18 March 2008

A special kind of mother heads to the sin bin

| Cameron
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ABC News is reporting that a 33-year-old mother of two has been sent to prison for two years for neglecting her children.

For those that won’t read the article – here’s the summary: Woman gets addicted to heroin and speed. Heroin and speed quickly become priorities over her children. She robs some 86yo woman in Phillip of $800 and buys drugs. Police find her in November last year in a car at Lanyon with her kids looking like rubbish wearing ancient and very used nappies.

Brilliant parenting that.

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Anyone have an update on Amber Westin?

Timberwolf6512:17 pm 21 Mar 08

I think that the government needs to re access the baby bonus, instead of handing it out in cash, perhaps they could hand it out in voucher form, for different stores, for baby clothes and prams too woollworths for food, petrol stations for petrol and so on.
It would make people stop and think about having a baby that is a lifelong commitment.

I also read on another post somewhere someone came up with a good idea of offering drug addicts money to have their tubes tied so they cannot bring unwanted children into the world, I think it’s a bloody good idea myself….

re: The Neighbour:

She moved away to go and raise her kids on a farm in Northern NSW somewhere, because she was quite mad.
Her husband had the patience of a saint and put up with her, I suspect mostly because he didn’t want the kids to go through knowing their mother was certifiable nor did he have the courage to smack her with a shovel and bury her under the roses.

Ask any Care and Protection worker in the ACT, if she had not assaulted the Granny, she would have had her kids removed and the ACT taxpayer would now be paying the bill for her thier out of home care while she gets to have regular contact with the kids

I wonder what happened to the 10-odd grand the taxpayer shelled out to her for squirting out those kids?

In actual fact the story specifically mentions that she was jailed for neglect, and that she ALSO pleaded guilty to the assault.

Nyssa,

I have 5 children and 14 nieces and nephews. Rarely are boys out of nappies at 3. Girls are generally out between 2 and 3. Girls being much smarter than boys and all that. Only the really talented and gifted children are completely nappy free before 2. Maybe that will be your children! But you are right of course, these babies need to get with the program and become more aware of how their toilet habits can affect the environment.

As for the heroin mummy, unfortunately you don’t go to jail for neglecting your kids, she is there for assaulting the grandma.

How did her kids turn out??

Ingeegoodbee5:19 pm 19 Mar 08

Talk about my mum like that again skiddy and I’ll kick your teeth in!

Skidbladnir said :

thought that powerlines set up a ‘harmonic water vibration’ in the human brain which would certainly lead to cancer).

She’s nearly right. Electromagnetic Radiation can polarise the water contained in your body (think of yourself as an 80% antenna), which can cause tumors, and I’ll chuck it in for the possibility of it all, and probably will cause some form of cancer.

Harmonic water vibration would be a very low freqency sound wave, which is very French Secret Service, but unfortunately is not related to powerlines in any form at all. It would come from a speaker or other type of transmitter.

I had a neighbour who (apart from being very very afraid of the outside world, played only one song on the piano, assumed that every aboriginal person was out to steal her purse and children, would only drive between the hours of 11am and 2pm, had her fifth child at age 45 because she had her heart set on having a girl baby, and thought that powerlines set up a ‘harmonic water vibration’ in the human brain which would certainly lead to cancer) kept her sons in nappies only stopped breastfeeding when they were kindergarten age.

Not an ice addict, just offscale high when it came to being batshit crazy.

GnT, you do that then. I’ve never seen a child, without a developmental delay, be in nappies past 2yo. Most of the time it’s the parents’ laziness and bugger what nappies do to the environment, but you keep on keepin’ on.

Ingee, I do agree with you though that 2 years isn’t enough. I hope those kids are in a safe place too.

Or that the fathers don’t even know these children exist? Just a wild guess.

I would dare say, given the apparent character of this woman, that she probably has no idea who the father is (or fathers are).

Ingeegoodbee1:50 pm 19 Mar 08

Tasty too!

Ingeegoodbee1:47 pm 19 Mar 08

I guess it comes down to the care and custody thing then – this woman had these children in her direct care, at that time they were her responsibility and instead she chose shooting up over responsibility for her kids. If you ask me two years probably isn’t long enough.

@needlenose – take it up with the judicial system that prevents a father having access to their child because the mother is deemed to be more capable of raising the child.

I say this fully expecting the wrath of the one legged lesbian surf nazi’s, however;

Often, it is not up to the father what happens to the children. That capacity has been taken away from them by the full extent of the law. A stranger has more rights over the child than the father.

@Ingee, re slug – it does have beautiful plumage, though.

Nope, my father was one of the best men who ever lived and I miss him every day. But I just can’t work out how it is that if one parent is in trouble for not feeding a child, changing a nappy, whatever, another parent isn’t, just because they made a decision to do even less for their child. Makes no sense. I could go on a feminist rant, but seriously, is that even an issue any more? Surely no one still believes that only mothers are responsible for parenting?

Ingeegoodbee1:38 pm 19 Mar 08

Needlenose – I’m guessing you have unresolved issues with your dad too huh.

Ingeegoodbee1:37 pm 19 Mar 08

There’s an old saying about that Thumper. “You can’t squeeze cheese from a goat before it’s hatched.” or somthing along those lines. You’re right though, I wouldn’t take a slug to the desert either.

Um, where’s the father? Or fathers? Shouldn’t he (or they) be put away for at least as long as the parent who actually stuck around? How is it not neglecting your child if you just sod off and leave it to the mercies of its mother, whether competent or not?

It seriously sh!ts me that women get done for neglect all the time but men who simply disappeared on their kids altogether somehow aren’t seen to be at all responsible for that. I’m not saying the women deserve better; I am saying that the men who leave their kids in that situation deserve a whole lot worse.

Damn you Maeliner, I went all the way out to the pet shop at lunch time and they are fresh out of camels.

They did sell me a slug though, and assured me that it definitely talks…….

Mælinar said :

There are no restrictions on keeping a camel in the ACT. It’s one of those black holes in legislation like not being allowed to urinate in Florida front yards unless its your own house, and suchlike.

So i can get a camel ?

Ingeegoodbee12:20 pm 19 Mar 08

I was told you can start toilet training at 18 months and you’ll have it sorted by the time they’re three – or you can start at three and get it sorted in about a month.

Nyssa, I’ll tell my 3yo he shouldn’t be in nappies FFS. I’m sure he’ll understand and start using the toilet immediately.

Where does one purchace a camel? and how much yard space would I require for it to roam and graze?

Would I be required to keep it on a leash if walking it in public?

This thread has drifted full circle… so,

Sounds like a case where its would be good if the prison could actually rehabilitate her.

Looks like a strong contender for compulsory sterilisation…

There are no restrictions on keeping a camel in the ACT. It’s one of those black holes in legislation like not being allowed to urinate in Florida front yards unless its your own house, and suchlike.

or the camel could simply strech its over your fence to the neighbours, who probably would be allowed to water…

Ingeegoodbee10:28 am 19 Mar 08

How would keeping a camel go with water restrictions? What if its drinking day didn’t coincide with your watering day? You’d have to somehow get it into the house so it could drink from the toilet …

You don’t need a permit for a camel, you are just trying to keep the wrong kind of pet.

Because this time, it involved children.

Ingeegoodbee10:15 am 19 Mar 08

Sad for the kids really. I heard once that you can tell your kids anything, but what they’ll really learn is what they see you doing … You need a permit to keep a flipping dog in this town but any crack-whore can go and have kids, it’s a mixed up world indeed.

I think that its a pretty large sentence.
I am happy to see a precedent like this be set.
people need to learn that they are responsible for there actions, whether they are addicts or not.

sorry it doesn’t say she was living in the car. bad reading on my part.

but the rest.

Many kids are still in nappies around three… especially if they have other delays in development, which is quite likely when you have some sort of neglect in the family. My view is proabbly skewed in that most 3 year olds I’ve met have also had speech/language delays so are mosre likely to be behind in areas like that. I’m sure toilet trainig wouldn’t be a priority if you’re homeless and living hand to mouth in a car.

I know that this is slightly off topic, but why would a 3yo be in nappies FFS?

Now going back to the topic at hand. It’s about time the courts did the right thing.

The judge should get a parade for actually doing what is expected of her.

Maybe they’ll need to transfer her to Amber’s ‘next’ case.

Finally a precedent where you don’t need to actually kill anyone to get jail time.

Deadmandrinking12:33 am 19 Mar 08

I’m just glad her kids are now removed from her ‘care’. I hope she manages to sort herself out, for their sake.

If some junkie scum knocked down my 86yo grandmother and stole $800 I would want her to get more than an 18 month non-parole period.

Perhaps she can share a cell with Amber.

Wow, I wonder what she spent her baby bonus on????

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