Passing through the Proctor Home

Here we have some very misleading foster parent recruitment propaganda that I would like to share with you today. By reading the following article, where they glorify what they portray as wonderful people who want to help children, you yourself may want to jump on the bandwagon and start aiding and abetting the Child Protective Industry in the stealing and warehousing of other peoples children.

Foster parents Constance and Richard Proctor helping Pocono kids since 1991

On a recent summer morning Constance Proctor and a pre-teen boy stood at the kitchen stove stirring eggs and pouring them into a frying pan. The boy was learning to make an omelet.

A few minutes later, he sat quietly eating his culinary creation. How did it turn out? "Good," he said, nodding his head. "I added bananas."

Now isn't that cute? This is what we will call, "Tactical Cuteness" where they set you up with a heartwarming scene, to trigger the neurons so that the brain will more easily fall for the fairy-tale view including that warm fuzzy feeling you get from seeing a kid cook his own eggs.

This child has been living with Constance and Richard Proctor for several months. A foster child from Northwestern Human Services, his favorite activity is karate class.

You'd think that the kid has woken up and found himself in Heaven, never had a single thought about life before being stolen and thrown into the system.

During the past 18 years the Proctors have provided foster care to more than 50 children. All of them have had behavior or learning problems. They range in age from 8 to 17. At 18, they age out of the foster care system. Some stay for a day or a weekend because they are in respite from another foster home. One stayed more than three years. Usually the Proctors have one or two children at a time.

Talk about a revolving door!

"All are temporary," Richard said. "The average stay is 10 months or so."

Yes God forbid you could give them the stability they need, yet still these people are misglorified in a Foster Parent Recruitment Campaign simply because they're arrogant enough to get in front of a camera and answer a few stupid questions from a reporter that will be taken out of context and presented to the public in a misleading way.

In their 70s, the Pocono Summit couple has spent all their adult lives helping children.

After the children leave, some come for visits. Others have invited the Proctors to high school and college graduations.

See, here's where it gets good and where I become obligated to point out some bullshit to you. Let's examine that statement. "After the children leave, some come for visits." Ok, BFD right? Others have probably been bounced half way across the state, thus making future visits highly unlikely. "Others have invited the Proctors to high school and college graduations." Now wait a minute. Only about half of the foster children graduate high school, and a whopping 2% graduate from college. Also, according to this same article, "All of them have had behavior or learning problems." Then when you consider Mr. Proctor's earlier statement, "All are temporary," and when you consider the ages of the children, "age from 8 to 17" who are typically hardest to place, it is fair to assume that their home is just one more stop on the child's journey through the system. Thus these foster parents must be the greatest thing to happen to children since sliced processed cheese in the individual wrapper, right?

For brevity purposes, I must now snip out a bit of the irrelevant bullshit, then the article continues...

Now Constance works part time as therapeutic support staff with Step by Step. The child she was assigned to most recently had been in three different schools in one month.

"With the help of staff we were able to turn this child around," Constance said. "When you're connected to the teacher and connected to the parent, it's a recipe for success."

Hmm. Isn't it wonderful that we have such kind and loving people to help these children through such traumatic experiences?

Ya!

Actually this is what I like to call spin-doctored bullshit, which is being used to redirect your attention back to the kind loving people who want to help, and completely disregard the actual problem, which is that the kid was in "three different schools in one month!" Get it? Now why did this happen? Oh, they don't tell you that. Why aren't they doing anything about the problem of children bouncing through three different placements and school districts in one month? They don't tell you that either, (we know it's nothing).

Honestly, aside from the fact that it suckers more child lovers into getting their feet wet, what good does it do to glorify those who help the kid while ignoring those who caused the kid to end up in 3 different schools in 1 month. They don't even get a mention. Address the problem so that it doesn't happen again!

Richard now devotes all of his time to foster parenting and reaching out to other foster parents through the "Give Mommie a Break" program.

Give Mommie A Break is a free program Richard runs through the summer, offering recreation to both foster children and biological children of foster parents associated with Northwestern Human Services. Every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Stillwater Estates, children can swim, play basketball, volleyball, badminton, shuffle board and a variety of board games while mommy goes shopping or gets her nails done.

The Give Mommie A Break Program? Give me a fucking break!

Now hold on to your lunch!

"It gives you a chance to know other foster children, and you're just having fun together," Constance said.

Now isn't that sweet? And my question to you is this, has anybody ever done a psychological profile child lovers like these? There is just something completely abnormal here, and it sure as hell isn't the special needs children who these child lovers take in. They are more likely than not, reacting perfectly normally to their situations.

I wouldn't be a bit surprised if somewhere down the line, these people once again make Legally Kidnapped, but not in such a pleasant way as this.