Comments on: Do We Ignore our Neighbors Too Much

By: alex farguson

alex farguson — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 08:06:04 +0000

I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.

By: markez linda

markez linda — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 07:33:51 +0000

Thanks, that must have taken a loads of work to put that together. This is a great summary.

By: Margaret

Margaret — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 04:09:46 +0000

It's unfortunate but neighbors are hostile about their privacy, and parents are hostile about their children, which makes it more difficult to help a neighbor in time of need, and it's unheard of for a village to raise a child. Margarets last blog post..How To Mercilessly Taunt Those Who Raise The Dead

By: MamaGeek

MamaGeek — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 23:52:22 +0000

Yeah I read that too (I think Dooce also sent loads of people to that article). It IS SO SAD that 'community' is no longer what it once was. MamaGeeks last blog post..Summer? Bummer.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 23:15:06 +0000

Listen people I knew this guy very well and I knew he didn’t control his wife and children for 3 years I know his family is devistated and they know how this happened the wife took the children out of school daniel is just a man that loved her and she never did anything he wanted but anyway she took the one kid out and then sat at home with the children while daniel went on LONGHALLS that was his job HE DOES LONGHALLS how could he keep them locked up and you know how media exagerates I knew the kids which weren’t completely underfed because he wasn’t the richest man but he left this woman for another so she got really mad (wouldn’t you) and lost all control and told the police these lies and soon they will figure this whole thing out just wait…

By: Tricia

Tricia — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:17:32 +0000

Amy, it’s true. I can’t imagine what the guidelines and protocol would end up being and can you imagine something like that in the hands of government…scary. “They” would have some sort of test to see how quickly you can align all the snaps on the legs of a new infant outfit, and I’d be done…a goner for sure.

By: Amy

Amy — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:50:56 +0000

Oh my do not go there … believe me I have been known to say things like “you at least need references to adopt a puppy but ANYONE can have a child”. But the obvious is that then someone would have to come up with guidelines and protocol and who is going to over see that … I surely would not want someone judging whether I was fit to be a parent or not! That would be even more tragic!

By: Tricia

Tricia — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:28:37 +0000

Marie: I could have easily been that parent who finds the police at her door. Aaron can scream louder than an opera singer. I can not imagine losing my children for a year over innocent photos. That’s outrageous! It still leaves me perplexed to hear stories like this where someone jumps the gun and obviously makes a very bad judgment call, but yet in the case of the feral child, there were three different calls to child services and investigators did nothing. How can there be such disparity in which actions are taken?

I wonder if what stepping over the junk suggests would ever fly. I’ve said similar things myself. There are phenomenal hoops to jump through to adopt a child, even to adopt a pet, but could there ever really be restrictions or tests to decide who can bear children? I can see a million reasons why it’s not a good idea, but when we read about things like this where people so tragically abuse children, it makes me wonder.

By: stepping over the junk

stepping over the junk — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:11:30 +0000

I keep reading more stories like this and it makes me sick. People should be required to take a class before having children or caring for them. And a background check and psychological evalutation stepping over the junks last blog post..Dear People

By: Memarie Lane

Memarie Lane — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 17:55:22 +0000

You’ve got to look at the other side too though, people who are a little too valiant. A friend of mine was surprised one day to find the police at her door, her neighbor had called them because she’d heard my friend’s son screaming bloody murder and was certain he was being beat within an inch of his life. In fact he was simply throwing a fit because he was being denied dessert.

There was also a case a couple years ago of a couple (in FL I thnk?)that was accused by a WalMart photo developer of taking pornographic pictures of their kids. They were pictures of the couple’s sons being silly in the bathtub after playing in the mud. The kids were taken away immediately, and even though the pictures were found to be innocent, the family was not reunited for nearly a year.