Starting June 1st we have to start bringing all foster children to all their court hearings! This is going to get crazy! Of course I am at every one for our guys so it's just a matter of packing them up with me, but for MANY foster parents this is not going to work because they of course are asking for our cooperation in transporting children to and from court. Praying we don't lose even more foster parents! On the other side of this, I think it will be wonderful for the judges/lawyers to actually see the CHILDREN and not just a name on a paper :)
Those of for whom this is already a requirement...how does it work? What happens if that child doesn't appear at court? Is it as nuts as I think it could be?
Sharing the life experience of becoming foster parents to the least of these!
4 comments:
Oh my god, this would be AWFUL for us. We usually end up waiting about two hours in the huge lobby with a million people, and I've used it as a chance to talk to our foster kid's mom and grandma without the added pressure of having their baby in my arms! I can't imagine it will be easy on anyone.
I will try to keep my comment short so as to not take over your blog. :)
HAVING CHILDREN IN COURT IS AWFUL!!!!!
Our children are required to attend all court hearings. I believe it is nothing short of System induced trauma. Court is stressful for all those involved. Imagine waiting rooms filled with nervous parents, scared children, crying children, crying parents, busy & preoccupied lawyers. It's horrible!
The waiting makes it worse. Then, if they actually bring the children in to the courtroom the children "get" to listen to all the atrocities of their cases. The children have to be quiet while adults (most of whom they've never met) make decisions that will affect every aspect of their lives.
To add to the problem, this also puts children in close contact with their abusers. We had a case where the little girls had to see their abuser being brought in from jail in his orange jumpsuit and chains. The fallout was horrific!! Thankfully we were whisked off to a conference room. But that meant I didn't get to hear the court proceedings and the children were terrified. It all could have been avoided if the children weren't required to be there.
I don't think it adds any humanity to the case with the lawyers and/or the judges. If anything, they become less and less involved with the children because they count this "face time" in court as enough (which it isn't)!
As for the children not appearing - I don't know. Ours HAVE to go. It's been explained to me that this is non-negotiable.
Yes! It is absolutely as nuts as you think it could be. Probably worse even!!
CherubMamma...that is everything I was afraid of! Why bring them if you don't actually go into the courtroom? This is gonna be NUTS!
Two words.....JERRY SPRINGER!!!! We have to take our kiddos too. The last court date we had to take our 1yr. old and court lasted 3 hrs. all during nap time! It was so loud from all of the fighting and drama that she couldn't even begin to fall asleep. It was awkward. We had never met bio-mom and here we were already picked as the pre-adoptive home and were told that she hated us. When we walked into the giant waiting room, mom (who is homeless of 14 yrs. and doesn't really ever see baby) comes over and takes her out of the stroller just to pass her on to her adult daughter (who was removed from moms care 20 yrs. ago because of abuse). They took her into the court room, but when she got fussy, nobody wanted to deal with her and quickly gave her to me and I had to leave the court room and miss the whole thing (thank God hubby was there to stay and listen ~ good insight for us). The daughter comes out of the court room because of her crying 1yr. old and proceeds to verbally abuse her little girl. I wish they had monitors in the waiting area so all of this could be documented. Bio-mom comes out for a little break, takes the babe again (she is at this point hanging on to me for dear life ~ awkward) mom decides to feed her the worst food and drinks for any 1yr. old hoping to keep her from crying. We have no say in anything because we are reminded that TPR has not been filed and we're just the foster parents. This is just a glimps of what happened during the 3 hr. wait. We have to go back next month :o(
Sorry this was so long. I've found comfort in reading your blog....its been encouraging. We're not alone. Blessings, Denise
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