Quote:
Originally Posted by NoExcuses
I disagree.
Taking the responsibility of caring for someone else's kids so the parents can be irresponsible does the kids no good. Those parents are who had those children and those parents should take care of them.
Every time others step in to take care of the kids it enables the irresponsible ones to continue to be irresponsible. If they think the kids are going to be taken care of regardless of their actions, they will never stop and grow up themselves.
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I agree -- however I have allowed kids to stay in my house because otherwise they had no where to go. In those cases they were rather extreme examples because the kids were fine but the parent was not at all fine.
In one case, the mother would drop them off a son that was a classmate of one of my kids and his little brother. She never met us, didn't really know or care. A car filled with people would show up, the kids would get out and come into the house and the mother wouldn't show up until after midnight on Sunday.
I allowed it because for one the kids were quiet and behaved, but mostly because I figured it was better for the kids than being left completely unattended which I think would have been the case otherwise.
I've had kids move into my house for indefinite periods of times, hanging out with my own kids or they'd go back and forth, and at some point, I'd find out there were problems such as a drunken uncle who was "visiting" or staying a few weeks in the kid's home.
Another son's friends (2 brothers) camped out here pretty often when their parents separated and dad moved to another city and mom would stay out all night, forget to pick them up after a school football game. Or they didn't get along with mom's latest boyfriend. When the older one got a job, mom would sometimes forget to pick him up and she was not reachable -- I'd go pick him up.
Yes, it's being taken advantage of -- but I have a big house and acres and saw it as a safety net for kids who had no where to go. I took the approach that I would not make kids leave. But -- these weren't middle class stable kinds of homes or happy families.
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