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Why Do Parents Abandon Their Children

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Submitted By shakeitfast
Words 970
Pages 4
Delicia Colbert
Professor Carol Johnson
English 1102/ CRN 20272
28 March 2014

Why Do Parents Abandon Their Children
This delicate subject of why parents abandon their children can be answered with several responses in relation to who answers the question at the given time. For instance, the response of a distraught teenager may significantly differ from a career driven office executive. Approaching this topic from various angles and perspectives will expand the understanding behind the action of abandoning a child. Exploration of teenage mothers, single parents, financial instability, and low income homes, absence of one of the parents, mothers prostituting, mental or drug abuse problems and parents whose work ethics rain supreme to their children. Understanding abandonment laws will also help differentiate between child abandonment and the act of a parent placing a child in a better environment that they were unable to provide what it takes to be a parent. Some women neglect their children because may have been raped or just experienced a bad relationship with a male. Because of those past issues the women do not want any memories from her experience and never want to address that part of life anymore. It is bad in most cases because the child is the one that will be affected the most.
Let’s take a look at the abandonment laws set in the United States. This law not only focuses on the physical abandonment of a child, however it includes extreme emotional abandonment. The child abandonment law in the United States of Georgia states it is a misdemeanor to willfully and voluntarily abandon a child, and a felony to abandon one’s child and leave the state upheld by the United States Supreme Court. Many surveys have said anywhere from 7,000 to 15,000 children face abandonment a year. It is more than 500,000 children that live in foster care inside the United States. Socioeconomics rain supreme in many parents decision to abandon their children. Some homes where parents, particularly single parents, struggle to provide the basic necessities outlined in the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The most fundamental necessity listed under
Maslow’s Hierarchy is the physiological component that highlights food, water, shelter and warmth. If a parent or parent’s realize that they have difficulty providing these basic needs for their child or children a decision has to be made. Parents that place their child’s wellbeing first may make the heart wrenching decision to place their child in an environment that would provide such needs. It could be in the form of adoption or giving a family member power of attorney.
Tragic causes are what is referred to as “baby dumping” or some parent’s solution is to take the life of the child and sometimes their own. Most of the time parents are just selfish and only thinking of themselves.
Teenage parents rank on the top of the list for reasons of abandon babies. There is a multifaceted approach to understanding why teenagers are more opted to give up rights to their children. Factors such as existing home environment, immaturity, families’ religious beliefs, parental absence, rape and in some cases denial. Some teens may panic whether it is denial or reluctance to communicate with their parents. If a teenage mother was raped she may associate the child with the traumatizing event. This cruel assault may propel a teenage mother to discard of her child, especially in cases where appropriate counseling was not provided.
On the flip side some cases of child abandonment stems from a parent or parents who can be deemed as “work-a-holics” A parent that is so consume with work and their personal goals that they neglect their children on an emotional level. The parent may also feel that their career is more important than having a child at their point in life. Referring to Maslow’s Hierarchy, in most of these cases, children’s basic needs are provided; however, love and belonging needs are compromised. Some couples may also agree to abandon their children because they enjoy freedom. The couples do not want the responsibility of finding someone to care for the child and have limits on life for themselves. They also may feel that being responsible for another human life and the well-being. They just feel that life is too much to handle. On this level, people need to feel loved.
Healthcare professionals, social workers, public health workers, government and citizens in the community try to formulate ways to decrease the occurrences of child abandonment.
Reduction tools that are being implemented and reviewed are focus on education, family planning, post-natal services and support for motherhood. Often when parents try to seek help from many organizations they are sometimes feeling degraded. Some of the families are not treated in a respectful manner able way and they tend to deny help for their family. There are many places and people that will accept children and not want a name from the parent.

Works Cited
Child Abandonment - FindLaw - Criminal Law criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-charges/child-abandonment.html‎ Children of Workaholics (COWs) http://library.adoption.com/articles/children-of-workaholics-cows-.html U.S. state of Georgia, it is a misdemeanor tofelony to abandon one's child and leave the state. In 1981, Georgia's treatment of abandonment as a felony when the defendant leaves the state was upheld as con U.S. Supreme Court.[4] http://www.nmtpc.org/pubs/meetTheChallenge0401.pdf Our Hierarchy of Needs
Why true freedom is a luxury of the mind.
Published on May 23, 2012 by Neel Burton, M.D. in Hide and Seek http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hide-and-seek/201205/our-hierarchy-needs Statistics on Abandoned Children in America http://www.reference.com/motif/society/statistics-on-abandoned-children-in-america http://sfhelp.org/gwc/abandon.htm 02 November 2013

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