Be mad at mom, but don’t hate kids (Feb 25)
By Charles Doud
The Madera Tribune
There’s a chance Nadya Suleman’s octuplets could be put up for adoption by the state. The eight babies, born Jan. 26, are still in Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Bellflower, receiving care because they were nine weeks premature. If the state’s Child Protective Services should decide going home with their mom would constitute a danger to the children, an option might be for CPS to put the children in foster care.
As it is, Suleman has no job and apparently few immediate prospects for one. She and her six other children live with her retiree mom in a house that may be repossessed as soon as May 5, according to The Associated Press.
If Suleman were to lose her eight new children, that might satisfy a lot of folks who are letting the world know they hate her because she brought so many kids into the world at once.
“Serves her right,” they might say.
It makes you wonder where all their anger and hatred comes from.
One might have many reasons for disagreeing with Suleman’s decision to have more children — or to have multiple births.
But those babies are here now — they are with us. The reasons for their being here are history. One might think that because of that history their mom is an idiot and should be punished, but the little ones had nothing to do with the circumstances of their conception or birth. Anger at Suleman shouldn’t preclude the tykes getting help they need.
If the state and Kaiser Permanente eventually let the children go home with Suleman, she is going to need a lot of help. Some of it will come from state and local welfare, obviously, but this also will be a good time for the churches of Whittier, where Suleman lives, and other community groups to pitch in if they are needed.
