Kid Custody and Alcohol

Posted on May 2nd, 2008 by lilbitgabby.
Categories: Friday Chat.

At a party a year or so ago, I picked a Mike’s Hard Lemonade out of the ice bucket. One of my friends took it from me and chose another appropriate drink for me… Mt. Dew. Why? Mike’s Hard Lemonade is an alcoholic beverage. (Obviously this was not a church function).

I had no idea. Seriously.

Maybe you saw this in the news. This past week, a dad takes his 7 year old little boy to a baseball game. Dad buys the kid a Mike’s Hard Lemonade. Security guard sees the kid with the lemonade. Dad loses custody that very day. The child was put into foster care. Mom and Dad didn’t get to see the 7 year old boy for a couple days.

The dad, Christopher Ratte, said he didn’t know it was an alcoholic beverage. Honestly, I belive the dad.

So here’s a situation I question. We know a couple. They are going through a custody battle over 3 babies.  Well, a 4 year old and the toddlers. The situation saddens me to the deepest part of my soul. 

The mom gave the twin babies alcohol in their bottles. One of her friends saw this. Took photos on her cell phone. She turned the mom in to the authorities. The alcohol incident (and a bunch of other neglect and abuse incidents) are on record with CPS. The mom still shares 50 percent custody of those babies. Why?  

Why is this case still going through the court system? Why doesn’t the dad have 100% custody of the three babies by now?

For one thing, there isn’t one judge. There are many judges. Each time this goes before the judge, it’s a different judge. I want to know why! Why don’t they don’t have one assigned judge to review each case? This particular case has a file that would take a judge days to review. The last judge took about 15 minutes to read through some of the paper work.  We were there when he took a short recess to review the case. Then he put the case off for another review.

People. The mom gave the babies alcohol.

Security….

 

 

 

 

 

 

5 comments.

Neena

Comment on May 2nd, 2008.

I agree. People these days. It doesn’t matter what, if you’re innocent, there is a good chance you’ll be convicted, but if you are guilty, then they say “innocent until proven guilty” and sometimes don’t give them a very hard punishment. I completely agree with you. And I had no idea that Mike’s Hard Lemonade was an alcoholic beverage… of course, I had never heard of it before now, as we don’t go out for stuff like that, much. But it would be just the thing I would get, because I love lemonade. They shouldn’t give it a name like that, because not many people are likely to KNOW unless they’ve heard about it or read the back of the can/bottle. I completely agree with you. I think that we should take them to court for sentencing like that! LOL. I would never do that by the way. Just to make sure.

lilbitgabby

Comment on May 3rd, 2008.

Well, I hadn’t heard of the stuff until I was at that picnic. Someone told me I should have known it contained alcohol because of the word ‘hard’ in the name. First of all, I just saw lemonade. Secondly, I haven’t been around much alcohol during my lifetime of 47 years…. So I need an explanation of how I should know that ‘hard’ means alcoholic beverage.

I guess we lead a very sheltered life. If you want my opinion on that, my sheltered life is just as it should be.

gale

Comment on May 3rd, 2008.

With all the terrible things going on in this world they have to pick an accident like that to get carried away about. I didn’t know anything about it either. Poor family, poor little boy.

Connie M

Comment on May 6th, 2008.

I read that article too. I was amazed that they could be so quick to split up a family also. I knew that it was alcoholic just because I wanted to try it one time and the only place in the store I could find it was the alchohol cooler.
When I was younger I babysat a boy. He was a foster child. Every 3 months or so the CSD would come in and say, “Your dad has finished his ‘classes’ and it is time for you and your 3 siblings to go back home.” They would tear those kids from their happy (but seperate) foster homes and place them back into a very abusive home. He would go crazy in that week waiting to go back. He would light fires, get in fights and generally become a monster! We loved Travis, but those times of him going back to his “home” were very hard on us! Marshall and I had him for a few weeks while he was between homes and we wanted to just hug him to us and never let go!
They (CSD) never seem to really help the ones that need it, but the good parents who mess up, well lets let them have it!!!!!!

Cyndi

Comment on May 7th, 2008.

Gale, I know. We hear about stories like this, and it makes me wonder about how many stories we haven’t heard about. How many kids are taken from their family home, without a real purpose.

Connie, your story truly breaks my heart…

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