Random Conversation

I heard one of the most disturbing stories ever yesterday.

A family that my family has known for almost 30 years did something to their only child that blows my mind. My parents met these people is when they hired my mama to babysit their son.

His mother had a difficult pregnancy & almost lost him because of it. Due to some of the problems she had, he was born with a mild case of mental retardation & a few physical problems...the physical issues did not incapacitate him in any way & most of them went away as he got older. Because she almost lost him & was unable to conceive anymore children, she babied him & isolated him from most people as much as possible because she was still afraid of "losing him".

It was obvious he was on the slow side, but other than that he had no serious issues except for his mother. The way he was raised him crippled him in so many ways it blows my mind. Due to his isolation he has no social skills & the only place he's allowed to go alone is to my parents' house to visit. The rest of the time he is with his parents (mostly his mother). He would've had a fairly normal life if he'd been allowed to do so.

What I found out yesterday shocked the hell out of me. When he was 20 (he's 30 now), his mother took him to a "counselor" who talked him into signing an "agreement" that stated he would never try to have a girlfriend so he could never reproduce & then she had him sterilized to further insure he couldn't conceive children. This is so sick & disturbing to me & it breaks my heart that someone would do such a thing to their own child. Yes, he's slow, but he's still a person who deserves to have a full life. IMO this is abuse. To take your own child to be fixed like you would a damn dog is insanity to me. His parents are some fucked up people.

 

Like Archangel said, it can be, but it wasn't in this case. There was an issue during the delivery & he was deprived of oxygen for a short time.

His was an extremely mild degree & in his case not at all hereditary. He had some behavioral issues when his parents were around, but when my mother kept him, his behavior was pretty typical for his age.

I've heard of the types of cases like the ones you're talking about. I'd hate to be in the position of having to make that decision.

Good guess.

 

I don't know how they were able to do it. I don't know if it's still the case, but it used to be that in Texas, you had to be 21 to consent to sterilization. The whole thing is horrible to me.