a far assumption? Because the thing is, I wonder what these girls will be good for in adulthood - will they even be able to put up with being told what to do? or know how to jump those necessary hoops we all have to jump in order to get a job and be self sufficient adults? They live in a bubble where they are their own educators. Imagine an adult telling them what to do! or criticising them?! Especially in the headstrong teen years. I can't see this ending well. Unless Aicha wants to sell macadamia nuts from a roadside curb for real. And this is why I am so against home or "un" schooling, we should not have to pay the burden of allowing these children to slip into marginalised lifestyles on the fringe of society. Homeschooled children should be disallowed any benefits. if intelligent adults who can afford to sustain their lifestyle want to self educate their kids - fine, but its too much of a burden for society to be paying for this bullshit. We're basically subsidising a road trip holiday with some zoo visits and minecraft chucked in along the way for education.

Anna, zax wasn't saying unschooled kids are educated, just that the test is really easy.

[Annasopinion]

I'm really surprised that she hasn't formally broken ties with Christianity. She still carries around her Christian veneer.

She'd be stupid too - a lot of Christians are incredibly generous and well, you know...I can't see her shutting the door on people who might want to help / fund her at any time in the future. I mean, who knows what her next reincarnation will be after hippy?

[lilith]

Lauren wants to be in with everyone, so she doesn't renounce her old identities, she simply redefines them.

[Vex]

You dropped out of year 12, but you would have had an understanding of how to answer questions by then? formulate answers to satisfy someone elses question? etc? Is that a far assumption? Because the thing is, I wonder what these girls will be good for in adulthood - will they even be able to put up with being told what to do? or know how to jump those necessary hoops we all have to jump in order to get a job and be self sufficient adults? They live in a bubble where they are their own educators. Imagine an adult telling them what to do! or criticising them?! Especially in the headstrong teen years. I can't see this ending well. Unless Aicha wants to sell macadamia nuts from a roadside curb for real. And this is why I am so against home or "un" schooling, we should not have to pay the burden of allowing these children to slip into marginalised lifestyles on the fringe of society. Homeschooled children should be disallowed any benefits. if intelligent adults who can afford to sustain their lifestyle want to self educate their kids - fine, but its too much of a burden for society to be paying for this bullshit. We're basically subsidising a road trip holiday with some zoo visits and minecraft chucked in along the way for education.

It would be a fair assumption in many cases, but I think in depends on background.

In my case, I started sitting full length (two and a half hour) exams in primary school. I did them twice every year up until I dropped out in the first term of year 12. Before I dropped out, half my subjects were year 12 level and half were first year university level because I was doing the International Baccalaureate instead of SACE. I had the good fortune of attending some of the best schools in Australia, so the level of work expected was exceptionally high.

Clearly I had no issues transitioning since I was top of my class and earned a high distinction as my very first term grade at my university. No matter how high your marks, professors are never obligated to hand out high distinctions and they only do so if they feel the student has demonstrated an exceptionally high level of proficiency that goes above and beyond what is expected of them in all areas. I'm not saying that to brag or anything, I'm just trying to demonstrate that you can drop out, do the STAT and still do extremely well. I wasn't any kind of brilliant student in high school, either. I was down the bottom in primary school and the only classes I was ever near the top of the pack with were creative arts, english, german and history. I was definitely down the bottom for maths and science, which is a bit ironic since I'm doing a BSc now.

If I'd gone to state schools, I have no doubt the quality of my work would have been decidedly lower. If writing hadn't been my strongest subject, the quality of my work would have undoubtedly been lower too. If I'd been unschooled there is no way I'd have been able to transition so easily.

The STAT is a deeply flawed test. It's too easy. It needs to be more difficult. I think everyone should have the chance to go to university, including kids whose parents unschooled them. However, there should probably classes (perhaps optional, perhaps mandatory) for people who do the STAT so that before they plunge into university work they can get some help and make sure their skills are up to scratch and to ensure they're familiar with the level of quality that will be expected of them. For people like these kids to just plunge in is really unfair. There are a lot of universities that give excellent support to new students, but in larger unis it would be so easy for them to become lost in the system, and they might be embarrassed to ask for help or admit they're in over their heads.

[Verin Sedai]

OT for a moment: have we had an "ask a poly" thread on AMA? Because I would read the heck out of that thread.

[Blahblah]

Vex, you had a formal education as a grounding for moving in to tertiary education. Even though you dropped out, you had the experience of previously being in a formal, structured environment. Sparkle's kids haven't dropped out of formal education. They have never been "in" in the first place.

While I personally found uni to be very free & easy in that you can self-direct your learning to a certain extent and are expected to be self-reliant, some things must be adhered to. I can't even begin to imagine what Sparkle's kids would be like trying to conform to rigid deadlines, formal submissions of course work, structured attendance at lectures & tutorials etc. And I can't believe that they would find the STAT easy. There must be gaping great swathes of information missing from their un-learning experience that would be impossible to overcome without a bridging course or other formal tutoring.

[Vex]

Oh, I completely agree. Having taken the STAT I can definitely say it is far too easy as a uni entrance exam. A high school kid would have no trouble with any of it and it doesn't accurately reflect the level of language and reasoning skills a person needs in a university setting.

I'm glad Lauren's kids have a way into uni. My concern is just that there is no way in hell they will be anywhere close to prepared. That's why I think they need to step up the difficulty of the STAT and have bridging classes to help people prepare themselves.

[Annasopinion]

Vex, you had a formal education as a grounding for moving in to tertiary education. Even though you dropped out, you had the experience of previously being in a formal, structured environment. Sparkle's kids haven't dropped out of formal education. They have never been "in" in the first place.

While I personally found uni to be very free & easy in that you can self-direct your learning to a certain extent and are expected to be self-reliant, some things must be adhered to. I can't even begin to imagine what Sparkle's kids would be like trying to conform to rigid deadlines, formal submissions of course work, structured attendance at lectures & tutorials etc. And I can't believe that they would find the STAT easy. There must be gaping great swathes of information missing from their un-learning experience that would be impossible to overcome without a bridging course or other formal tutoring.

Yes. And we're assuming that they would want to GO to uni in the first place but I can't imagine what kind of career would tolerate their inability to contribute according to measurable indicators.

[Annasopinion]

Oh, I completely agree. Having taken the STAT I can definitely say it is far too easy as a uni entrance exam. A high school kid would have no trouble with any of it and it doesn't accurately reflect the level of language and reasoning skills a person needs in a university setting.

I'm glad Lauren's kids have a way into uni. My concern is just that there is no way in hell they will be anywhere close to prepared. That's why I think they need to step up the difficulty of the STAT and have bridging classes to help people prepare themselves.

I'm not against homeschool per say. If you want to "home" educate your child AND expect society to pay for it, then its a reasonable expectation that society should have some say on key education indicators - like literacy and numeracy that is MEASURED, say, quarterly, so that we know your kid can talk and count.

[Vex]

I agree with you, Anna. I strongly believe everyone should have the chance to pursue higher education without being held back by a lack of wealth, but I also strongly believe that homeschooling parents need to be held accountable for their kids' literacy and numeracy skills. If they're not able to do enough that their kids meet certain guidelines I think there needs to be intervention. If the child is burdened with a terrible education the taxpayers will possibly have to keep supporting them via Centrelink all their lives, and that's in nobody's best interests.