Stolen Angel

by Artificiallyawake in Issues, February 1, 2009

An all too common tale on how being poor and a new mom often leads people’s judgment. They believe that poor in the pocketbook is equivalent to poor in parenting ability. A child taken away.

This new mom fights daily to live without her Stolen Angel, while she receives countless messages from the new parental party of two women who felt their home, because they have love for each other and a two income household, was the best option over the child’s own mother. The women yell and demean the mother and her skills as a parent for the two years she was the child’s mother. They claim her unfit, because public assistance paid the bills. They claim her unfit because the child “improved” with them and hit developmental milestone that weren’t hit with the mother, without regard for the fact that the child is growing naturally in age with them and inevitably will hit milestones with them that weren’t met with the mother. The women tell the new mother that she is unfit because they decided that she was not doing anything to change her situation, despite her daily effort to even go on without her child. They judge her for not sending money to the people who stole the baby from her, to care for the child, knowing the new mother just suffered the loss of her own mother and is trying to put her life back on track after all that she has been through. This was not enough. Her tears go ignored.

Everyday in this country children are abused, neglected and remain in deplorable conditions. Everyday new mothers stand by judge and jury of what they are and aren’t doing for their children. This is not to say any situation that is genuine neglect or abuse should be overlooked, because it could be worse. A crime towards a child is a crime period and removal of that child should be expedient, however, it is not to be ignored that with love and safety, not all children are born into ideal situations and being poor is not a crime, nor does it constitute abuse or neglect. The young mother in the case of Stolen Angel may not be able to get her child back, but instead sits vigil by pictures of a child who once was in her womb. Realizing she may not have the means and resources to change her situation as quickly as the two women sit in judgement of her and act as mommies to her baby, but she has the ability to make slow, steady changes that over a course of her babies life will hopefully someday mean something to her. Her only hope is to see her baby again, even if she is 18 when that happens.