Not wanting to feed children doesn’t seem very pro-life.
Yet another reason why I hate every goddamn billionaire with the fire if a thousand suns.
Just the fact that billionaires even exist shows that our system is fucked.
*firey passion of a thousand suns
*fiery suns of a thousand passions
*sunny passions of a dozen fires
My school held my diploma for 6 months because of $20 worth of lunch debt that turned out to be a computer error.
That was 12 years ago.
Schools using food as a weapon against students is nothing new.
Just a reminder that the same people who are against free school lunches for children are the ones who stand in front of abortion clinics screaming about how abortion is murder.
So it’s too expensive to provide school lunch, but not too expensive to completely take over the care of the children entirely. More and more, I understand what people mean when they say the cruelty is the point. This makes zero goddamned sense.
I want to add something because I want to add a glimmer of positivity. I mean, this is all anecdotal but I’m housing one of my daughter’s friends right now.
I’m still learning her history because I have absolutely zero guardianship over her and I don’t pry because she’s been through so much and she shares when she’s ready. Her mother passed about two years ago and her dad is in the wind. Her grandma has guardianship but treated her as a burden.
I play nice with Grandma so my new daughter stays by me. I’m not sure if CPS was ever called on either her mother or grandmother or if it was just because mother passed but ‘daughter’ has weekly therapy and a social worker who got her into a very decent state university.
She’s about to go visit for a tour and I’m so worried but also excited because she has a full ride from the state for a two or four year depending on what she wants. I’ve looked into the school and it’s pretty great. It’s going to be hard for my ex and I to pull off the same for our daughter.
The state of affairs are abysmal these last few decades but there are still good people trying to do good things. The Man isn’t out to get you if you’re lucky enough to get the right government employee. Or maybe you just have to suffer enough.
I know the young lady I’m talking about deserves this chance and I’m ecstatic that she has the opportunity. It makes me feel a little guilty that I’m going to miss her, but in a good way.
I wish every kid and every parent didn’t have to worry so much about getting into trouble because they’re already struggling. The horrors I’m learning this child has gone through shouldn’t be the bar by which we set as deserving of a higher education.
I have barely anything to offer but even just feeding her and teaching her to cook and do laundry and taxes and set up a bank account makes me some sort of goddess in her eyes and I’d love to take credit but it’s just too tragic to me that a child considers this little bit I have to offer as some sort of gift. What I have to offer as a ‘gift’ is not. It’s what any child should be entitled to. I’m happy that she finally feels comfortable enough to add things she wants to the grocery list without worrying too much that she’s putting me out in some way.
It may not seem like much to you, but to her it’s making a world of difference. I’m reminded of a quote I got from an otherwise kind of silly movie:
“Mother is the name for God on the lips and hearts of all children.”
It’s a slightly changed version of a quote from William Thackeray, apparently. Whatever the case, I think it applies here. The gods and goddesses of this child’s life let her down, and you may not think much of yourself or what you do, but you’ve chosen to be a good goddess, and that’s a wonderful thing. You’ve blessed not only the child you’ve taken in, but your own, as well, by showing her how to treat others the right way.
This is a little different but it sticks out.
My baby brother was born in 91 and when he eventually got into kindergarten one of his teachers flagged him for his speech impediment. He’d pronounce his P’s as B’s.
He was 5 and talked a mile a minute before he was two. He just couldn’t quite get the hang of that one part.
My parents weren’t worried. We were all helping him. My other brother and I were 6 years older than him and we we’re latchkey kids by the time I was 10.
My parents worked second/third jobs and second/third shifts rotating to make everything work for us. We barely saw them both at the same time.
I remember my Ma, and even Pops, being pissed as fuck and our chores and cleaning day was ramped up for a month or two, and all us kids had individual therapy sessions where they grilled us with questions we didn’t understand because the school call CPS on them because they wouldn’t (read: couldn’t) make after school speech therapy work with their schedules and they knew he’d learn on his own eventually anyway. They just made my parents lives that much more stressful in that time.
This was over 30 years ago now and I have my own kids, and bonus kids even! I have my own stories I could tell but this is the absolute worst because I saw how much it stressed out my overworked parents. My brother is a functioning member of society who got over his slight speech impediment within the year, with our help but mostly letting him develop on his own time.
Meanwhile, us kids just considered it a matter of course that we wrap up plates and Tupperware after each meal. One plate for Gertie our nextdoor neighbor and whatever was left went to Jorge’s family two doors down. We also learned how to mow the lawn only so the Grandma and Grandpa Hass, our other next door neighbors wouldn’t have to anymore. They weren’t actual family but they were to us. Jorge’s family got all my and my brothers’ hand-me-down clothes for his younger siblings, too. We didn’t quite understand why at the time. It’s just what you do. But yeah, make a struggling family’s life that much harder with your performative concern.
State doesn’t pay for kid’s lunch. If parent can’t afford kid’s lunch, state takes child and places them in a foster home. State pays foster home many many times the cost of lunch to take kid.
Tell me what the goal of this system is so I can call someone else a conspiracy theorist for a change.
May I introduce the Victorian concept of Children in Workhouses.
That’s where you’re heading.
This is EXACTLY what they want. They sell the cute ones (check the protective services website, they have them listed for placement like a weird dating service or pet adoption site). They will prison to pipeline the rest while working them in “skill camps”.
CPS is a dystopian hell. I advocated for a child for a while, they would fuck up absolutely basic things, would not find out about things like hospitalization or legal trouble for weeks. When I brought up several months of basically no mental health care, they insinuated that I might be abusing the child.
They won’t take action on actual abuse. It’s Kafkaesque.
To justify their budget, they must find “clients” to put in their system. Getting clients means finding just the right parent(s) that they can bully, intimidate, and exaggerate charges against. Child services no longer operates in good faith. They won’t even allow you to record their conversations because they are so apt to lie. The foster system is just as bad. Putting people on payroll to take care of kids that no one knows the location of. 23,160 foster kids were reported missing or unaccounted for in 2024. These were just the ones REPORTED. Where is the politician rage over this?
Where is the politician rage over this?
My states DHS has the wrong number for a large county’s police force. They have been leaving voicemails with children’s personal information, as well as preventing cases that are supposed to be reported to the police from actually being reported - because they’re in some random guys voicemail!
I noticed this more than a month ago, have made hundreds of phone calls and emails to state agencies and politicians. They don’t care.
I spent two years as a CASA. I loved that kid. That entire experience crushed me as a human being.
Original goal was probably to send kids to Epstein. Idk what current situation is, probably another hidden island that politicans visit.
👉👃
Kids having lunch debt is the most American thing I’ve ever seen.
Do the schools actually have the authority to do that or is it like all those other empty threats I use to get? It’s insane, but not surprising that the schools would threaten that. The sort of family who has to skip on paying lunch debts also doesn’t have means to talk to a lawyer.
edit:
Luzerne County’s manager and child welfare agency director have written the superintendent, insisting the district stop making what they call false claims.
But why oh why aren’t people having kids?!
“You might be giving your kids a terrible childhood, so we’re going to ensure they have a terrible life starting in our first-class foster care system”
America, the only country where they think they could not be any more selfish.
Isn’t this several years old, or is it happening again?
Or, has it not stopped happening?
The original story i heard the school backed down for 2 reasons. 1 a local millionaire offered to pay the miss $26k and 2 the press was causing a lot of negative attention.
Good
I highly doubt that image represents the food US kids get in school. It’s too healthy and good looking (not saying it looks good, just better than it actually would be).
