Australian Blogger's Son Dies- Sparkling Adventures

[happy atheist]

I tend to agree. I found the discussion interesting. Every form of education has it's good and bad points.

I agree as well.

[Morton Fan]

I agree as well.

I agree, too!

[August]

While I am afraid for Lauren's children, as financial support seems to be drying up, I can't help but be vaguely amused that Lauren's followers remain as vapid and insensitive in their comments, in the bad times she experiences as well as the 'sparkly' ones.

If the bus breaks down and they can't afford to fix it they'll just stay where they are until they save the money to move back to the shed. They probably had less income when David was around, as one of them could be expected to work.

[freejoytoo]

I've just read through the entire thread and holy hell. I can't decide what has appalled me most, but her child spending most of the night with a basic stranger lost in the bush and her mother feeling HAPPY about it is up there. What is wrong with this woman? When I was two I got out of a garden gate and managed to toddle down a country lane. When my mother realised I wasn't in the house or garden she called the police immediately and was going out of her mind, AS NORMAL MOTHERS DO.

I seriously worry for these children's welfare.

[Guest Anonymous]

I've just read through the entire thread and holy hell. I can't decide what has appalled me most, but her child spending most of the night with a basic stranger lost in the bush and her mother feeling HAPPY about it is up there. What is wrong with this woman? When I was two I got out of a garden gate and managed to toddle down a country lane. When my mother realised I wasn't in the house or garden she called the police immediately and was going out of her mind, AS NORMAL MOTHERS DO.

I seriously worry for these children's welfare.

Yeah. Of all the things that have gone on (except the as-yet-unexplained death of Elijah), that horrifies me most. That is the reason I think the kids should have been taken out of there. The day David drove the truck off the road is the second most horrifying to me. I suspect that was a day that was intended to have ended it all, if the truck hadn't got stuck as it did.

[lilith]

I find them losing a toddler at the new years parade in Chinatown pretty awful - there would have been thousands upon thousands of people there, they are so lucky they found her unharmed.

And the deliberate eschewing of prenatal care, then freebirthing the child who had had no prenatal care without a midwife or phone reception or a way to get to hospital, with the other kids playing outside in the mud and wandering in and out of the room Lauren was labouring in is horrific too.

[Guest Anonymous]

Yep, all that too. The horror is unlimited; I guess there is enough scope for us all to vote for our 'most horrific' blog post, and for the vote to be spread among 1000 incidents. :?

[freejoytoo]

Yeah. Of all the things that have gone on (except the as-yet-unexplained death of Elijah), that horrifies me most. That is the reason I think the kids should have been taken out of there. The day David drove the truck off the road is the second most horrifying to me. I suspect that was a day that was intended to have ended it all, if the truck hadn't got stuck as it did.

Is there a link to that and losing her toddler? Her blog is so vast, and, scarily, seems to be near tragedy after near tragedy.

I'm all for children having independence and not being choked by a strict schedule, but it has to be age appropriate and there has to be some routine, which at the very least must include square meals, brushed teeth and baths. She boggles my mind.

[miffy]

Yeah. Of all the things that have gone on (except the as-yet-unexplained death of Elijah), that horrifies me most. That is the reason I think the kids should have been taken out of there. The day David drove the truck off the road is the second most horrifying to me. I suspect that was a day that was intended to have ended it all, if the truck hadn't got stuck as it did.

yikes!!!

What else has happened with this family? I've spent hours looking at her blog but there seems to be huge infanticide bits that i've missed.

[lilith]

The new years festival incident was when they were visiting Sydney this time last year.

That period also includes a lovely set of posts about them parking in front of one of Sydney's rougher public housing blocks, where Lauren's purse got snatched from the van by a heroin addict, but it was all sparkly, cause David caught her then they all hugged, and Lauren's dreads helped them befriend the local heroin dealer, who let them take showers in her unit, and they repaid her by posting her picture on the blog, identifying her as the local heroin dealer.

[Guest Anonymous]

sparklingadventures.com/index.php?id=1584

This happened after Lauren writing about her marriage troubles and before Elijah's death.

Off the edge

19 April 12

We’re well aware that our physical reality is simply a manifestation of spiritual truths, so I wasn’t surprised to find our truck falling off a cliff last night. David took a wrong turn in the dark, and in attempting to turn around, we almost fell off the road.

When navigating the tight turns in the dark, David backed off the road so one wheel is completely over the edge of the embankment.

Once he realised what had happened, David stopped the truck and we all got out very quickly. Thankfully, we were very close to a house and its inhabitants came out to see what was going on.

Leo and Kerrie invited us in, and Kerrie cooked some extra pasta for our family. They’ve only been living in this house for about a month, and as we’ve driven past several times, we’ve been meaning to stop and introduce ourselves. Clearly, we needed a crisis like this to make us actually stop and meet Kerrie and Leo and their sons Daniel and Reuben.

Kerrie unpacked some boxes with toys in them, and our girls were happy to play with them while the adults worked out what to do about the truck.

Leo helped David secure the truck with a steel cable. Using a boat winch, David tied the top corner of the truck to a tree across the road, holding it steady so it wouldn’t slide down the bank.

Then Leo drove us up to Pat and Mandy’s house, where we spent the night in the caravan. We’re thankful for all the help everyone gave us, that we had a warm, dry place to sleep and that it didn’t rain in the night.

In the morning, we returned to the truck to wait for help. We knew it would come, but we didn’t know when.

In the daylight, it's clear that we've truly backed off the road and are hanging over the edge of the cliff.

The whole truck sits at a crazy angle as it rests on its undercarriage.

We're very close to Leo and Kerrie's house, and they've shown such care to our family throughout the incident.

Leo and Kerrie welcome us into their home once again, and the girls pick up on the games they started last night.

A mother of five, Kerrie is marvellous with children and has kindly hosted our girls in her house for most of the day.

Our situation seemed dire, but the truth is — nothing was actually wrong. Sure, we parked the truck at an undesirable angle and couldn’t access our belongings, but we were kept warm and well-fed and made new friends in the interim.

The horrible situation that we found ourselves in was entirely imaginary! We could imagine falling off the cliff. We could imagine the truck sliding down to rest at the bottom of the ravine. We could imagine that help wouldn’t come. But none of that was real.

Instead, we sat out in the sunshine, played with our children and talked — like we do most other days. Nothing was wrong. Everything was good. We just had to embrace the situation and make the most of it.

I can learn a lot from this situation. I am reminded not to create fears in my imagination and simply to accept what is happening in front of me.

A knowledgeable friend with a 4WD assessed the truck for us and decided that he wouldn’t be able to pull us out. We needed something bigger — something much bigger.

Like this.

A hundred metres up the road, a digger has been working on widening and smoothing Pat and Mandy's driveway.

In preparation for the tow, David digs out some of the rock and soil in front of the back tyre so that it will be able to mount the bank easier.

After already having a full day of work in preparation for the fresh-food markets on the weekend, David comes up to work on the digger and to pull us out. We're so thankful for his arrival!

I expected the digger to drive us out, but David sets it in place, drops the grader bar into the gravel to provide extra grip and then manipulates the arm to pull us off the cliff-edge.

Being rescued was quite anti-climatic. It happened so quickly and easily with the digger!

After we were out, we drove up to Pat and Mandy’s again to pick up our tent. Our plan is to set it up at Johnny’s to provide more undercover play-space for the girls if the weather turns cold and wet.

Back at Johnny's, we light a camp-fire and the girls play around it.

There are a number of artichoke flowers in the garden rubbish, and our girls light them then hold them up as torches.

Elijah munches on the side of a hula-hoop as he lays beside the fire.

It was wonderful (as always) to return to Johnny and Claire’s welcome. We feel so comfortable here and can relax once again.

[chaotic life]

I strongly suspect that Claire is the one David attempted to screw. They were mooching off of Johnny without much incident, then suddenly Lauren ran away. Or...the message she gave poor Aisha to give David was that she had left so he could find righteousness. As soon as Lauren was gone, and there were the embarrassing posts in the comments about her frigidity and his desire for more and how if she truly loved him, then she could love him enough to share him....suddenly David is no longer welcome at Johnny's. Johnny is gone and the women still there are VERY hostile to him, despite the four girls being left with him.

Clearly whatever ideas he had of an open marriagae was NOT as successful as her sparkley interpretation of it.

[BravaAmica]

His idea of an open marriage is him fucking other people but not Lauren.

[lilith]

Lauren seemed almost infatuated with Claire too when they first met.

[Dysfundamental]

David was clearly someone who had some major issues (the outburst at the church, for example). The very public monologue on the blog about how he needed sex with others because Lauren was frigid and withholding was also quite troubling. Though I agree with everyone who has commented that he seemed to show more genuine affection toward the children than Lauren did, it also seems like he lost his grip entirely a few times. They could all have died if the truck had gone over that cliff. To me, the sequence of events that's been given in the law enforcement statements to date about how Elijiah died fit with the perception of David I got from the blog and the videos.

[August]

I think it was Tanya. Look at the body language in the pic on 14th of April. And the truck was backed iff the road. Who tries to end it all ... backwards? I think it was an accident. Maybe becayse they were arguing, but an accident nevertheless.

I think you'd need categories of horrifying. The most mundane was the guy they followed home from some shop, and then move in with him for a few days to take advanage of the free childcare a third (male, unrelated, stranger) provides so they can go for walks while he watches the kids, or to send him off with the older two girls for drives.

[Sydney Fox]

I think it was Tanya. Look at the body language in the pic on 14th of April. And the truck was backed iff the road. Who tries to end it all ... backwards? I think it was an accident. Maybe becayse they were arguing, but an accident nevertheless.

I think you'd need categories of horrifying. The most mundane was the guy they followed home from some shop, and then move in with him for a few days to take advanage of the free childcare a third (male, unrelated, stranger) provides so they can go for walks while he watches the kids, or to send him off with the older two girls for drives.

:shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

As the mother of three kids, I....just....can't understand WTF they were thinking.

[wild little fox]

I don't have children and I'm HORRIFIED!

[pastaswife]

What I don't get is this kindness economy/system she talks about. I mean, I get the principle, but I don't understand how she thinks she's living proof of that idea.

From reading the Redfern posts, and the rest of her blog it appears there's a constant trend of Lauren getting things, and giving nothing. Then she gives a speech about how her "kindness" was rewarded!

I mean, does she think she deserves all this free stuff because she doesn't shun these people for being poor, or shun them for using drugs?? Is her kindness the act of being kind towards people her middle-class sensibilities tell her she shouldn't, while theirs is giving her tangible things she could probably have afforded herself at the time?? That doesn't seem fair at all.

[lilith]

Lauren gives her enlightened wisdom and sparkling presence. What more could anyone desire?

Not that it justifies David's flip out on the blog or possible infidelity, but I find it easy to believe that she isn't a giving lover. Although I suspect her sexual awakening is coming up, and we (and her daughters and husband) will probably be treated to every sparkling detail.

Oh, and it blows my mind every time I think of the Redfern posts that Lsuren put up a sparkling picture identifying the local heroin dealer and her flat. Like its just another experience on Lauren's sparkling adventure!!! I wonder how that woman feels now, knowing DOCS and the police have been all over that blog.

[Guest Anonymous]

What I don't get is this kindness economy/system she talks about. I mean, I get the principle, but I don't understand how she thinks she's living proof of that idea.

From reading the Redfern posts, and the rest of her blog it appears there's a constant trend of Lauren getting things, and giving nothing. Then she gives a speech about how her "kindness" was rewarded!

I mean, does she think she deserves all this free stuff because she doesn't shun these people for being poor, or shun them for using drugs?? Is her kindness the act of being kind towards people her middle-class sensibilities tell her she shouldn't, while theirs is giving her tangible things she could probably have afforded herself at the time?? That doesn't seem fair at all.

For her next public act of kindness, her Twitter feed reminds us she does not (any longer) shun her Dad for being gay: surely for that, she deserves somebody to stump up and pay for the van to be mended.... anybody? :whistle:

about 3 hours ago Help make it happen for The Gay Dad Project Documentary on @indiegogo http://t.co/0697T1vT

[lilith]

Remember this is after she shunned him for years and refused to allow him to meet his granddaughters.

[Guest Anonymous]

Remember this is after she shunned him for years and refused to allow him to meet his granddaughters.

It wasn't her fault. It was because no one had made a documentary about it back then. So there was no way she could have behaved differently.

Lauren B*** F****r When my dad came out of the closet, I could not find anyone else's similar story. It took me years to accept his homosexuality and embrace who he is.

38 minutes ago · Like

[JesusFightClub]

Lauren gives her enlightened wisdom and sparkling presence. What more could anyone desire?

Not that it justifies David's flip out on the blog or possible infidelity, but I find it easy to believe that she isn't a giving lover. Although I suspect her sexual awakening is coming up, and we (and her daughters and husband) will probably be treated to every sparkling detail.

Oh, and it blows my mind every time I think of the Redfern posts that Lsuren put up a sparkling picture identifying the local heroin dealer and her flat. Like its just another experience on Lauren's sparkling adventure!!! I wonder how that woman feels now, knowing DOCS and the police have been all over that blog.

She's probably already known to the coppers (dealers tend to be) so I doubt this will surprise them. However, totally agree that's not cricket.

[lilith]

She's probably already known to the coppers (dealers tend to be) so I doubt this will surprise them. However, totally agree that's not cricket.

I agree that it probably wouldn't surprise the cops, but it would sure as hell surprise the dealer!