"single father surrendered nine of his 10 children, ages 1 to 17, saying that his wife had died and he couldn't raise them alone."

In that case he was probably doing what he thought was best for his children, but giving them up because you are unable to take care of them appropriate in most cases, and is way different than giving them up because they are unruly.

I do think it is now in the arsenal of parents who are arguing with there kids " I'm going to drop you off at the hospital and never come back if you keep acting this way" :|

I am literally speechless....

I don't even like kids and I couldn't imagine ever abandoning them. It's like dropping your pet off at the pound, I just don't get it. I'd live in a cardboard box and subsist on top ramen and dirt before I'd give up my dog!

I do feel for that poor dad...I wonder if they have other resources available to help out parents who feel overwhelmed?

If we really care about families, we'll spend more on mental health services for them, especially now when the stress is likely to get so much worse.
That we even need these abandonment laws to protect children is a national shame - it's awful to imagine the hurt these older kids are feeling.

I sympathize with the father, clearly he felt he was in over his head.

But did anyone REALLY not see this coming?

Many of them have mental illness and the families weren't getting any help and felt this was the best way to get the kids the help they need.

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10444740

Maybe I could drop my debt off at the state too.

Take it to Wall Street...at least you know there it will all be taken care of

I can't even imagine how someone could just give their kid away...

Those poor children. I think being abandoned as a child would be tramatic at any age, but the older you are the more you understand and the more you might place the blame on yourself. I hope there are a lot of caring folks in Nebraska that might be able to take these children in.

I do think this is outrageously sad. However, I have watched The Maury Show enough times to see that it is 100% () possible for a parent to just give their child away.

Oh my god this is just awful. I cannot even understand how a parent can do this...

That'll teach you pre-teens and teens for watching Hannah Montana and The Hills and not obeying your parents when they say "Take out the trash!" or "Wash every dish in the house whether its dirty or not!" And for asking for clothing from Hot Topic.

My parents always used the threat on my brothers that "I bought you into this world and dammit I can take you out!" Well if this law had been around in CA maybe my Barbies wouldn't have been sacrificed over a garbage can bonfire, my sister Tina Ballerina wouldn't have been beheaded, and one of my brother's wouldn't have tried to drowned me to see if it was possible to kill a 2 year old.

I would have just had three siblings instead of four. Some other sucker would of had the crazy boy in there brood.

wow.

lmfao wack that was pretty wack, can you imagine when these children grow older they will fear the hospital abandonment issues

"Take it to Wall Street...at least you know there it will all be taken care of" Haha. Too true. Unfortunately, we only have socialism for the rich in this country so far.

These parents should have criminal charges filed against them if they can't take care of their children, and their assets should be seized in order to pay for the costs related to their children's lives.

Maybe then, we wouldn't have to deal with this problem.

I have a feeling it will all get better with Obama.

OMG!!

bren

I can imagine them being beat to within an inch of their lives because their parents feel they have no option and/or that no one will help them with a teenage that just will not co-operate.

Or I can see the parents completely disassociating themselves from their teen and kicking them out of the house at 14 to fend for themselves on the streets.

Rare is the teen who thinks of the consequences of their actions or that their parent s will abandon them by taking them to a hospital or fire station and leaving them there.

The strange thing about these cases is that the kids didn't fight or resist when their parents gave them up. Why is that? Disaffected, mental issues or they wanted to get away from their parent or guardian before they got beat to death by them.

Same Mariner. And when I read "It's like dropping your pet off at the pound" I gasped aloud! I love dogs and can't imagine why people are ever so cruel to them.

I wonder what's worse: being abandoned or being raised by someone who would like to abandon you but only doesn't because it's illegal.

But...what if this is your child...totally the drop-off and roll-out variety!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jThs13NXDn8

So true, true, lol, talk about the moses law going to the extreme, with teens though

Holy crap tia! That is insane!!

The thing with that girl, is that it is totally that mother's and father's (if he's even in the picture) fault she is the way she is.

Yikes! Looks like I could be the lucky guy. Too bad I missed that ad.

I heard about this early last month, but i reckon i've no opinion.

I can't believe people stoop to this. I can't imagine parting or giving up my cats, not to mention a human being whom you're responsible for, I think in this case even if the kids are "unruly" it's because their parents failed them a long time ago, way before the moment they dropped them off at a "safe haven."

WOW!! I am at a loss for words. Society is making it REAL easy to get out of your responsibilities!! First marriage and now this! How on Earth would anyone want to give up on their children? I have two boys and LAWD knows that I think about running away each and every day.....give them the house and be OUTTRO! Then reality and sanity kicks in. Just the thought of what kind of self image those kids will have once they get older. It's sooo sad!!

This is really, really sad.

If these parents WANTED to get rid of the kids, then it's probably best that they were given up, anyway.

It's so sad, but any kid with parents that wold do that are probably in an awful home situation, so maybe it's for the better...

Though it is an absolute abuse of the law, I can, reluctantly, see it as positive if this is the *only* alternative these kids have to being destitute and on the streets.

I hate that they call it "abandonment", because to me there is a big difference between dropping off your child(ren) at a safe place and just dumping them in the street, or leaving them at home while you run away.

I'm not going to judge anyone for leaving their children at a safe place if that's what they felt they needed to do. And like others have said, if the parents felt the need to do this then it was probably for the best - who knows what their home life was like.

Not saying it's going to be easy for those children - it's not. And I do wish the parents would get help for themselves (preferably before they got to the point of wanting to give up).

I think in some cases this is a very helpful law, and just like anything else, it's also going to be abused at times.

I completely agree with *kimpossible*.

It's not "abandonment* because these children are being left at a safe haven spot. What temporary needs they have, the adults at the time can most likely take care of until they are permanently placed in foster care, and then they are properly evaluated. And we don't know what particular problems these parents were facing at home. You don't know unless you've been there or at least seen it, when it comes to terrible children, children with disabilities, or hard times money wise, and etc….

Like with the father of 10 children that had a recently deceased wife. They may have been good children, but the financial stress on him, along with many other problems that I'm sure he was facing on a daily basis, finally got to him. I think it was better for that father to realize ahead of time that it was time to give up and place the children with the proper authorities, than to have him loose it mentally and possibly physically harm the children, or honestly abandon them in the middle of nowhere, stating to them (lying) about him coming back to get them.

As long as the law is use in the proper manner then I don’t have a problem with parents like the father of ten. Some times the justice system moves to slow when it come to handling the smallest things. Therefore sometimes you have to go around the law and do things the shorter way in order to get things done for you and yours.

Each case is different when it comes to this law and the parent that properly use it, or misuse it for their own personal gain, just to get rid of their responsibly (children) which are NOT truly that bad, and that they have NO financial or mental problem that may harm the children in the future.

No, it's abandonment: to leave completely and finally; forsake utterly; desert: to abandon one's farm; to abandon a child; to abandon a sinking ship. to give up the control of.

Parenting is hard, but if you're walking away from a child - even if you're leaving it at a 'safe place' - you're abandoning your responsibilities as a parent. It's abandoning a spouse if you up and walk out on a marriage, why sugarcoat this?

Maybe as a society we need to encourage some people to admit that they don't want to have children to begin with, or to help people who became parents before they realized how tough a job it is, or to help with difficult special needs children, or to do more to help families stay together in difficult times - but it's that crazy t-ball, everyone gets a trophy mentality to call 'dropping your kids off at a safe haven for permanent placement elsewhere' anything but abandonment.

"why sugarcoat this?"

well to me because it's less damaging to the child(ren). It's one thing for a child to hear that their parent had problems and couldn't parent properly (or whatever), but it's a completely different thing for a child to hear their parent abandonded them.

I agree with you (Stephley) that education and support is vital to parenting.
Which is why I said that I wished the parents would get help for themselves (preferably before getting to the point of giving up).

I see your points Kim and Pink, and I do sympathize with the overwhelmed aspect of it, I just don't think the word should be taken out of the situation because I think it emphasizes the horrible seriousness of what's happening - and maybe reminds the parent of going for help versus walking away.
The kids are going to call it as they see it anyway. Mine's adopted and no matter what I say about her birth mother's intentions, she feels dumped.

Stephley, yes I agree call it abandonment to the parents but not to the children. And yes, I've known adopted children and about half of them feel abandonded by their parents (and in many cases they were since most of the adopted children I know are Chinese). So true that the child is going to feel what they feel no matter what, but us being more careful with how we word things could help their healing (imo of course).

and I just reread my post - I hope nobody takes what I said about the Chinese as being a racist comment. It's just a sad fact that many of those babies are abandoned and in some cases left to die due to the laws in that country.

I think this is more of a reflection on the level of poverty in our country right now, than it is about morality.

Really? I could understand that if these kids were 2 or 3. These kids are much older, and some could get part time jobs to help out. I think I would have to blame the parents irresponsibility for this. What a poor message to send to your children. I'm tired of dealing with you, so I'm going to drop you off somewhere and let someone else take care of you.

"a single father surrendered nine of his 10 children, ages 1 to 17, saying that his wife had died and he couldn't raise them alone"

What did he do with the tenth child?

The 10th child was 18.

Considering the outrageous amount of children in foster care in this country (over 500,000), it's always sad to see more children enter the system. This law just allows parents to give up their children at the drop of hat--there needs to be more mental health services available to parents and children instead of allowing parents to abandon their responsibilities.

I'm getting the general feeling that most people are feeling bad for the widowed single father but c'mon...10 kids? That is ridiculous.

I am also completely horrified by these statistics. How sick can these people be?!!
However I also have to wonder, if these parents are capable of abandoning their kids, what kind of life would those kids have had if there were no safe haven option? Those kinds of parents would not have taken good care of them or provided them with a good life. Perhaps in the end getting away from those sick people might be a good thing, or at least a lesser of two evils. Now it remains to be seen how the government will provide for all these children . . .