I really hope the Feds don’t do anything to these grandparents. They knew the sort of person their daughter was and I’d bet the grandparents were worried sick that she’d mess the kid up. These grandparents gave up everything to get this kid away from their daughter.
I know they took the law into their own hands. But the way family courts are these days sometimes thats the only alternative. Doesn’t matter how screwed up mom is or how many trips she’s taken to rehab. Violent boyfriends don’t seem to matter either. Family Courts just blindly award custody to mom if there’s any indication that she’s doing “better”.
I’m glad the kid is now an adult, happily married and by accounts well adjusted. He can choose whether he wants anything to do with his mom.
I admit my own family experiences have permanently prejudiced me against Family Courts. My cousin’s family went through hell with a worthless daughter. Never held a job more than 2 weeks. In and out of Rehab for meth and crack. Boyfriends that sold dope and beat the crap out of her. Her kid was constantly bouncing back and forth from my cousin’s home and his moms. She’d go to Rehab, clean up for a few months and the Family Court always gave her back the kid. Things would be good for awhile and then she’d get involved with another doper boyfriend. Kid went back to my cousin. He never had a chance of growing up decent.
He’s worse than she is now. Already did one prison term for manufacturing meth. Last I heard he’s out on parole. I’d call 911 if I ever saw him drive up to my house. He’s really bad news.
This. Social services don’t give a shit about a kid’s welfare, only that he/she stay with at least one parent, or is in contact with them. The grandparents saw the authorities not doing their job and did it for them. Good for them.
I don’t think we have enough information to make this assumption. From the article it sounds like all signs were pointed to Mom getting her shit together - and she had a developmental disability to overcome, not a meth addiction.
Either way, they kidnapped a child. I’m glad things worked out in the end but there’s no defense for that.
You do know, I hope, that you got the facts completely incorrect. The mother had some problems but they denied her her rights as a mother, to raise her son. I think they should throw the book at the grandparents.
Well, it was daughter-in-law rather than daughter. I guess that gives the grandparents even less status with the court because their relationship is through their son.
Family Courts have an incredible bias towards the mom. If there’s any indication that she’s done rehab or changed her life then the kid ping pongs back. The problem is, the courts don’t know these women like their families do. The families aren’t fooled by a stay in rehab, new clothes and a new apartment. When you’ve seen a relative fail over and over then you know things won’t be different for very long. These Family Court judges don’t have a clue about the real personalities of the people in front of them.
Meanwhile, we do know a kid raised in a loving stable home has a much better chance of growing up as a stable adult. Being raised in a home with drugs and domestic violence often results in grown children with the same issues.
That’s the second time you mentioned drugs & domestic violence, yet there’s ZERO indication of that in the linked article. Please stop projecting your own baggage onto this particular story.
It does, however, seem a very unusual thing for the Grandparents to do. Abandoning so much of their life may suggest that they were nuts or knew something that wasn’t known to the court.
You’re right. We don’t know the situation with the mom. It seems reasonable to assume something extreme was going on.
Otherwise the grandparents wouldn’t have given up everything and risked their freedom to take the child into hiding.
I recall my cousin’s frustration. But, he had other children and wouldn’t have uprooted his life and risked prison because of his daughter’s kid. They spent a lot of time in court trying to get permanent custody of their grandchild but it never worked out.
As an aside, I’ve always taken it for granted that a substantial portion of “missing children” were taken away by family members who disagreed with, and sought to override, decisions by family services or courts. I don’t have a citation, but I have heard it said, and it’s my impression that a lot of the milk carton and distributed mail “have you seen this child?” features seem to say things like “last seen in custody of [someone with same last name].”
So you’re willing to grant the grandparents the benefit of the doubt that they knew there was sufficient cause to deny the mother her rights? Personally, knowing nothing about the individuals involved, I have to assume that the courts had good reason to trust her and that the grandparents were biased irrationally and/or unfairly.
It can be pretty gut wrenching to see a child returned to a home that may or may not be safe. Especially if you’ve had custody of the child for awhile.
I’m glad that I never was put into that situation. It would be a tough spot. But, I wouldn’t try to take off and go into hiding. These days it’s just too easy for the cops to track somebody down. You can’t help the kid if you’re in jail yourself.
It’s pretty amazing that these grandparents managed to stay out of sight for 18 years. Just enrolling the kid in school is a big risk because you need information on the other schools he attended.
But we have no indication he wouldn’t have been safe with mom. Poor…probably. But we don’t take kids away from people because they are poor or their IQ is below average.