Some People Have No Business Having Children
If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, then you know about my grandson Jaden and the battle between his parents. To refresh your memory, my son Joey has been trying to get a valid legal agreement for about three years (Jaden is 5). Joey hired a lawyer, Dickie Jones in Sumter, SC, to represent him and after taking over $8,000 of Joey’s money, Mr. Jones dropped him when he became unemployed. Now he says it will cost an additional $2,500 to get a final agreement. Well, Joey has been unemployed since his layoff in August of 2008. Obviously, he cannot afford to continue the case at this point.
That puts Jaden’s mother in control. Now, Jaden’s mother and Joey were never married, so this is strictly a custody dispute rather than part of a divorce. The reasonable thing to do, would be to come up with an agreement they both could live with and get it blessed by the courts. In fact, Joey has written just such an agreement but can’t get Jaden’s mother to sign it. The agreement he came up with is based entirely on the almost complete agreement they had before they were both forced to release their lawyers, due to an inability to pay.
Recently, Jaden’s mother attempted to file a case to enforce child support with the Department of Social Services. When the hearing came up she chose not to appear. Since Joey had documented proof that he had been paying child support, even before Jaden was born, and that he was paying the proper amount, the case was dismissed. Joey was also able to prove that he had paid for Jaden’s mother to take classes to become a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) in order for her to better provide for Jaden and herself. Unfortunately, she is extremely lazy and only worked for a couple of months. She also didn’t like the fact that she had to touch sick people. That’s not surprising though, since we’ve know her, she has had several jobs, none of which lasted more than a couple of weeks.
The biggest problem I have with all this is the obvious lack of interest she takes in her son’s feelings. Jaden loves his daddy very much and loves to spend time with him. However, since his mother is in control here, she allows Jaden to visit his father only when it’s convenient for her. Long periods of time go by when Joey can’t speak to his son because her phone is shut off or she just won’t return the calls. Often, she will send text messages back and forth cussing at Joey and calling him names instead of just letting Jaden talk to his Dad. When Joey does see Jaden, he often comes down dirty and not properly dressed for the current weather.
Joey has tried to work out custody through DSS, but they say that they don’t get involved with that. He has also contacted child advocacy groups who tell him that unless the child is in danger, there is nothing they can do. We don’t really know the situation, since we don’t even know where they are living. I do know that Jaden is left with other relatives and friends a lot. I know that she doesn’t give him vitamins. I know that she gives him Mountain Dew rather than orange juice. We have also heard that she has taken Jaden with her to buy pot and we know she loves pain killers. She’ just not right in the head. Need proof? Consider this: about four months ago she took Jaden out of pre-school, supposedly because they were moving to a different district. She never informed the school, who thought Jaden simply stopped coming. Two weeks ago, Joey gets a call from the school saying that Jaden’s mother had dropped him outside and left him and wanted to know if Joey knew anything about it. Jaden’s mother left Jaden outside the school by himself after not attending for four months. What kind of idiot leaves their child on the street at a school he hasn’t been to in four months? At the very least she should have taken him inside and explained what was going on. Fortunately, Jaden’s former teacher noticed him and took him inside while they contacted his mother to come and get him.
As you can probably tell, I’m pretty angry about what my son and grandson are going through. I get really upset when I try to image the thoughts going through Jadens’s head as he stood on the sidewalk in front of the school. I remember a couple of weeks ago, after Joey had been trying for more than a week to speak to Jaden, he was finally able to get the mothers boyfriend to let him talk to Jaden. Jaden’s first words to his daddy were, “Where have you been Daddy?”. This really hurt Joey and again I can only imagine what was going through Jaden’s mind.
Well, Joey keeps trying and the drama continues. Maybe soon he’ll be able to get back to work and then get the lawyer back on track. In the meantime, if you know of any resources that might help, please let me know.
