Divorce Poem

A sharp reminder to parents to really think about the best interests of the child.

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I am so sorry for what your going through! I know exactly how you feel. I'm going through the same thing right now except I got my kids taken away because I was in and out of the hospital...

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Best Interest Of The Child

Published by Family Friend Poems September 2006 with permission of the Author.

What is in the best interest of the child
Parents fighting in the home
When one decides to roam
Parents fighting when they split
When they no longer care one bit
Parents playing the child one against the other
Teaching the child there's no value in being a father or a mother

Or is it simply
Parents being the best that they can be
Speaking to one another cordially
Parents setting aside the differences they feel
To show their child what is truly real
Parents being what is necessary to be
To make the child's life happy and healthy

The 'best interest' is
That the child grows up to be the best they can be
Will that be to handle things in a way of hurt or harmony
The bottom line is
We should want them to grow up to be great
Don't let your hurtful ways decide their fate

So when it comes to what is in the best interest of the child
Be the parent that shows them you can make it through the trials
Being the father or the mother
That puts the needs of the child before any other

Stories 6
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Rating 4.44

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Has this poem touched you? Share your story!

by Daniella Velez
6 years ago

I am lost without my son. CPS came to my apartment because of an anonymous call on my sister and her three kids that were living with me at the time. CPS saw it was all false accusations. They saw my niece and nephews were not being beaten or starved. They were all well dressed for the winter and were very happy. They took my sister for warrants, and the worker asked will I keep the kids. Well, she took my social security number and name. She came back inside my apartment and destroyed my life by saying I had pending drug charges that happened several months before, and my son was nowhere around. He was at his grandma’s at the time. So she told me she had to take all three kids plus my baby boy. I was like you’re not even here for me and my son. But what could I do? She took my baby boy and destroyed my life.

by Megan Watson
5 years ago

I am so sorry for what your going through! I know exactly how you feel. I'm going through the same thing right now except I got my kids taken away because I was in and out of the hospital with kidney issues, and I was on dialysis. I'm in the process of fighting CPS. Did you ever get your son back, if you don't mind me asking? I could really use some advise or someone to talk to who went through the same thing because I feel like no one that I know understands the pain I'm going through or the pain I feel for my children.

by Jennifer Talbot
7 years ago

It seems natural to a parent who loves their children. My girls' father and his wife decided to not care about my girls' needs, or rights, as in their right to their relationship with their mother. They took 3 happy girls and made them think they suddenly had had a rough childhood, so they left me. Left so they could drop out of high school and do what they wanted. The child's right to choose takes away parents' rights to be parents to their children. What is glaringly obvious is that so many parents still use this to their advantage to take custody of the children. Never mind the destroyed innocence of the children who loved their mother as any child does uninterrupted. Never mind the future of the children removed from their world in order to please a selfish parent who only sees how they think they will benefit from erasing the other parent from the children's lives and never considers the damage the children may never recover from. I can't breathe, still 4 years gone.

by MiddleBrook.MB
6 years ago

I want to share the injustice of my story just hoping it will help someone feel less alone in their "cell." I really don't want to insult a person who is just trying to make his way in the world to the best of his abilities. I think we are all just doing that. But it is heartbreaking in this broken world that parents keep hurting their children. His family with legal background suggested he go to the courts before I could get a chance to when our marriage was a prison and suffocating me. I was managing his only income-bearing company and he was bringing no financial support or domestic stability to me and my daughter. Now he has a girlfriend who bought his business and she gives him the financial structure, domestic "stability" (as she defines it), and provides the directions and leadership he has problems providing himself. Problem is, he is assuming my daughter needs this type of environment to be "healthy and stable" as he defines that.

I have never condemned or vilified my daughter's dad for having poor leadership skills or a heritage of alcohol abuse, but I am constantly insulted by his "new family" for having a diagnosis of bipolar. This defamation of my character continues to punish both me and my daughter: when things were troubling her dad and he was a depressed mess and I tried to leave him, I didn't know that I could have walked in a courtroom any day of the week and just said, "My husband is displaying severe depression due to failing business ventures and has a disposition of drinking inappropriate amounts of alcohol. I am afraid in a depressed state he will neglect my daughter or allow someone to mistreat her" and request an "emergency custody" order.

by Jessica Herring, California Modesto
9 years ago

I'm a mother of 3 who was abused growing up and neglected. I had no guidance of my parents and was so broken and torn, CPS took me and my parents lost me. I was a word of the court. I ran away just to reveal I wasn't allowed to be around the ones I love. I am now an adult and I recently lost my children to CPS. They give most people chance after chance and they bring up my family history and now I'm lost.

by Darla Vergara
7 years ago

I do know what you're feeling or felt because I'm going true the same process being abused and neglected, growing up being under two abusive relationships(domestic violence), getting an addiction. I got a CPS case where I pretty much lost 6 boys, and I don’t know how to accept it now. Is there someone who can do a poem dedicated to my boys, letting them know how much I love them and miss them, how I fought for them after two years and it just wasn't enough for CPS. Thank you.