Australian Blogger's Son Dies- Sparkling Adventures

[happy atheist]

She's dramatising it to bring in more clicks and donations. :?

Poor girls; I hope someone can take care of them and get them out if need be. :(

She doesn't have advertising on her site, so clicks =/= $ for her.

Donations on the other hand...

I can't imagine ever giving her money. Why would anyone feel compelled to support some stranger while she neglects her kids? It baffles me.

[ILoveJellybeans]

Lauren, get to safety and try not to kill another kid or two.

[Guest Anonymous]

She doesn't have advertising on her site, so clicks =/= $ for her.

Donations on the other hand...

I can't imagine ever giving her money. Why would anyone feel compelled to support some stranger while she neglects her kids? It baffles me.

I know she doesn't get ad revenue but I suspect that she takes advantage of any drama to keep her followers engaged. Like, for example, she could have checked in sooner if she cared about people who were worried about her, but she took time to add new fb friends quite a bit before actually letting existing friends and family know they were ok.

I don't know why people give her money, but there is a world of crazy on her facebook feed.

[August]

How would one find her instagram?

[blatantlyeggplant]

Her Instagram name is just sparklingadventures.

[DaffyDill]

I can't quite get my head around her relationship with her family, who appear to do nothing to help these poor children - apart from that one time somebody called DoCS, but that could have been anyone.

If my kids were the ages hers are and I dragged them about the country, providing little if anything in the form of stability, little in the way of a balanced diet, cleanliness, and emotional support, and exposing them regularly to a cast of strangers - often without supervision, my mum would have used any means possible to have them removed from my care until, as she would put it, I got my "shit together and thought of someone other than myself for a change".

As their grandmother loves them dearly, it would not have come as a surprise - she would have had DoCS on speed dial ;)

I don't understand Lauren's family, David's either, for that matter. After all, they are their granddaughters and nieces, too.

It all just makes me :angry-banghead:

ETA: Maybe this close call with the fires in Tassie may spark (geddit??) some action?

[happy atheist]

How would one find her instagram?

instagram.com/sparklingadventures

[miffy]

FFS she is an idiot!!!

If you can see the glow of bushfires from your campsite pack up & LEAVE!

[miffy]

Also I doubt that the fires are 30km away if she can take a photo of the red glow like that. They are probably using that CFA fire ready app which gives inaccurate advice at the moment. On friday it told me there was a bush fire 900m from my house, there wasn't.

[AnnC]

Are there other families raising children this way? I haven't come across other blogs with older kids, they all seem to tether to a place once schooling starts.

Of course there are the various Fundy RV homeschool families, but I think that is a different set up.

[Guest Anonymous]

I can't quite get my head around her relationship with her family, who appear to do nothing to help these poor children - apart from that one time somebody called DoCS, but that could have been anyone.

If my kids were the ages hers are and I dragged them about the country, providing little if anything in the form of stability, little in the way of a balanced diet, cleanliness, and emotional support, and exposing them regularly to a cast of strangers - often without supervision, my mum would have used any means possible to have them removed from my care until, as she would put it, I got my "shit together and thought of someone other than myself for a change".

As their grandmother loves them dearly, it would not have come as a surprise - she would have had DoCS on speed dial ;)

I don't understand Lauren's family, David's either, for that matter. After all, they are their granddaughters and nieces, too.

It all just makes me :angry-banghead:

ETA: Maybe this close call with the fires in Tassie may spark (geddit??) some action?

From what she has posted about getting the van up to acceptable standards, it looks as though DOCS did intervene and set some boundaries on what was acceptable. If that is so, there is possibly not a lot else the family can do, except keep her on side, in order to maintain some access to the kids.

I am surprised so many of the family allow her to blog about them though. Her sister and BIL are doctors and Lauren put their full names, location, and photos of the inside of their house on her blog. Along with the 'cute' photo of how her kids taped a stick to the pool gate to jam it open. I'd be absolutely livid if a family member posted identifying information of any kind about me on a public blog. Assuming that the relatives care, they may well be very torn between wanting to step in for the kids, and being scared to cross a line that DOCS won't support.

I think DOCS will have a world of trouble to deal with if anything even worse happens to those kids. There was already something in the paper about an investigation into their failure to follow up the Christmas 2011 report, when Aisha went missing on the mountain. I know it is really hard for services to make that call of what constitutes 'good enough' parenting, but someone is really badly off-base here to judge Lauren as providing good enough care for those girls' needs right now.

[Guest Anonymous]

And now, from Facebook:

Lauren B F

Perhaps overseas in 2013? I am starting to feel excited!

On the run?

[Aisling]

And now, from Facebook:

On the run?

Who is going to take one for the team and invite her to stay if she comes UK-wards? :D

[lilith]

Also I doubt that the fires are 30km away if she can take a photo of the red glow like that. They are probably using that CFA fire ready app which gives inaccurate advice at the moment. On friday it told me there was a bush fire 900m from my house, there wasn't.

Bush fires can cause the sky to redden even further away than 30km, so that photo doesn't worry me particularly.

Someone wandering in and out once a day trying to get reception to see if they are safe? Lunacy. The wind can change, and somewhere that seemed safe can be an inferno in minutes. Sometimes the fire brigade have to call evacuations with minutes to spare. That sort of random monitoring is in no way going to keep them safe. I would hope someone there would at least have a radio they could tune to hear the emergency services and their announcements.

As far as DOCS goes - as I've said before, as they drift in and out of states they drift between different community services departments who have minimal contact with each other. Add to that that they are almost impossible to locate on any given day, and it becomes even more difficult to supervise them.

I am surprised that QLD community services just let them go once the bus was safe - I would have thought they would have wanted ongoing contact with the family at least until David's trial, to make sure Lauren was coping and the girls were getting counselling, if nothing else. I suspect that Lauren may be simply telling them what they want to hear, and because she is middle class and articulate and knows how to speak social worker jargon they aren't looking too deeply into things.

I would be very surprised if the department doesn't step up their involvement if further details of their lifestyle and instabilities come up at David's trial.

As for her family, I suspect they are treading carefully so she won't cut off all contact as she has before, and hoping that when she hits rock bottom she will turn to them. David's family particularly must be terrified that the girls will disappear from their lives. Lauren doesn't deal well with criticism, and I have no doubt that if her family questioned her lifestyle in any way she would simply refuse to interact with them, and proclaim that she was cutting negative people out of her life.

[Artemis]

Who is going to take one for the team and invite her to stay if she comes UK-wards? :D

Me. She can come and stay, and I'll let the girls have hot baths, scrub their nails and their feet and wash their hair. I'll get them to a doctor for a basic health check - like to check they're on track for basic developmental milestones, blood tests for anaemia for example, and to check they haven't picked up any intestinal parasites from all that dirt under their nails, as well as get them to a dentist to check their teeth. Then I'll feed them some protein and vitamins and calcium, get their hair smartly trimmed, make sure they have shoes and some cool girly clothes including fluffy PJs and slippers, find them some toys and books, and introduce them to my girls so they can see what being a grown up girl is like. They can go to bed at a reasonable time, in proper beds, with warm blankets, a hot chocolate (after which they can clean their teeth!) and a bedtime story before bed.

Then I'll have a word with their mother.

[tankgirl]

I would want to do the same Artemis!

As to the girls it seems like their hair is growing, there hasn't seemed to be any recent hack jobs in a few weeks. I wonder if Lauren took some of the criticism and hid the scissors, or more likely did the kids just grow bored of the activity, especially when it did not get any desired attention from Lauren as she just kept on blogging all their sparkles. After looking back at the birthday pictures from last year and seeing those girls with nice neat hair, it's nice to see that there has at least been a small break to the haircutting. The thought of the little girls having the scissors that close to that babies eyes scares the crap out of me.

It also made me a little sad in their circumstance, when the girls were plaing a game in the park where one drives the other to jail :(

[Guest Anonymous]

It is Bali that she is thinking of, apparently.

I wonder how the little things would cope, if they were taken into care. As much as I agree with all the things you'd want for them, Artemis, I think they'd probably need a very softly-softly introduction back into a 'normal' routine. My vote would be for them to be left for a break with someone like Auntie Gwenda, from what I have seen on the blog. The one that cuts up healthy food into little snacks and lets them graze on it while she tends to the things she can.

[Artemis]

You're right annie, they would. Probably scare them rigid if they had to do all of that. You'd have to do it slowly and carefully and make it fun, but the health stuff - I do worry.

[August]

Are there other families raising children this way? I haven't come across other blogs with older kids, they all seem to tether to a place once schooling starts.

Of course there are the various Fundy RV homeschool families, but I think that is a different set up.

There are a lot of radical unschoolers. A feature of their pictures is unbrushed hair and pyjamas (like my house at 11am on a Saturday). I have seen a couple of blogs of travellers

Or there's this

http://familyrun.ning dot com/group/familesontheroad

[Guest Anonymous]

You're right annie, they would. Probably scare them rigid if they had to do all of that. You'd have to do it slowly and carefully and make it fun, but the health stuff - I do worry.

I agree 100% that they need it all. It is a huge worry. I just wonder if the enormity of the care needs those children would have might be part of what could be scaring DOCS away from taking the girls into care. They would not be easy to place and there would be enormous pressure to prove that removing bereaved children from their only remaining (free) parent was the right thing to do. It would work out so much better if she would surrender them to a capable family member, who could keep them in touch with some of what they know.

[kunoichi66]

Me. She can come and stay, and I'll let the girls have hot baths, scrub their nails and their feet and wash their hair. I'll get them to a doctor for a basic health check - like to check they're on track for basic developmental milestones, blood tests for anaemia for example, and to check they haven't picked up any intestinal parasites from all that dirt under their nails, as well as get them to a dentist to check their teeth. Then I'll feed them some protein and vitamins and calcium, get their hair smartly trimmed, make sure they have shoes and some cool girly clothes including fluffy PJs and slippers, find them some toys and books, and introduce them to my girls so they can see what being a grown up girl is like. They can go to bed at a reasonable time, in proper beds, with warm blankets, a hot chocolate (after which they can clean their teeth!) and a bedtime story before bed.

Then I'll have a word with their mother.

I would PAY to see that.

[Aisling]

Especially if 'a word' actually means 'headlock' :D

[Witsec7]

Who is going to take one for the team and invite her to stay if she comes UK-wards? :D

I'd invite her to Boregonia for some sparkling adventures, but she'd be screaming fash the first time one of our coppers stopped her for not having insurance or having the kids belted in with proper seats.

[August]

They're in proper seats ... just not fucking belted in, which is driving me CRAZY. I'm hoping like hell all the photos showing them with the straps pulled down were taken with the car stationary and they were just in their seats for comfort and privacy from siblings.

[Witsec7]

I had no idea about death, no experience of it

I find it interesting that in here entire life up to her sons passing she had no experience with death. She never lost a friend or a relative to death. What a sparkling speshul snowflake.