It must be nice!

As I have mentioned before, I work after school as a tutor at a local children's home.  This home usually takes in children from other parts of the state. But every once in a while they will take in children who have been removed from their parents in our district.   The first time this happened was about 5 years ago with a little girl in kindergarten.  I won't go into details but she was experiencing abuse at home and was displaying signs in school and child protective services came in and removed her and she was placed with the home.  She lived there about 2 years before being adopted by a local family and still remains in our school district.  It was amazing how she changed during that time.  When she was in kindergarten she was very difficult.  Today she is a sweet little girl and hardly any trouble at all.  It is remarkable to see the changes that this child has made.  I truly believe hers will be a success story.   On the other hand:   My next story is not as wonderful.    There is a couple in our town that everyone in our school is very familiar with.  They have a total of 5 children all together if I'm not mistake.  Thier oldest lives with grandma and always has.  Mom and dad just couldn't handle this child.  Why?  Lets see?  He never gets in trouble at school, is always polite and respectful.  Always did as he was told.  As you can see he is totally out of control.  NOT.  Their next two children were girls and really were a handful.  Not bad, just a little more lively.  Grandma refused to take them so mom and dad were stuck with those two.  Those two girls are in my school and in 3rd and 5th grade.  The other two are not school age yet, so I don't know a lot about them. The school counselor has been trying together these kids away from their parents for years. Neglect, abuse you name it. They are just rotten parents. Well this summer it finally happened and the kids were all sent to live at the children's home that I work at after school. One day as I was showing up after school for tutoring I happened to see those parents leaving from a visit. The kids stood at the door and waved and said," love you, bye." It was the same as when I drop my own kids off somewhere.  But it really got me to thinking;  it must be nice having someone else take over the trouble and cost of raising your kids.  Those two still get the joy of visiting and playing with their kids anytime they want to,   but here's what they don't have to put up with.  They never have to be the bad guy.  When its bed time or bath time or nap time, they never have to be the one to make their kids obey.  The home pays group leaders to do that.  They don't have to help with homework or worry about their grades.  The home pays me to do that.  They don't have to help with school papers or projects.  They don't have to pay for school supplies.  They don't pay for school clothes or any clothes, because the home buys them clothes whenever they need them.  They get new shoes more often then I do now.  They don't have to pay for food because the home provides meals.  (But I have a feeling they still collect food stamps!)  They don't have to find a babysitter if they want alone time.  They get plenty of that these days. They don't have to attend parent teacher conferences, the education coordinator does that.  They don't have to attend discipline conferences.  If their kid gets in trouble at school its not their problem anymore.  They have managed to work out the perfect parenting system.  The state takes care of all expenses and  trouble and they get to show up once a week and get kisses and act like they are the parents of the year.  They must be a lot smarter then we ever gave them credit for. Like I said it must be nice!