Young woman deemed not bright enough to keep her baby

After the scandal of seven children being removed from their parents due their obesity we now have a young married couple on the run because social workers want to remove their baby from them as soon as it is born. Because the mother isn't deemed bright enough to look after the child.

Not only that, the local council prevented her from marrying the father of her child on the grounds that she wasn't intelligent enough to get married :

www.dailymail.co.uk...

A heavily pregnant woman and her fiance have gone on the run after social workers threatened to take away their baby at birth.
Kerry Robertson, 17, and Mark McDougall, 25, had been told that she was not bright enough to raise their child and that they would have to give him up.
It was another blow for the couple, whose wedding this year was halted just 48 hours before the ceremony in a row over whether Miss Robertson was intelligent enough to marry.
Miss Robertson, who is 29 weeks' pregnant, has since been told the couple will be allowed only a few hours with their baby - a boy they have already named Ben - before he is taken into care and placed with foster parents.
Desperate to keep their family together, the pair fled their home yesterday for a secret safe house.

Another article:

www.telegraph.co.uk...

Kerry Robertson, 17, who has mild learning difficulties, has been told that she will not be allowed to bring up her own child, who she has already named Ben.
Last month Miss Robertson was prevented from marrying her fiancé Mark McDougall, 25, after council officials claimed that she “did not understand the implications of getting married”.
She has now been warned that she will only be allowed a few hours with her baby, which is due in January, before it is taken into foster care.
After hearing the news, Miss Robertson, of Dunfermline, Fife, who is 26 weeks pregnant, said: “I couldn't believe it. I am so upset – I can't stop crying.”
Mr McDougall, an artist, said he wants to take on full responsibility for his son but claims that he is powerless because he is not married to Miss Robertson.
He added: “Social Services are ruining our lives. As we are not married – because social workers would not let us marry – it seems I have no rights as a dad at all.
“Kerry's gran is trying to apply for custody of Ben but social services have already told us it is unlikely she will be successful. We feel helpless.”

This is an article from the Times last month - at that it didn't seem that it was definite that the baby would be taken away. Presumably things have moved on since then.

www.timesonline.co.uk...


[edit on 6-11-2009 by berenike]

I've seen no studies to support that a high I.Q. relates to better parenting skills. I've not enough information to work on here, but this is feeling like an overreaction on the part of the social services.

The two parents seem to be ready, and the gran seems to be willing to help, it sounds like a loving family.

More information is needed.

we need more info..if the people are retarted then i have an issue with trying to raise kids.....

They should go to vegas, I'm sure it would be no problem there...

[edit on 6-11-2009 by obamalivechat]

This is just BS Why are they torturingthis poor family? NWO here we come better get your gun ready.

Originally posted by berenike
Sometimes I despair. This poor girl has been tried and sentenced before she has even had a chance to prove her fitness or otherwise to be a parent.

You know, I have been somewhat going out of my way to have - well sort of glancing interactions with the social services types, also carers and pretty much any one in that sort of field, just to get a feeling of how they think... Usually I find it's best to strike up a convo in a pub when their guard is down a bit.

And I have found that although there are a lot of nice people in these areas - the people that seem to succeed quickly are the jerks... Honestly the bitter people that would hate any job they were in, who thinks the world owes them, who hate everyone, they honestly believe they are better than everyone... The list goes on.

Now they are few in number (the majority are good people) but they all just seem to fall into positions where they can decide fate... Now I don't know about you, that to me is indicative of a psychopathic personality!

And I have actually tested this!! This one guy did not realise he was talking to me down my local (I encouraged this belief) well after a couple of pints and pretty indepth convo I put my 'psychopathic thesis' to him - well the tone changed immediately, he (politely) brought any option of further conversation to an end very quickly and then proceeded to attempt to socially assassinate me to any one that would listen while I was not in ear shot!!! - Well like I said that is in my local, I'm a know wind up merchant, every just let him go on nodding at him, it was freaking hilarious!

Not seen him since, I will love to bump into him again just to say hi - good job he doesn't know my name I suppose

Kerry Robertson is said to have mild learning difficulties and there is no mention of her partner being 'not very bright'.

I'm never sure what is meant by 'learning difficulties' and I don't know where social services are supposed to draw the line between being intelligent enough to look after a child and not being so.

Being academically bright is hardly a requirement for raising children.

I think warmth, patience and a loving disposition are far more useful. Plus the parents-to-be have offered to attend classes.

Not only are they besides themselves with worry, but they've been deprived of the opportunity to get married so the father, it appears, won't have his full legal rights to the child.

I hope they manage to keep themselves hidden and well out of the jurisdiction of Fife Council and that they can legally marry somewhere else.

i looked at the title and hoped it was about "octomom"

oh well. i guess you cant win 'em all...

i want more information about her "lack of brightness" i guess i would call it.
it kinda really depends on how not bright she is.

reply to post by Now_Then


One of these days I might start a thread about the way my ex-housemate behaved when he was a carer in a home for the elderly.

I know it's not quite the same thing, but I heard a lot about the abuse of power that went on and how little dignity the elderly were allowed.

One day he told me that a couple of old ladies had complained to him about the way he told them to get out of the way when he wanted to go through a doorway.

When I asked "What's wrong with 'excuse me, please' " he looked at me as if I was mad.


[edit on 6-11-2009 by berenike]

This is creepy. If this young woman is too mentally underdeveloped to care for her own child, then why was she allowed to get pregnant in the first place? I mean, really, if we governments want to control such things, then why wasn't she sterilized in the first place. Not saying I advocate the state determining such things.

I remember when I was in junior high school and there was a girl who rode our bus and she was, well, not the brightest bulb in the package. But my mom was opining one night at the dinner table about how the government should have her sterilized because she was in love with another youngster who was also, not the brightest streetlight on the street and she might get pregnant. I was aghast at this idea of intruding upon people's lives. It was sort of sickening and amusing at the same time, because my 3 older sisters and I used to discuss how could someone let our mom, obviously a psychotic maniac run loose and have 4 kids and be allowed to abuse them all, constantly.

I don’t know about this girl, from the story she seems okay.

There are those though I have met or read about that certainly are not bright enough to have kids though. I am speaking about those who abuse their kids in some fashion or form. I have seen very loving parents that do everything they can and do very well and are barely getting by. I have also seen rich parents that could give a crap less about their kids.

Those parents that truly care and do their best to raise the kid I deem bright enough. Those that just suck at parenting because they are selfish deserve to have their kids taken and placed in homes of those who will care.

Again I cannot judge this girl and her parenting skill yet. Certainly her husband/boyfriend could be of help. Though I have to wonder where her parents were when she was dating a guy 8 years her elder and becoming pregnant by him while being of high school age, but that is my personal opinion I am sure some see nothing wrong with it.

Raist

Is she prone to accidents? I would consider "not to bright" to equate to "no common sense" maybe forgetful too. Meaning, she might not check traffic before crossing the road, could have difficulty with hot and cold, would rather buy beer and talk time than nappies, has a short attention span ect, ect. An airhead, for lack of a better term. Depending on the severity, perhaps it is better she not raise a child, and if her partner cannot babysit 2 people 24 hours a day, then there would be little other option but to remove the child and place it in care or with family full time. Hard to say on what is known, but some people really should not have kids.

This idea of 'learning difficulties' seems to have a very broad scope.

Co-incidentally, I was reading an article about Susan Boyle, in the same newspaper, who has also been reported to have mild learning difficulties.

Although bullied at school, she has two GCEs - English and History. On top of this she was responsible for looking after her elderly parents until they died.

No-one seems to have stepped in and said she wasn't competent enough to care for them.

It's hard not to make a comparison between the two cases although it's probably not very logical.

Link to article about Susan Boyle:

www.dailymail.co.uk...

We must all have been to school with kids who weren't very bright academically, but who shone at sport, woodwork, art, any number of things that didn't require them to be the intellectual equal of their 'brighter' classmates.

I agree that a 17 year old getting pregnant before marriage with a an older man isn't seen as ideal by everyone, but let's give them credit for staying together and wanting to marry and bring up their child together.

And honestly, in some parts of today's society she would be considered a late starter as far as having a baby is concerned.

I am worried about living in a society where anyone can be labelled as having learning difficulties and we're all supposed to stand by, nodding wisely as if we know what that means, and see them being deprived of their rights. Often by people who wouldn't be considered geniuses in comparison to the rest of the population either.


Edit to add a link to Wiki for an explanation of what learning difficulties / disabilities are:

en.wikipedia.org...

I have started to wonder what the procedure would be if it was the father who had learning difficulties. Would authorities be able to take a newborn away from a perfectly competent mother on the grounds that the father might be a liability around the child or unable to earn a decent wage to support his family?

[edit on 7-11-2009 by berenike]

If the parents wont make the child stupid you can bet $5 the Education system will.