WA - Kristy Price-Alvarez for child endangerment, Centralia, 2010

[Linda7NJ]

I'm sure it's been longer than a week. Her mother just died a week ago of cancer, how long do you suppose her life was upside down from her mother's cancer?

I agree, a house in that state is unfit for kids, however I do believe that the mess that is seen isn't that horrible considering the circumstances. Seven kids, dying/dead grandmother, maternal depression, slight hoarding tendencies, not to mention everyone and their mother who throw kids' clothes at you when you have so many kids. It sounds like the mother has her priorities straight and is cleaning the house in a big way to get her kids back. She may or may not need a little follow up, but cut her some slack.

I think if CPS gave a rats behind....they could have far more cheaply helped her clean the house up and paid for a housekeeper to come once a week to HELP her and some grief therapy. If a filthy house was the only issue.

Tossing her children ( and most likely splitting them up) into foster care will do far more harm to those children than living in dirty conditions.

 

[kbl8201]

are you guys getting the whole picture? this isnt just about the house

 

[Soulmagent]

its against the law to be at a bar while your kids have no babysitter/a no good babysitter

I think you just have to have an adult there I dont think they have to be good at babysitting. Everyone is allowed to procreate. Even Wafflehouse does background checks(which cracks me up ) I really think when they make weed legal people should have their kids removed until they are off drugs.

 

[Linda7NJ]

are you guys getting the whole picture? this isnt just about the house

What do you feel is being missed ? Seems to me it was overwhelming grief.

 

[2sisters]

are you guys getting the whole picture? this isnt just about the house

I see it. Drugs, drinking, leaving your kids with no/poor supervision. BIG problem. Sounds like she can barely take care of herself let alone 7 kids.
I also see a woman in desperate need of mental health too. This situation is sort of a double edged sword.

 

[momtective]

are you guys reading the whole thread thru?

Yes I've read that she was at the bar and would not give the name of the babysitter. In the same article the oldest child is said to be 12...in most States a 12 year-old can babysit...nothing illegal there...irresponsible to leave a 12 year-old with 6 younger children, yes...but not illegal.

I'm not saying that what she did was right, I'm just questioning if it was truly illegal.

I do applaud LE and CPS for removing the children, now I expect them to fulfill the rest of their responsibility to reunite the children with their mother if the environment is clean and safe.

The reality is, if they aren't returned the 10 month old would probably be adopted from foster care but the others...most likely not and they would end up being moved umpteen times until they aged out of the system.
I am an advocate for keeping families together and providing supports...in the long run it's much better for the kids. If her only crime is that she went to the bar and left her 12 year-old to babysit and that she has a filthy house then I think some serious parenting classes are in order as well as counseling and life skills training. I also believe CPS should monitor for a full 2 years if the kids are returned. JMO

 

[not_my_kids]

Washington has no recommended age to babysit. So technically, each of the kids could have been watching themselves and it wouldn't be illegal.

However, the level of filth was illegal.
And, she shows no sign of remorse, no words about cleaning up her act. Just that she could have cleaned it up in "20 minutes".

Excuses and justifications...addict behavior. She likely will get them back. That's inevitable, unless she has actually maxed out the state services, like one of the articles says. If this has been an ongoing thing, this may be the last straw.

 

[LCoastMom]

I think if CPS gave a rats behind....they could have far more cheaply helped her clean the house up and paid for a housekeeper to come once a week to HELP her and some grief therapy. If a filthy house was the only issue.

Tossing her children ( and most likely splitting them up) into foster care will do far more harm to those children than living in dirty conditions.

Trouble being with your suggestion is house keeping is not on the list of provided services, but education regarding meeting your children's physical needs is. No mother in her right mind is going to let her children fend for themselves in that sty.

Someone suggested the top of the stove wasn't all that dirty/disgusting. I'll bet my last box of Capt'n Crunch it isn't disgusting because it is never used! It was just more counter space. Did you see the splash guard behind the sink? I wouldn't want to touch that without a haz-mat suit on!!

I agree with a parent's death and 7 children to care for she had her hands full but instead of caring for those 7 children she had her arse parked on a bar stool, knowing that her children were stuck in that ugh.. not a home .

I honestly have to question tho, she had all kinds of government support available but family? Why were the children living in that filth if she has such great family support? Her sister obviously was aware what was happening...

The emergency dental care, did she blow off the appointments? She said she had already rescheduled...

As for reuniting... As you and momtective said; removing the children. splitting up and losing touch are not the answer either. She is taking the situation seriously at least, if she knows CPS, LE, volunteers who ever is going to be dropping in unannounced a couple times a week maybe that will give her the incentive to keep it clean.

She needs more help though, she needs parenting classes, counseling, possibly drug and alcohol rehab. etc etc to I hope she will follow through.

 

[believe09]

so she was out bar hopping while leaving the kids in a pig sty.

I am a compassionate person, but KBL nailed this story for me-she was out barhopping with no sitter at home, right? Just a 12 year old and 6 others, one of whom was 10 months old.

Not that I mean to imply anything, but clearly she has not heard of birth control if she is overwhelmed, or is it children she is hoarding?

 

[LCoastMom]

I had a friend that her house would look like that in just one week, yes I said one week and she only had 1 child. She never learned how to clean, grew up with a maid ...I had to teach her how to clean do laundry you name it. CPS was going to take her infant away because of the same reasons, but I stuck with her and taught her until she got it because she was a good mother. She had no family around to support her and dad worked full time and was a pig himself ...

I am making no excuses for her, no child should live in that. My biggest problem is if she is bar hopping and leaving the kids at home alone and using drugs to boot. She did not look like a meth addict to me...I certainly would like to know where all the baby daddys are for the kids....Hopefully someone will step in and give her a hand up as I did for my friend "until she gets it "...it may and may not help

You know, I just can't give a pass to someone who "never learned how" If she grew up with a maid then she knows the difference between clean and dirty. It takes 10 minutes to figure out "OK I don't have magic fairies cleaning up behind me." Hmm, put the dirty clothes in the machine the directions are on the inside of the washer lid. We all find out how to separate brights from whites when a favorite article goes in light and comes out pink from washing with something red or dingy from washing with blue or black. That's all it should take.

Or the dirty dinner dishes are still on the table or counter top from the night before, oops I forgot we don't have maid service here. Better put this stuff away. If you were able to see what needed to be done, so was your friend. I hope she appreciated what you did for her.

It pizzes me to no end when someone claims they didn't see it or don't know how to clean it. Unless she has never watched TV, I cannot buy it. We have all been subjected to the same commercials for cleaning products 24/7, our whole life!! I'd give a half day pass on the oven (Maybe if I am feeling generous) but come on the rest is common sense!!

I have been depressed, I suffered from a major depression when my youngest was a toddler; never, ever was my house so dirty that I endangered my kids health, never did my kids miss a meal because mommy didn't feel up to it. Whether I felt up to it wasn't up for discussion, they needed to eat, needed clean dishes, needed clean clothes and needed a place to sleep.

believe 09, that house does remind me of the pasta sauce on the wall and clothes piled everywhere Octomom's kids were living in before the Tups were born. Her mom had been trying to keep up but she was an almost 70 year old woman. Since then she said she tries to keep it picked up :crazy: as the babysitter was up stairs cleaning while the lil ones were napping...

 

[believe09]

LCoast, you so read my post correctly-I do find this lady somewhat OctoMom like...

 

[momtective]

*Snipped*

LCoastMom;

Did you see the splash guard behind the sink? I wouldn't want to touch that without a haz-mat suit on!!

:floorlaugh:

I agree...rubber gloves just wouldn't cut it! I too thought that was the most disgusting of the pics.

 

[LadyL]

ewww

I was prepared to give her the benefit of the doubt until I saw the slideshow

the fact that she says she could've had it done in 20 minutes (f the cops had allowed her to) illustrates to me that she really has no idea what clean is

IMO the only time her place gets cleaned is when someone else does it and naturally they might not have the time or courage to attempt the really gross things

I hope her house will continue to be inspected at regular intervals

 

[KR2tonenow]

Yowza. That's more than a week's worth of filth, certainly. Although to be fair, caring for 7 kids and probably her terminally ill mother by herself (?) over a long period could have had a hand in this. Along with cleaning the house, I hope she gets some serious and meaningful counseling to help her cope so she can parent and grieve properly.

I agree, and community volunteer's could lend support...this woman obviously has her hands full!~

 

[DairyGirl]

I used to work with teen mothers and one girl had 2 little ones and could not do laundry. Her house looked like this one. Instead of washing the clothes she would just get more clothes from a charity. I helped her do the laundry and it took all day at a laundramat using many large capacity washers. I even fostered her children for a while so she could get her act together but last I heard she still lost her kids.

 

[kbl8201]

What do you feel is being missed ? Seems to me it was overwhelming grief.

she left her kids alone while she went bar hopping and had drug problems before

 

[not_my_kids]

She didn't leave them alone. The articles say that the babysitter was located.

Not that it's much better, the sitter was a homeless drug addict that only knew the names of two of the kids. Alone might have been safer. I'll go look for that quote and link.

The woman Price called the babysitter turned out to be Shila Brennan, 20, Centralia — whom police describe as a transient and frequent drug user. Fitzgerald said Brennan could only name two of the children upon being asked who they were.
http://www.chronline.com/news/article_6bf1de18-2bb3-11df-a384-001cc4c03286.html

(Laura08 found it first.)

 

[kbl8201]

a 12 year old left alone with 6 young ones=recipe for disaster

 

[kbl8201]

yes leaving them with a drug addict is a lot better.......well she's one herself, so whats the diffrence?

 

[believe09]

OMG-are you kidding me? She left 7 kids with a transient drug addict who didnt know her?? To bar hop...help