RUNNER, what you'd said, '...it's a very sick world...' ? I couldn't agree with you more !

And BELLY, words such as 'love' 'family values' and the like, seem to be quickly receding even vanishing altogether, and that's so very sad indeed. We will ALL rue the day, when the 'family' disappears, and the only reference to it, might be found in some dusty lexicon ?

The whole Family Law deal is so complex, often without any winners.

And finally, to the PIED PIPER - sometimes it's an absolute imperative that we need to lie to those amongst us who are the most vulnerable and assailable within the family unit.

In fact, the patriarch or matriarch of the family has a pivotal commitment to the very young, and the aged, to employ language of a kind, that inspires and generates a sense of calm and well being, during a family predicament or crisis !

If by necessity, untruthful or fallacious language is needed, to achieve that objective, then so be it.

Cheers...Sung Wu.

As you say, TPP, lots of issues - not the least being the chasm at times between the law, its enforcers and justice.

"The father said even as the constable questioned him at the campground, one of the three daughters jumped up and kissed him, and poked her finger through a small hole in his shirt saying "tickle, tickle".

It was an example of the type of behaviour the campers must have seen, but there was nothing wrong with it, he said.

Police did not take any action then and the family laughed about the misunderstanding, until police came knocking on their door three months later, in March last year."

From those circumstances - if you still "would have lied to the kids" how about, 'Daddy has been made a deputy by the police who need him to hide undercover as a special secret spy for a year and a half to help them with their inquiries...'?

But I would let some time elapse whilst attempting to rebuild your family (as far as it could recover from such tragic interference) before trying to teach the kids that 'honesty is the best policy'.

TPP,
Yeah, I feel sorry for the loving father in this case and sometimes the police do stuff up. Hope he can get some financial compo, at least.

But on the other hand both you and the police come across some bad parents at times.

One case I heard about, the police saw a car leaving a pub one night and pulled it over for a breath test. They found a drunk woman driving whilst breast feeding a baby. Apparently she had been at the pub for hours, leaving the baby in the car. Baby hungry and needed changing so put it on breast to stop it crying on the way home.

It makes me mad to hear this and babies abused, when I understand there are couples anxious to adopt.

I think we should and do lie to protect our kids.
Runner uses what looks to me, to be a terminological inexactitude here too.
First I find it highly unlikely the silly fools who acted as we are told did so more than likely in the interest of the children, if miss placed.
I ROTFL at the thought the sticky beaks broke from reading porn, maybe Portnoes complaint? to make the call.
A am stunned to think thet took the trouble while considering Abortions.
Runner fair go bloke. please start a thread but do not charge every pizza delivery man with such evil intent.

Pied Piper welcome back. The down sides of being willing to lie incude when to stop, what are the unexpected results, whos benefit is the lie for?

Some stuff should be kept from kids but its a risky business. What will the kids think of their dad if they think that work is so important to him compared to them that he moved out to be closer to work and does not spend weekend time with them? Whats the long term subconscious impacts of that?

Pondering runners comments. We don't know anything about the witnesses, they may have thought they had good reasons for what they reported and people should be able to report suspected abuse. If we are going to play the game of speculating on the witnesses values though I find it easier to imagine them having the sort of sexual hangups that would have them see abuse wher its not, seeing porn in great photography, being opposed to porn and anything they deem to be porn. A lot harder to imagine them being advocates for more state control of peoples lives.

R0bert

An error in that last line, it should have been that it harder to imagine them being advocates for government less control in peoples lives.

R0bert