According to this article the parents are adoptive parents, not foster parents.
They also claim a pyschiatrist told them to cage the children, at night, for their own protection from one another.
According to this article, KidCharlemagne , yes, the cages were actually painted.
Finally, Queen Tonya, that is exactly what I was thinking. What parent hasn’t wanted to cage their children at one point or another?
Hopefully this story is exaggerated and we don’t know all of the details. The neighbors seem to think that the kids were well-behaved and cared for mostly. I don’t know about the wisdom of having 11 kids, and I certainly cannot say I wouldn’t have balked at the advise of any doctor who told me to put my kids in a cage at night, but I am reserving judgement until we have verified a few more details.
I do think it’s noteworthy that the parents haven’t been charged yet.
Sheesh, I’m shocked at you parents. I used to be a live-in babysitter for a very active and occaisionally obnoxious young monster*. I was never tempted to lock her in a cage. And since my housemate also had Great Danes, she had kennels about the size of these cages. Of course, the drawback to cages were twofold: first, clever monsters understand latches, and can escape; And they cost far more money than my preferred fantasy control technique.
Oh, you really want to know what it was?
Duct tape cocoons. Then hang the monster upside down, and set her swinging, so that the cries would have that lovely Doppler effect, too.
*Yes, she is a monster. What else do you call something that cheers for the carnotaurs in Dinosaur, helps Princess Fiona blow up the blue bird with singing when watching Shreck, brushes her teeth while muttering about, “Scary monsters don’t have plaque,” and goes “Raaar” when meeting people in the supermarket?
I’m with OtakuLoki. Duct tape cures all, plus you can cover the mouth. But I’m taking notes from these parents. Caged teenagers might mean I get to keep my hair and natural hair color a few more years, until they are out of the house, in college, and we change the locks (and phone number and address…)
Aren’t you supposed to chain them so they can’t get to the toilet? You have to make it clear that fulfillment of their most basic needs comes only through total submission and obedience to You. Didn’t The Company teach you anything?
As much as I hate to say it, I can see some merit to this position. The word “cages” is emotionally loaded, which is likely why the press used it. According to the reports from the linked article, by all accounts the children were happy, healthy and well cared for. I think it’s telling that the parents haven’t been charged with anything yet. I’ll need more details before I make up my mind one way or the other, but there is a world of difference between “OMG! They were locked in cages like animals!” (which, FTR, would be unequivocally WRONG) and restraining special needs children at night (the article did say that some of the kids had developmental difficulties, but not how many) if they are prone to doing things that would endanger themselves or others. A box may not be the best choice as a restraint, but as long as it was clean (not making the children lie in puddles of urine or feces-and the article did raise a question about that), with comfortable bedding and most of all that the children were not put there as “punishment”, than I can’t say that it’s much different than a crib, and it sounds a hell of a lot better than letting a child wander away from the house in the middle of the night when the parents are sleeping. I’ll need more facts before I am prepared to unilaterally condemn these people based upon a news article offering so little concrete information.
I just re-read the article and noticed that some of the kids suffer from fetal alcohol syndrome. One of the common symptoms of FAS is hypersexuality, when the child is unwilling and/or unable to control their sexual urges. If any of the children had entered or were on the cusp of puberty, it’s entirely possible that they would molest the other children, they would be unable to help themselves. I personally know a family who adopted a FAS child, when he was about 12 they caught him having sex with his younger sister, they caught him attempting to do the same with another sibling several times, who knows how many times they didn’t catch him? Their lives were a living hell for all of his teen years because of the necessity of watching this kid like a hawk 24 hours a day. He’s now in a home because he can not be trusted around young people. His emotional and mental development is that of a pre-teen, these are the types of people he identifies with and is sexually attracted to. Restraining such children at night makes perfect sense.
