Posted on 08/15/2016 9:01:51 AM PDT by simpson96
When Officer Steve Dunham met the 7-year-old, the boy was offering to sell his teddy bear.
The little guy must have seemed industrious, standing in front of the CVS at the busy intersection of Second and Main in Franklin, Ohio, trying to hawk his toy on July 7. Most children don’t want to part with their stuffed animals. In this boy’s case, it was a lone source of comfort, but he was desperate.
He hadn’t eaten in days.
Perhaps if he sold the small bear for enough money, he could walk across the street and get a kid’s meal at Subway. At the very least, a Snickers bar from CVS. Those cost mere quarters.
And it must have seemed like a charitable area. One walking the short two blocks from the Great Miami River to the CVS would see the towering spires of at least four churches.
But he wasn’t having any luck.
Still, being downtown and completely alone was likely better than being home. His parents allegedly weren’t even aware he’d left the house.
“It broke my heart,” Dunham told WLWT. “He told me he was trying to sell his stuffed animal to get money for food because he hadn’t eaten in several days.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
If this were a Black family, it would all be my fault.
She’s a pretty good size heifer there. XXL I’m sure. The kids all look skinny.
I’ve seen worse homes, too. Yes, they look healthy enough. Could be the older ones put the little one up to selling the bear but doubt we’ll ever hear the whole story.
All the kids are old enough to fix something to eat. One is nearly as tall as the mother. From the pictures, there are beans, rice and boxed items. There’s flour, veg oil and a skillet for a batch of tortillas with those beans. They’re also old enough to clean up the place and know not to put t-shirts on coffee makers. Yes, the mother and father should answer to that health disaster of a fridge but the kids surely aren’t so dumb as not to figure that out how to use that container of Comet and vinegar on their own even if their parents don’t teach them.
I use to hand out food to a couple pan handlers at local parking lots. I did until I saw one guy throw it right in the trash.
Yes, I’ve seen worse than that refrigerator. I’ve seen rotten food and every dish in the house dirty. I’ve seen no working plumbing in bathrooms you can’t imagine. I’ve seen garbage piled to the rafters in an old timey train depot with only a narrow path to get from room to room. And I’ve seen kids getting off their behinds and at least keeping their rooms clean and making sure the younger ones are fed.
I’ve also seen how fast trashy parents can get their act together, dispose of the garbage, get food in the pantry, plunge the toilet, repair window screens and holes in the porch by 5 pm after having a little talk with them so their kids aren’t taken away.
If you’d waited around, he probably drove home in his Mercedes.
And you have to have a license to catch a fish. Just sayin'.
I used to play in houses with friends when I was kid that were about this.
What you’re seeing here isn’t uncommon.
Kids cleaning... a kid will NEVER live better than their parents.
My mother forced me and my sister into chores for as long as I could remember. And remember the Bill Cosby Himself album ? “My mother would come into my bedroom, and see a shoe upside down and get tired. And sick.”
My wife comes from a ... different home. And she never performs better than her parents did. The house is exactly as clean as your parent’s.
So these kids will never take care of themselves. healthy or not, IQ above 120 or not. It’ll never happen. Nurture always establishes limitations.
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