They called me ‘Crack Baby’
November 14, 2004 10:04 AM Subscribe
They called me ‘Crack Baby’ - An issue of the foster care youth magasine Represent (March/April 2004) takes on the media myths and realities of being the child of an addict. [via a&ldaily and PY]
That last article in particular is really touching. It bugs me, though, that the social services in that case seemed to decide that removing the kids from their parents' care was enough. It doesn't seem like they made any effort to get the parents into rehab or into a position where the family could be reunited. Taking the kids permanently away from their siblings and parents is a punishment, not a cure.
Not only that, but the writer of the article writes eloquently about the guilt he felt after turning his parents in, and how his mother rejected him because of it. If social services had made any effort to help his/her parents (I can't tell if Taheera is a boy or girl), mother and child would stand a chance of reuniting.
posted by tracicle at 11:19 AM on November 14, 2004
Not only that, but the writer of the article writes eloquently about the guilt he felt after turning his parents in, and how his mother rejected him because of it. If social services had made any effort to help his/her parents (I can't tell if Taheera is a boy or girl), mother and child would stand a chance of reuniting.
posted by tracicle at 11:19 AM on November 14, 2004
My 'real world' vocation is uniting prospecive foster families with children referred by either the local mental health agency or the state social services division. These kids often come to us in horrible shape; not just abused and neglected, but unable to form attachments after bouncing around so many foster and group homes, let alone watching their family traumatically split.
I have only met one foster family willing to take on drug-addicted children. One. And to me, that family is super-heroic. It's sad that there's a huge glut of kids either mentally or physically scourged by hardcore drugs from birth onward, and society expects these kids will be taken care of.
I mentor a foster child in my spare time who saw his step-father slowly murdered before his eyes, and there's only a handful of people he can go to when the emotions come up. As a foster kid, you struggle to find safe places to share your inner thoughts, and these kids have less quality resources, they must rely (and often repel against) whatever Medicare has to dish out. It doesn't take a village, it takes trust.
Thanks for posting this. I'm gonna share far and wide...
posted by moonbird at 1:21 PM on November 14, 2004
I have only met one foster family willing to take on drug-addicted children. One. And to me, that family is super-heroic. It's sad that there's a huge glut of kids either mentally or physically scourged by hardcore drugs from birth onward, and society expects these kids will be taken care of.
I mentor a foster child in my spare time who saw his step-father slowly murdered before his eyes, and there's only a handful of people he can go to when the emotions come up. As a foster kid, you struggle to find safe places to share your inner thoughts, and these kids have less quality resources, they must rely (and often repel against) whatever Medicare has to dish out. It doesn't take a village, it takes trust.
Thanks for posting this. I'm gonna share far and wide...
posted by moonbird at 1:21 PM on November 14, 2004
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Looking Back on the Crack Epidemic - 'Crack Babies' All Grown Up
The Myth of the 'Crack Baby'
Watching My Parents Disappear
posted by jb at 10:08 AM on November 14, 2004