@TornadoChaser - That is what bothers me about all of this. Was it pride that kept him from turning to the family? I just find it sad that he couldn't find some other alternative. Which leads to all the other people that have since followed suit...is there no one else they can turn to?

Just makes me sad for the children.

I like your version better, BTW.

I...have mixed feelings. Yes, it sucks that this is happening and it's no doubt traumatizing. I just remember a woman that I worked with a few years ago. She had two teenagers, a son (15) and a daughter (13). BOTH of them were steadily in trouble. Fighting, stealing, sneaking out...you name it, those two did it. The scary part is she seemed like she was a good parent. She cared about those kids. She wanted those kids...to the point where when she was pregnant with her son her OB told her she should terminate; that he would have a spinal condition that would make his life short and miserable. She wanted him so badly that she took the gamble anyway (he turned out just fine at birth). She wasn't like some of the parents we see doing half-assed jobs because they didn't really want the kids that they haphazardly ended up with. And yet they still drove her to the edge most days. She would sit at her desk and cry. At one point, our boss mentioned to the rest of us that he wasn't sure how much longer he could keep her on the staff since she wasn't able to pull her own weight in the office while she was so upset about the kids, having to field a steady stream of personal calls from schools, having to take days off for court appearances. A couple of us had a good handle on our own responsibilities and secretly picked up the slack to save her, but she still came dangerously close to loosing her job...which would have meant loosing her home and not being able to take care of the kids' most basic needs. If she grounded them, they snuck out. If she took things away from them, they snuck out and went to a friends' house to have use of those things. If she tried to force them into staying the house, they would threaten to call CPS on her. She scheduled counseling appointments and the boy snuck out...the girl went, wouldn't say a word during the whole session, and then snidely pointed out that her mother had just wasted the co-payment for nothing as soon as they left the office! They'd both been to the detention centers for some of their stunts. Made to take the tours of the actual adult prison. None of it did any good. A shred of relief came when her ex-husband finally took the boy to live with him, that still killed her because the ex just let the son do as he pleased without consequences, but she didn't see any other options for the situation so she let him go. Her mother and sister took one look at those kids and repeatedly told her, "I don't know how you do it!" I lost touch with her after I left that job...frankly, I'm scared to look her up and ask, "How're the kids?" The boy would have turned 18 by now and part of me is certain he's in jail somewhere. The girl would be 15 or 16 and...yeah...the direction she was headed? My old co-worker is probably a Grandma by now. What does one do in that situation? When they just won't listen or see the right path? If there are resources out there that this woman didn't exhaust, they need to be more widely known. (Seriously? I was just given not one but TWO booklets on "DO NOT SHAKE YOUR BABY!" from the hospital without asking for them. Help for dealing with troubled teens should be half as easy to obtain.) The other popular option seems to be teens getting kicked out of their homes when their parents can't deal with it anymore. I think I'd rather them be dropped off at the hospital than tossed out and left to fend for themselves on the streets. Ideally, there are better options than both of those, but with some of the kids out there that get it stuck in their heads that being a "hardcore ghetto thug" is where it's at? Short of some serious electro-shock therapy? I don't know what it is.

On the flip side of the coin, here in Florida we do have a law like this one with an age limit. It's been widely publicized; if you live in Florida, you've heard about it. Period. A month or so ago this woman walks into a clinic for pre-natal care, without a baby. The clinic staff asked where the baby was. She told them she'd dropped the baby off at one the safe haven sites. So...she KNEW about the law and her option to do so. But the truth of the matter is that the baby was stuffed in a backpack in the trunk of car. WHY?! Oh, I have words for that one...lots of them, infact...none of them pretty. *holds tongue between teeth*