I’ve renegged on some things before. As a matter of fact, I tried to do it with my new car (another post for another day), and in a day and age where buyer’s remorse laws protect most all transactions, one that is usually non-negotiable is that of children.
Ok, ok, I’m not talking about truly buying and returning of kids, but that of giving birth to and abandoning them. Every state has a safe haven law that protects distruaght parents who feel their child is in imminent danger to leave the child at a local hospital without the fear of abandoment charges. These laws were mostly meant to protect infants and all the smart states went ahead and put an age limit on their safe haven law. Nebraska (the last state in the country to pass such a law) , however, is a different story. Nebraska law makers did not put an age limit in the writing, which means any parent can take their kid at any age to a hospital and leave him/her there for almost any reason. Here’s the most depressing fact, over 30 children have been left in Nebraska hospitals since the law was first written. Read the story here.
People are coming in from all over the country to drop kids off before today’s special legislative session to add an age limit to the law. Here are a few facts:
- All but 6 of the children left are over the age of 10
- 20 of the children are white; eight are black
- 22 children had a parent with a history of incarceration
- 28 children come from single parent homes
I bet all parents have had bad days, and I know times are especially tough in terms of the economy, but you talk about the ultimate bailout! The decision to leave your child can’t be easy and I hope for the kid’s sake that it was LONG deliberated. But I’m going to go ahead and say I think this is the most cowardly act I have ever heard of and even though things get hard, there is NO excuse for purposely dumping a kid on the state.
If you read the story, one mother says, ” “Do not judge me as a parent. I love my son and my son knows that…”
I’m not sure how I’m NOT supposed to judge her as a parent. YOU LEFT YOUR KID, LADY!! Kids are always going to think their parents love them. That fact doesn’t make them good parents. I’d be willing to bet this lady will get pregnant again within the next 2 years. Shameful.
