Endings and New Beginnings

Blog post #362 of 365

My niece had court this. She lost her kids for a bit. In the long run it turned out to be a very good thing for her and yet I'm not so sure it was a good thing for the kids. They are the ones who suffered the most. Emotionally it was rough on them. If you listened to her I'm sure she'd tell you it was harder on her.

She has some challenges, the biggest of which is not liking to be told what to do and not having the life skills to be a mom without some guidance. That is in fact how she lost her kids. I won't go into details.

There are five kids ranging in age from not yet a year to eight. They haven't had rules or boundaries. They had a father who was a criminal, albeit a lucky small time criminal who hasn't done his proper time because he wasn't caught in the act. Luckily he was caught for one deed and did a very short period of time in jail. The jail time resulted in him having a stay away order from the courts. He can't go near his ex-wife or kids for another year. Maybe she will stay away from him and their kids will hopefully not have that kind of influence in their lives anymore. After talking to her while we waited for court to begin I wouldn't bet on it.

This court date marks the end of the involvement of social workers in the life of my niece and her kids. The pressure will be off. I don't know if it that is such a good thing or not. All through these last two years she has had people looking over her shoulder making sure she follows through, having her take classes in parenting and learning how a healthy relationship looks. She says she has learned a lot. I hope she keeps applying what she learned.

Unfortunately there was an error in court today.

This court date also means a new beginning for my niece and her kids. She will have to step up on her own. I know she can do it, I am just unsure if she will.