Strollerderby : meth

"Angels in Waiting" Apparently Still Waiting

Kate Tuttle — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:30:00 GMT

For all the ink spilled in the whole Octomom saga, not much has been written yet about the group that has offered to take over the care of the octuplets (free of charge!). Angels in Waiting, which was introduced to the drama via a Fox News interview also starring Gloria Allred, says it's willing to take the eight babies, keep them in "a home" (presumably not Suleman's), and provide the care they need as medically fragile premature newborns.

All of which sounds fairly generous -- a point repeatedly made by various bloggers who are dying for Suleman to turn over them babies! -- until you read more about them. Angels in Waiting is not devoted to helping stressed-out, possibly mentally ill mothers of multiples take care of their kids -- their goal is to prepare babies born to meth addicts to be adopted out. From their website:

Angels in Waiting is dedicated to moving these special little angels into loving homes with Registered Nurses as their foster parents and then on to adoptive homes in which they could recover or stabilize, grow and now flourish; their troubled pasts overshadowed by their hopeful futures.

Founded by a registered nurse whose own life was changed through the care and ultimate adoption of a micro-premie born to a meth-addicted mother, Angels in Waiting is clear about its mission: putting babies into homes, not with their birth parents, preferably with a foster mother who is also a nurse. And who works for Angels in Waiting!

It's a little unclear to me how this model fits into the Nadya Suleman situation. Despite the seemingly endless questions about her ability to care for these babies, she has expressed a steadfast determination to parent all her children. If she proves to be unfit, as many have predicted, I have no doubt child protective services will step in. But CPS's goal is twofold: help the children, and help support the parent so that the family can be re-united. This is not the goal of Angels in Waiting, whose website is filled with gauzily religious testimonials about "tiny ones" and "injured ones" -- and which has a "donate" button on each page. One thing not made clear on the Angels website is how many babies they have actually helped, how big their operation is, or where donated money actually goes (though they do make a big deal about the need for scrapbookers to help create memory books for the angels).

As nutty and publicity hungry as Suleman has appeared so far to be, she has some stiff competition here.

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Mom Accused of Feeding Meth-Tainted Breastmilk to Daughter

Cole Gamble — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:00:00 GMT

According to her family and friends, Michelle Megan Hastings deserves credit because she hasn’t used meth for several months. Except, of course, that one day when she breast fed her child.

Hastings was arrested and charged with criminal mistreatment after police say her daughter tested positive for methamphetamine. She faces 17 months in jail if convicted.

“She has been doing wonderful," said neighbor Lisa Lyche. "For months and months she has been going to treatment programs daily, like several times and different treatment programs every day."

Unfortunately, that effort wasn’t enough to protect Hastings’s daughter.

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Super Moms High on Drugs: Motherhood and Addiction

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 18:24:00 GMT

Super moms, Alpha Moms, the ladies who bake cookies for Billy's class at 3AM have a little helper. And it's not a cocktail. It's meth. Need energy and help with weight loss? Meth is the drug for you. Of course the drug is illegal and there are also sizable risks associated with using (jail time, meth mouth, kids taken away). Still, you won't believe how much stuff you'll get done!

Seriously. What gives with the pressure on mothers to be perfect (or at least thin with a clean house, pretty kids, and a successful career and marriage)??

If ever there were a recipe for addiction it is surely the pressure to keep up appearances. Even though most women won't turn to meth or heroine or cocaine to get through the day, plenty drink too much. And if you're so stressed out that you have to numb yourself to get through, does it matter what tool you use? Something terrible is going on underneath the Stepford veneer of competi-mommying. If mothers have to get high (or drunk or stoned) to get Alpha or get "good" then maybe the endeavor of motherhood as currently constructed is untenable.

Flavored Meth-For-Kids. No, Really!

Karen Murphy — Wed, 02 May 2007 20:02:00 GMT

I don't know whether to laugh or cry about this, but I think either way it's a scary and disturbing new trend: methamphetamine is now being marketed directly at kids in a new product called Strawberry Quick, which incorporates the addictive drug with a Kool-Aid-like powdered, flavored drink mix. Which gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "drinking the Kool-Aid".

I'm reading about this, and writing about it, while all the time saying to myself, "Well, my kids will never be exposed to this." I have the sinking feeling that I could be wrong, that this is way more pervasive than I allow myself to admit. Which makes it all the more important to really know what's going on with our kids, even when they're younger than we think they might be when exposed to drugs for the first time, helicopter parenting notwithstanding.

This isn't a few high-school kids smoking a little pot on the edge of school property anymore while thumbing their noses at the principal. Drugs are a huge business and they're after our kids, and I think I need to wake up to this fact instead of pretending it could never happen to my kid. What do you think? Do you worry about your kids and drugs?

Pennsylvania Principal Found Naked with Porn and Drugs

Karen Murphy — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 18:56:00 GMT

Annnnnnnd, he WINS the Trifecta!! Here's a juicy update to CityMama's earlier post about the drug-selling Pennsylvania principal: he was found naked in his office with sex toys this week while watching gay porn in addition to selling crystal meth right out of his office (so handy, what with the porn and the sex toys right there too). Apparently he couldn't wait to get naked right after making the sale to the police informant, and so was busted in an extremely embarrassing (for him) state.

Jeez, I remember when getting sent to the principal's office used to mean something. And this would be the time I would be glad I'm paying private school tuition, if this is the state of the public schools only a few miles from my house.

[Image from NBC10.com]