Australian Blogger's Son Dies- Sparkling Adventures

[BravaAmica]

Given her absolute lack of supervision and propensity to encourage her kids to wander off with strange adults she just met, it is 100% IMPOSSIBLE to state that none of the girls have been molested already. I don't think Lauren would know or CARE if that has happened to her girls. I don't think she would state it happened. I don't think she would report and get help for her kiddo and I don't think those girls would feel safe to TELL her it happened.

She'd just tell them it was all part of their sparkling adventure. :roll:

I think she is the one who tossed Elijiah into the water. Maybe it was PPD or she had a psychotic break. Maybe she is in so much denial about what happened. In my armchair therapist opinion her "tell" is the posts where she shows the children playing in the water, her seeming obsession with water and bridges, etc. maybe somewhere she feels guilt and this is how she is telling everyone with out confessing. This, alon the lines of OJ Simpson's book "If I Did It."

QFT

I hope David tells the police soon or he's going to go to prison for a long time for a crime he didn't commit.

[lilith]

I'm about to log off my wifi to read the latest posts, but just quickly-

It's possible that QLD DOCS didnt have a long term involvement. If they viewed the issue as helping the family through a trauma they probably would have come up with a plan to ensure the girls well being, had Lauren commit to following it, ensured the girls were fed, clothed, in proper carseats etc, then closed the case. There is no indication that they were investigating long term neglect, and the family wasn't travelling when they were involved. I think Lauren would have known what to say to make them go away.

Re funds and Del turning three. In Australia the sole parent payment doesn't cut back or try to push parents into the workforce til their youngest child is six. Her payments won't be effected til Del turns six, and I predict she has another child by then.

I'm off on the sparkling adventure, I'll come back after viewing newest posts.

[Guest Anonymous]

I'm about to log off my wifi to read the latest posts, but just quickly-

It's possible that QLD DOCS didnt have a long term involvement. If they viewed the issue as helping the family through a trauma they probably would have come up with a plan to ensure the girls well being, had Lauren commit to following it, ensured the girls were fed, clothed, in proper carseats etc, then closed the case. There is no indication that they were investigating long term neglect, and the family wasn't travelling when they were involved. I think Lauren would have known what to say to make them go away.

Re funds and Del turning three. In Australia the sole parent payment doesn't cut back or try to push parents into the workforce til their youngest child is six. Her payments won't be effected til Del turns six, and I predict she has another child by then.

I'm off on the sparkling adventure, I'll come back after viewing newest posts.

I don't disagree with you at all, but I would love to know what came of the investigation of how DOCS failed to follow up on the Christmas Eve 2011 incident. There must have been at least an internal report on it.

ETA: It doesn't look as though the child benefits are enough to cover their lifestyle though, if she is panicking now the donations are drying up. How much is petrol/diesel per gallon in Aus?

[August]

Lol, I've been on the govt assistance website, too. I reckon she's getting roughly $400 a week, and there's no employment requirement until the youngest turns six. She'll receive the payment until D turns eight, or six if she has a partner.

Does the amount reduce as each child gets older? I put A's real age in, so that payment's for someone who has four under 8.

[lilith]

Lol, I've been on the govt assistance website, too. I reckon she's getting roughly $400 a week, and there's no employment requirement until the youngest turns six. She'll receive the payment until D turns eight, or six if she has a partner.

Does the amount reduce as each child gets older? I put A's real age in, so that payment's for someone who has four under 8.

She would be getting about $800 per fortnight parenting payment PLUS about $600 per fortnight Family Tax Benefit. But she'll lose a fair bit if she leaves the country.

[lilith]

I don't disagree with you at all, but I would love to know what came of the investigation of how DOCS failed to follow up on the Christmas Eve 2011 incident. There must have been at least an internal report on it.

ETA: It doesn't look as though the child benefits are enough to cover their lifestyle though, if she is panicking now the donations are drying up. How much is petrol/diesel per gallon in Aus?

Petrol is about $1.60 per litre here in NSW. That bus would take a lot of petrol - they could easily be spending more on petrol than they would on rent if settled.

The DOCS report about Aisha going missing was in NSW. They also had reports about the free birth and about Elijah having no medical care. They tried to find the family when they were in the Newcastle area, but they couldn't locate them, and they left the country soon after. That report wasn't shared with QLD DOCS til after Elijah's death.

[Guest Anonymous]

Thank you. I was thinking at the time she wrote some of her posts, that while it is a bloody cheek to roll up at people's houses with a truckload of dirty washing, she still would be spending a lot more on fuel than she is saving on launderette and food bills while she scrounges from 'new friends'.

[happy atheist]

It looks like the US dollar and Australian dollar are pretty close right now, so she's spending something like $6 - $6.50 per gallon. That would add up fast. Especially with all her kids and related crap crammed in there.

[lilith]

I find it interesting that we get a whole post on laundry methods very soon after I posted that I've never seen her mention how she deals with laundry on the road. Hi Lauren!

5 loads a week when she was in her home doesnt seem obsessive to me - I do two loads most days.

And of course she dances on the clothes to agitate them. Cause she's just so damn sparkly......

[lilith]

Also, her comment about just trying to wash the smell out of the undies. It seems odd. I know that adult women's undies can get a bit whiffy, depending on the time of the month, but I've never noticed any smell in my daughter's undies. How long are they wearing them between washes? Or has she considered that they might have thrush?

[pixydust]

Also, her comment about just trying to wash the smell out of the undies. It seems odd. I know that adult women's undies can get a bit whiffy, depending on the time of the month, but I've never noticed any smell in my daughter's undies. How long are they wearing them between washes? Or has she considered that they might have thrush?

My bet would be that they are either wearing them for long periods of time or they don't use toilet paper when they pee and they get dribbles of pee in their undies.

[ILoveJellybeans]

They probably wear the same ones for months at a time.

[lilith]

My bet would be that they are either wearing them for long periods of time or they don't use toilet paper when they pee and they get dribbles of pee in their undies.

The no toilet paper thing would make sense, especially if they are weeing outside on the grass.

It doesn't look like they went to a Rainbow Festival. Maybe Lauren is treating the Rainbow Family just like her real family and has had a falling out with them. It wouldn't surprise me if she wasn't welcomed after last years drama - springing her unattended free birth on the participants wether they liked it or not, corralling all available people into being birth attendants or to look after her other kids while she gave birth, calling the attention of DOCS and police to the gathering, then loudly publicising it all on her blog so that she is associated with the movement despite having only attended one gathering. She made the whole gathering all about her, and put the participants in an awful position of having to either be a part of a very risky birth or leave her and her kids unattended. I wouldn't have been happy if I'd been at the gathering.

[Witsec7]

The no toilet paper thing would make sense, especially if they are weeing outside on the grass.

It doesn't look like they went to a Rainbow Festival. Maybe Lauren is treating the Rainbow Family just like her real family and has had a falling out with them. It wouldn't surprise me if she wasn't welcomed after last years drama - springing her unattended free birth on the participants wether they liked it or not, corralling all available people into being birth attendants or to look after her other kids while she gave birth, calling the attention of DOCS and police to the gathering, then loudly publicising it all on her blog so that she is associated with the movement despite having only attended one gathering. She made the whole gathering all about her, and put the participants in an awful position of having to either be a part of a very risky birth or leave her and her kids unattended. I wouldn't have been happy if I'd been at the gathering.

I just think that she hooked up with some Rainbows on the road. It certainly wasn't large enough for a gathering or even for one of our quarterly potlucks. There are regional gathering on all the continents, perhaps this was one that was under attended.

[August]

Would she lose much considering rental income? Assuming she declares it.

[Kitchen Princess]

My sister unschools. She says she will allow her kids to attend high school or TAFE if they choose to, but her eleven year old only lasted one term before asking not to return to school. If she couldn't deal with it at eleven I don't think integrating and dealing with the routine of school will become any easier as she gets older.

You can do higher education as a mature age student without a HSC or equivelant after 21 I think, but that assumes that your education has equipped you to study at a university level, and not all unschoolers achieve that - I highly doubt Lauren's kids will.

The whole point of Unschooling is to let a child direct their education in the environment and method as they see fit. It is so highly individual that it is really not fair to extrapolate one person's experience to all unschoolers. It is also unfair to your particular niece to hold her to some sort of perception on your part that she somehow failed at school because she chose to go back to what she surely sees as a better way. The rigidity of the school schedule is one of very many encumberences that most kids find get in the way of what they want to learn and how they want to learn it. I don't know a single unschooled teenager (and I know a lot of them) that don't also have jobs and/or have gone to college and haven't had a bit of problem getting themselves roused to do so. My son's comment, after two weeks of 7th grade, while standing beside his mountain bike on a mesa near Santa Fe when he was 12, was "I have the best life ever. Why would I ever go back to school?"

I don't usually discuss Unschooling on the web anymore, but I just wanted to stand up for your little niece's ability to make decisions for her own life. I hope if you can't encourage her in all her pursuits that you will just sit on your hands and wait. She is going to surprise you.

[lilith]

Creaky Steel - you seem to have read a lot into my comment, far more than I actually wrote.

I'm certainly not extrapolating my nieces experiences to all unschoolers. I was simply talking about my experiences with unschooling in Australia in response to a poster who asked how unschooled Australians access higher education.

I'm not labelling my niece a failure. I'm pointing out that when she opted to go to school she had difficulties dealing with the structured environment and she chose to leave that environment instead of learning to function within it. In my opinion, adapting to that environment will get more difficult for her with time, especially when the social pressures of being a teenage girl are added to the mix, and if she chooses to attend university as an adult without having attended high school it will be a much more difficult transition for her than for people who have attended schools and are used to dealing with timetables, peers, testing, teachers they don't click with etc.

I also don't view her choice to return to unschooling as purely hers. My sister and her social group look down on conventional education and see little value in it, and while she allowed her daughter to sample the school experience, she didn't encourage and support it, and she was open about the fact that she didn't think it was the right choice. So I don't think my niece is directing her own education any more than my children who go to public school are. Both sets of children are following the path that their mother advocates.

I do encourage my niece in her pursuits. She often finds it awkward to spend time with my family though, as she gets very embarrassed that my daughter, who is three years her junior, can read more fluently and has pop culture knowledge that my niece lacks. My niece is aware of the shortfalls within her life and education (as is my daughter, we all have them), but despite the unschooling mantra of empowerment, she is unable to rectify them without the support of her mother, and her mother is very invested in unschooling and isolating her children from mainstream culture.

I realise that no two unschooling families are alike, and that the outcomes for unschooled children vary dramatically. I am not painting all unschooling families with the same brush.

I do, however, see many similarities in the way my sister schools her children and the attitudes she and her friends have regarding education and Lauren's attitude and schooling, which is why I brought it up.

My goal in parenting is to do all I can to equip my children with the skills they need to be whatever adult they want to be. Many unschooling parents profess a similar philosophy. Yet I look at my sister's children and highly doubt that they are developing the skills and confidence to lead a life similar to my families, and I look at my children and think that they are developing the skills and confidence to lead her lifestyle if they so chose, along with many others. I do think that my sister, Lauren, and many other unschoolers are severely restricting their children's future options, and I think that's s tragedy. I also know unschooling families who are doing wonderful jobs and raising confident, capable children.

[miffy]

It amuses me that somebody who is so into the rainbow/hippie/counterculture thing can be so into giving themselves labels.

[Wolfie]

It amuses me that somebody who is so into the rainbow/hippie/counterculture thing can be so into giving themselves labels.

I've seen it more often than not in the younger "hippie" culture- they label themselves and decide at first glance and label others too.

I have hippie leanings, but don't fit into the culture here because I teach in a public school, never mind that I teach music, or that I do it because I want to make a difference, to younger hippies having that mainstream of a job is not a good thing.

[lilith]

I've seen it more often than not in the younger "hippie" culture- they label themselves and decide at first glance and label others too.

I have hippie leanings, but don't fit into the culture here because I teach in a public school, never mind that I teach music, or that I do it because I want to make a difference, to younger hippies having that mainstream of a job is not a good thing.

Yes, Lauren is the woman who loves her dreads because they make interesting people want to hang out with her, and who chose to wear all red after she met a woman who wears all green. She has a real need to conform - she pushed herself to be the perfect conservative Christian wife and mother, all about routines and recipes and matching kids outfits.

Then she did a very abrupt about turn to become a nomadic alternative earth mother.

She advocated each lifestyle as the one ideal way, but neither seem to have made her happy.

In fact, the only thing that seems to have made her happy was her job, but both images require her to give that up.

[wild little fox]

It doesn't look like they went to a Rainbow Festival. Maybe Lauren is treating the Rainbow Family just like her real family and has had a falling out with them. It wouldn't surprise me if she wasn't welcomed after last years drama - springing her unattended free birth on the participants wether they liked it or not, corralling all available people into being birth attendants or to look after her other kids while she gave birth, calling the attention of DOCS and police to the gathering, then loudly publicising it all on her blog so that she is associated with the movement despite having only attended one gathering. She made the whole gathering all about her, and put the participants in an awful position of having to either be a part of a very risky birth or leave her and her kids unattended. I wouldn't have been happy if I'd been at the gathering.

I don't know about OZ, but it is not uncommon at all for women to give birth at Rainbow Gatherings here in the US. The one in 2011 in Washington there was at least one child born.

ETA: I met a young woman who claimed she was born at the first gathering when I was at the 2011.

And as far as I can tell they really don't eject people from gatherings. It is all about unconditional acceptance. Of course that means there is a lot of things that seem, to me, to be enabling behavior. Like ExperienceDD has said in the past most Rainbow folk go back to their normal or unique functioning lives. I've noticed a fair share of moochers and con artists. There are a lot of Family who do good year around. Food not bombs, IIRC, was started by Family. I've only observed. My Love is Family and the unconditional love and acceptance of their community has really helped him heal.

[Guest Anonymous]

Someone commented on FB that there was no Rainbow Family Gathering in Tasmania; it was a private, invitation-only event organised by some from within the Rainbow community.

[lilith]

I don't know about OZ, but it is not uncommon at all for women to give birth at Rainbow Gatherings here in the US. The one in 2011 in Washington there was at least one child born.

ETA: I met a young woman who claimed she was born at the first gathering when I was at the 2011.

And as far as I can tell they really don't eject people from gatherings. It is all about unconditional acceptance. Of course that means there is a lot of things that seem, to me, to be enabling behavior. Like ExperienceDD has said in the past most Rainbow folk go back to their normal or unique functioning lives. I've noticed a fair share of moochers and con artists. There are a lot of Family who do good year around. Food not bombs, IIRC, was started by Family. I've only observed. My Love is Family and the unconditional love and acceptance of their community has really helped him heal.

I didn't mean to imply that i thought Lauren may have been banned from

Rainbow gatherings. I know they dont work like that. I was more speculating that the Rainbow community may have been less than enthusiastic about her and her family, and individuals within it may not have given her the unconditional support and accolades for her sparkly life that she seeks. And that would probably make her stay away, she only seems to associate with people who affirm her choices and praise her. I don't see her being banned or ejected, just maybe not getting the acknowledgement as the sparkliest of them all that she seeks, and maybe word getting back to her that many considered her freebirth to be highly irresponsible.

I know women give birth at festivals, I actually attended a rainbow festival where there was a birth when I was a teenager. The difference is that this woman planned to birth there and had two midwives and a support team of friends and family with her, and the midwives arranged with the property owner to be able to use his phone if necessary (it was pre mobile days), had notified the local hospital and had a plan to get the mother there if necessary, and had their medical equipment on hand. The mother didn't just rock up to a gathering full of strangers and expect them to cater to her and to give her the birth experience she wanted, like Lauren did, and I am pretty sure her midwives would have advised her to evacuate if access became an issue.

[pastaswife]

I do think there is something deliberate and quite sinister in the way she repeatedly posts photos of the children playing unsupervised in or near water, and with bridges in the background. Also... the naked photos of Delaney are a new and disturbing thing.

My best friend died of cancer in November, I never got to see her in the hospital but I struggle to even watch scenes in movies of people dying in hospital or I get so upset I can't even function. I have no idea how this nutcase manages to see her kids near a bridge without freaking out, let alone take some sick pleasure from it.

[August]

I found the transition from the spoon fed structured life of high school to the autonomous learning in college difficult.

Where I think unschoolers lose out is learning how to buckle down and do things you don't want to do, or remaining polite through boring things. And especially, dealing with assholes or even just people you're not that keen on. And those are really important skills in real world employment. If your first instibct when you're told to stop complaining and mop the floor is to storm off and go surfing, you're going to havetrouble keeping a job. Even an etsy seller of hand felted yoni brooches has to do her taxes, or sit through a boring meeting with pin suppliers. Or just buckle down and fill a bulk irder of five in one week when the jacaranda's in bloom outside and you'd rather be dancing.