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Methamphetamine Addiction:  The Ultimate in Bad Parenting

Have you ever had a “bad parenting” moment?”  One of those moments where you wish the ground would just open up and swallow you as long as it takes the kid, too?  I think we’ve all had our share of them. There are extreme cases however, beyond simply feeling like a bad parent because you refused your child a treat or an activity they enjoy. Feeling guilty does not make a person a bad parent.

Real Bad Parenting – Extreme Cases

• It’s bad parenting to spend all your food money, and leave the kids to scrounge wherever they can for supper.

• It’s bad parenting to put beer in the baby’s bottle so she’ll stay quiet during your party.

Meth Addiction

Some children’s parents are addicted to methamphetamines.  1.5 million Americans are addicted to it, and many of them cook it in makeshift labs in their homes.  Meth is highly addictive and may cause violent behavior.  People who are addicted to methamphetamines lose their inhibitions and their ability to make judgments.  People may have sex in front of young children and women sometimes engage in sex and offer their children for sex in return for the drug.

The ingredients used to make methamphetamines are toxic, and children often live in homes that are being used as labs.  They are exposed to the toxic substances and to the drug. 

These people did not decide to be bad parents.  They did not set out to exploit or abuse their children, but they do it anyway.  Methamphetamines are taking a terrible toll in our country, and children are the victims. 

Some of these kids wind up in foster care; in fact, the number of kids in foster care in Oregon has doubled in the last couple of years due to the methamphetamine epidemic there.  The foster care system cannot absorb them all, and often the older children are left to fend for themselves because there simply isn’t anywhere for them to go.

The ultimate “bad parenting” decision is to abuse your body or your child in any way. The hard truth, as briefly examined, is often times horrifying and painful to even read about. We need to understand however, how this affects the children in our society so that we can begin to help the healing process begin. When people remain ignorant to these kinds of issues, it is not possible for communities to stand together and make a change for the better.