2 year old survives home alone ...
 

On CNN :

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/South/09/....ap/index.html

I cannot believe this, totally amazing. I know our (just) 2 year old wouldn't survive .... its bleedin' scary!

Please include the article in your post, like so:

Thanks MrFlux!!!! Please don't just put up a link and a short comment... it's not a great way to start a discussion.

that said...

Again, the Florida Child Services seems to have let another slip through the cracks.

Bill O'Reilly is going to have a field day with this, but rightfully so. I don't know why the mother never told authorities she had a kid alone at home. Maybe she thought the father would get her and he thought she had told authorities or something like that. Some people I guess.

I'm utterly amazed this kid survived that long. Three weeks and she got her own food and everything. This child would have made a great Spartan...

Wow thats amazing. I guess just pure instincts set in and she must have known the fridge had food... but that is so unbelievable glad she is still alive.

Just think though.. how much trouble a 2yr old can get into when you leave them alone for less than 5 minutes. Most 2 yr olds (depending on if they are a young 2 or an older 2) I know can find enough food to survive for a little while by themselves. What amazes me is that she didn't get into something else that could have hurt her.

Wow I can't imagine going anywhere without telling someone that I had a child that needed care. That is so completely selfish of her not to care what happened to her child. The poor girl alone for so long. Its amazing she stayed at home. I know my girl would head over to the neighbors soon enough. She's 3 now but a year ago I was constantly chasing her over at the neighbors. She was capable of opening the fridge and new all her favorite foods. She's constantly into the cheese and yogurt. I doubt she'd get malnutritioned very quickly even last year she knew how to pour her own milk. I can't imagine the mess though and the things she could get into. My girl loves to climb on the counter when I'm working there I can just picture her falling off without someone there next to her. Oh how can these people even raise a child that survives. It's amazing how tough kids can be. This makes me so angry at that mother. And why didn't the dad have any interest in seeing his child for 3 weeks! What a great set of procreators. ICK!

Why didn't the neighbors notice anything?

Surely she must have cried and screamed at some point.

She probably would have had a better chance of fending for herself if she'd had more nutrious fare to choose from. Most 2's can know where the food is in the house - the fridge, the cookie cupboard. Too bad she had such limited options available.

And it is so sad that she went and waited in her mom's room.

I don't wish foster care on any child, but from the sounds of it neither parent deserves custody.

I hope this "mother" never gets her hooks into that little girl again.

Wow! I'm seriously impressed that the kid survived for 3 weeks. I'm not sure how that is possible for a 2-year-old, given my experience with them!

I hope that kid gets the chance to get away from those losers and do something good in her life. She certainly seems like she's got the instinct to survive and succeed.

I was in a rush to post the article, thats why I didn't include the text ....

Apparently the neighbours did hear something, but nothing out of the ordinary.

There were more detailed articles on one of the local news-sites (I found that via fark), and differing details on the bbc web site.

I'm beginning to see sixate's point with haiving to have a license to have children. How could someone do that to ANY chilld...muchless their own?

After having spent time alone with a three year old, and after having let that three year old spend time alone by herself, this story doesn't seem so amazing.

Well, not the child's part in it, at least.

That mother is exactly the sort of trash that we're trying to keep inside our penal system. She broke some law, and now she's broken another because she was so selfish that she didn't want anyone else to find "her" baby. As far as I'm concerned, she deserves no rights or priviliges. It's too bad that the jail system will award them to her anyway.

This makes me sad.
That poor kid, starting out with two strikes against her already. :(
I just hope this is an indication of the little girls' character later on in life.
That she's a survivor, I mean.

I already agree with sixate's view on licencing for having children.
Unfortunately, this child was already born.

Well, I hope they keep her in there for a VERY long time because of that.
At least she's used to her comfy cell already.

I second that completly. I feel bad if I leave my girls in the living room watching tv when I know they will be fine for 15 mins while I take a shower. How the hell can people do that for weeks?

I forget where, but I read that the father was supposedly trying to get ahold of the mother for a month or something like that. Sounds like a lame excuse unless the mother didnt have a phone AND he didn't know where they lived. Both seem unlikely.

Stupid/Selfish/Arrogant people really shouldn't be legally allowed to raise children.

Sounds like the poor child was used to being left alone for extended periods.

That's pretty amazing, and also messed up.

Hell. I got a 44 year old that can't take that good of care of her self...maybe she will give lessons...sounds like a great little kid...

Dag, yo. That's, well...that's pretty frickin' awe-inspiring. I couldn't imagine anyone five years old having that kind of survival story, much less a two year old.

How can a mother be that shitless?
The mind boggles.

I cant see how a mother can forget about her young like that.
Totally sick in my opinion, poor little kid cant do anything really and as it says it only survived because it followed its natural instinst to find food.

I wonder how she will be emotionally when she grows up... This must have damadged her for life. Poor kid.

Here is a child that I can't help think will grow up and act completely irresponsibly around her children as well.

Either she gets caught in an helpless cycle of poverty and desperation from her awful mother or gets stuck bouncing around in a foster care system. Somehow, I don't see anyone showing helping equip her with the tools she'll need to succeed.

It's true that some people who are dealt shitty cards in life overcome challenges that seem almost surreal to normal folks. But much more often, they cannot. Does anyone actually see this child becoming a responsible parent and a productive member of society? The cards are stacked awfully high against her.

It's true, people who grow up neglected or violently punished, etc. are very highly likely to do the same to their children. I used to wonder how that could be true - surely they would remember how harsh it was in their childhood and vow to treat their own children better!

It turns out they give their own children a lousy cihldhood because it's the only form of discipline, etc. that they know of. They look at themselves and think 'Well, my parents did that to me, and I turned out alright!' I find it incredibly sad that things like that can happen.

wow that a awesome kid, i should hire him to live with me.