Your rights as an American citizen do not begin until you turn 18 .
Children don’t have rights like to pursue happiness. They don’t have the right to decide who they have to spend time with. As a child the court system can make these choices for them. Courts say they do everything with the child’s best interest at heart. After dealing with DCF and the courts here in Florida all I can tell is the only one with rights are the biological parents.
Now remember these bio parents are the reason these kids are in the court system to begin with.
They have either neglected or abused these children, and yet they are the ones getting extra chances they are the ones that have the rights.
Another one in the court room with out rights is the caregiver.
As a kinship caregiver I have the same rights as Joe off the street.
I had been told by the person supervising the visitation that she could not discuss what happens during the visit with bio parent with me.
Wait what if its something I should know, what if its something that causes more nightmares , what if its conflicting with something we already told her? What if he is feeding her stuff that makes her sick? I love and cared for this child 167 hours a week he saw her for 1 hour and again it’s not my business what happens during that hour.
These kids had been with us for over 3 years everything about them should be our business.
With Guardianship which is where we were with children during most of the past 3 years. Gaurdianship which means parents keep their rights get visitation and yet we still do the raising. We have to be the active parents instead of the visiting fun grandparents. We have to be the disciplinarians not the sugar them up and send them home grandparents we should be. The parents get to be the ones to play with them give them treats ect and we can not know what happens during these visits. Where are our rights where are the children’s Rights?
The children should have the right to have loving parents that take care of them. They should have the right to be adopted, to be a part of a loving family. They should have the right to free speech, they should be able to tell the court who they want to live with. They should have the right to live in peace, not have to worry that they will have to leave their home and go live with strangers they only saw at visitation for years. How can a parent have a bond with a child they only see for short periods of time supervised?
Children do not have the right to have freedom of religion. Under guardianship their parents retain the right to choose their religion for them. That means I have to have permission to take the children to a Christian church because the bio parents worship Thor and whatever goes along with that. I have no idea how I’m supposed to teach them something I don’t know any thing about and something I don’t believe in.
The constitution states children are entitled to a safe environment, good nutrition, healthcare, and education.
The bio parents of my grands did not give them these basic rights. Yet DCF wants to allow these people in the children’s life. The bio parents have rights to their children even though they denied the children their basic rights. They did not feed the children healthy foods. Sometimes they didn’t feed them at all. Monkey and Princess tell me how they were so hungry their tummies hurt. Both children suffered from malnutrition. Their skin was an ash color, their tummies were swollen and their iron levels were low when they came to live with us. These children were denied healthcare. Monkey was not up To date on his shots. He also was given a medical referral the mother never followed up on. The Princess missed well baby check ups. Sunshine received no prenatal care, she also was not taken to a pediatrician after leaving the hospital by the biological parents. I took Sunshine to her first appointment when she was 4 weeks old, after the judge signed her into our custody. The children were denied an education. Monkey and Princess were 2 and 4 years old when they came to live with us the last time. They didn’t know any of the ABCs or how to count. They did not know their colors. Neither child could write or even hold crayon to color.
They should have been taught these basic fundamentals of education at that age. It’s hard to learn anything when you are locked alone together in a room.
Who was protecting their rights?
So you see children may not have all the rights of an adult but they do have rights and I feel that DCF and othe child protection services are not protecting their rights.
DCF’s main concern is the biological parent’s rights. Everything is about their plan, the help they need and them keeping their rights. What about the children’s plan? They have goals too. Who is making sure the children’s goals are met? We do!
The caregiver who has no rights in the court room.
I hope the judges start seeing that the children get to keep their rights of a safe environment, good nutrition, healthcare, and education. I hope the judges are able to see past the biological parent’s feeble attempts at working their plans and their rights and makes sure that the children’s rights are never taken away again.
As always thanks for reading feel free to ask questions or comment. Also please share with others if you think this blog could help them in any way. I am just a grandparent raising my grandchildren not a professional if you need expert help please seek out a professional.
Please continue to follow along as I raise these three beautiful souls.