Two kids left to fend for selves in tent outside mobile home by parents, Mark and Kathy Tucker: cops

[Randy_P]

Source: New York Daily News

Florida police believe a pair of starving children was left to fend for themselves in a tent outside their mobile home by their own parents.

The 3- and 4-year-old girls were discovered dirty and desperate for food and water at their Lake Butler home last week by a woman who knew the couple, authorities said.

The parents, Mark and Kathy Tucker, have been arrested and face child neglect charges.

In their defense, the parents insisted their dog was on the scene to make sure the children were safe.



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2011/05/15/2011-05-15_two_kids_left_to_fend_for_selves_in_tent_outside_mobile_home_by_parents_cops.html

---

WTF???

[dkf]

1. Drugs. Nuff said.

[Duer 157099]

2. Well, to be honest, the dog probably is a better parent

At least they knew that.

[LisaL]

12. The dog's name must be "Brian."

[Donnachaidh]

18. was there a Stewie in the mix? n/t

[sarcasmo]

14. +1

[sfwriter]

3. Happened to me at the age of nine with a five year old sister.

Mom drunk and passed out... door locked.

[LiberalLoner]

8. I'm so sorry :( n/t

[Auntie Bush]

26. What an awful life you must have had raised by a drunk Mother.

[underseasurveyor]

34. similar story here too.

Except I was the younger sister and my older sister made sure I was taken care of. She is 6 years older. I remember her cooking, doing the dishes and laundry. Getting me up and ready for school. Everything a mother should have been doing. Then the real kicker was when my sister turned fourteen our 'mommy dearest' handed her over to a neighbor because this guy convinced our mom that my sister need a good f*ck. I was twelve when my turn came.

My sister and I do not call this person mom or mother, we refer to her by her first name when we talk about her.
The woman is almost 80 now and is still a drunken drug addict. Why or how she has managed to live this long is unbelievable.

[CoffeeCat]

51. I am sorry these things happened to you...

I had a similar childhood...and it is a long road back to normal, isn't it?

I hope you have found some kind of peace and healing--it's very difficult to
sort through a mess that someone else creates in your own life.

I wish you nothing but the best. I'm sorry that you did not have the
mom you deserved. You were an innocent, sweet child who did not deserve that.

Take care.

[underseasurveyor]

72. Very sweet and kind you are

Funny (not in a haha way) but as I grew older I found that I had more in common with people than not and therefore felt- not so alone. So many of my friends and people I've met through out the years grew up in some pretty horrible situations.

20+ years ago due to numerous things.... let's just say I dealt with and came to terms (for the most part) with my childhood and growing up. Today I'm good, my sister is good and we're best friends and closer than any two sister can be:-) and today I'm a very happy woman and thank you yes.. I have peace, light and love :thumbsup:

It was a long dark road but in the end I am who I am because of those things I've experienced in my life, good and bad.
I love my life and thoroughly enjoy living it every day.

Love and peace to you CoffeeCat :loveya:

[I owe]

76. We have all walked through our share of Hells

I wish you well, ma'am!

[bobburgster]

79. Some are a little hotter than others. n/t

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

82. Ditto..I found that I had more in common with people than not and therefore felt- not so alone

I myself try to look back into my childhood but can't do it.

Way too many locked doors with lost keys.. I think sometimes it's best that way.

[bobburgster]

70. Wow! What a nightmare...

for you and your sister.

[Randy_P]

71. It's both amazing and disgusting

The percentage of women and girls who get sexually abused in this country.

[underseasurveyor]

78. I read or heard somewhere that by age 21

4 of 5 women have been sexually molested to some degree. Pretty frightening if it's accurate.
I imagine the stats for boys is not much different. Seems many boys/men have been molested and abused too.

Too many sickos.

[Randy_P]

80. dammit

4 of 5? I wish to God I could say I was shocked.

[postulater]

4. Normally I would just post another sarcastic comment to this.

something about a social safety net or about kids looking for a handout from their parents.

Sorry, this is beyond sarcasm. Just makes me sick.

[mackerel]

5. Tweakers, it's a mental illness as much as an addiction.

[IScreamSundays]

junkies but you would have known that had

you read the article.

[IScreamSundays]

15. junkies but you would have known that had

you read the article.

[Keith Bee]

6. Agreed

I, too, am of a sarcastic bent, but this is fucking ridiculous.

[greenbird]

7. Little sweeties.

Give 'em to me. I'll take care of them.

[Keith Bee]

11. That`s a tad....creepy

:hide:

[greenbird]

13. Not at all.

I'm just a mom, and these stories always make me want to gather up the kids in my arms and take care of them. Not creepy at all. Been a mom for 30+ years. 'Sok.

[woo me with science]

19. Nope, not creepy.

I imagine a lot of moms had that response.

[Stuckinthebush]

29. And dads

Man, I'd take them.

[woo me with science]

32. ...

:thumbsup:

[kag]

48. This one sure did.

I not only want to wrap the kids in my arms and take care of them, but I want to do some very non-motherly things to the parents.

:mad: :mad: :mad:

[mopinko]

54. yup, its a mom thing. especially stories this bad.

i want to take kids who are riding around without seatbelts home. these kids? bring it.

[Keith Bee]

57. I stand corrected

My apologies. :blush:

[CoffeeCat]

52. I thought it was sweet...

I am a mom, and I understand how she feels. You hear about the abuse
of children, and it pulls at your heartstrings because you recognize
through your own children how ALL children are innocent, vulnerable, sweet--and so dependent on the
integrity of their caregivers.

I was also abused as a child, and the comment was nice to hear. Puts into perspective that
there are great people out there.

[midnight]

9. As a community I wonder how the grandparents could make their own children feel they could not go to

them for help... As a community we need to wake up and know that if Goldman Sachs can receive help without going to jail then so can these parents...

[yurbud]

53. If Goldman Sachs can receive help instead of prison, so can Charles Manson, Tim McVeigh, and Osama

bin Laden.

Those guys wrecked the world economy so they could personally profit.

[Bluenorthwest]

10. Sanctified Straight Marrieds at play!

Such couples have in the words of the President, a 'spiritual element' which gay people lack in their relationships. God creates the Sacrament that is Straight Marriage. Hallelujah. Amen. One man, one woman.

[teenagebambam]

16. Well, my mom used to leave me outside in the playpen

with the dog on guard duty while she went about her housework. Of course, she DID come and feed me. But I did turn out gay.

[Downwinder]

22. I am having trouble relating.

At four I was working cattle on horseback and at five I had full unattended freedom over the 200 acre home place on horseback.

[proud2BlibKansan]

23. Were you being fed?

These kids were not.

[Downwinder]

24. At given meal times. At other times I was chased out of the kitchen.

[Honeycombe8]

25. You miss the point. You apparently had adults in the vicinity seeing to your needs.

These kids didn't have "freedom." They were held captive by not being provided the bare necessities of life: adequate shelter, food, clean clothing.

[Downwinder]

27. There also appears to be a generational debilitation.

My situation was not uncommon where I grew up. In-fact, I was a little backward. Others my age were training horses.

My Mother used to tell of going on picnics when she was five, where they would build fires and cook their meals.

[nolabear]

47. Nine or ten I could understand. But five? Too young.

[snooper2]

61. When I was six I had to change my own transmission on the LeMans

It was a bitch to learn the hard why why you drain it first :rofl:

[nolabear]

46. You're lucky you're not dead.

[Bunny]

59. When I was three, I was the CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

What's your point?

:eyes:

[AndiMer]

64. That's nothing!

I helped capture a serial killer while still in the womb!

[tabasco]

31. Got a big LOL out of that.

You seem to have a great sense of humor.

[Mnemosyne]

49. My great grandmother tied my great-aunt to a tree with a clothesline, and there was

so little traffic in the 1910's! She was a wanderer and Momps did it to protect her. She would be arrested today. I believe my g-aunt was straight, but wouldn't bet on it, she was a 'wild' one and played piano for beer at the speakeasys, as did my Nanya! :rofl:

[dbackjon]

35. Yup - they were a man and a woman, so they are perfect parents

Far better than any gay couple could ever be. Right Mr. Obama?

[I owe]

66. Good one, Bluenorthwest

"Sanctified Straight Marrieds at play!" :rofl:

[rpannier]

17. Department of Children and Families are working to help the kids and find "a safer environment

That shouldn't be too awfully difficult to find a safer environment
I hope the bar is set at a higher level

[FLPanhandle]

20. These "parents" are scum

You have children, you have a basic responsibility whether you like it or not.

Fuck 'em.

[w8liftinglady]

21. Tweakers. My first thought. I've seen it in action.

Meth is big in Texas. This is the end result.

Poor babies. My partner sees this a lot in his 5th grade class. A 5th grader is the parent.

I need to make some healing beads now.

[valerief]

28. "And we gave 'em guns, so they shoulda hunted fer their dinner likes we have to." nt

[plumbob]

30. Are we clear now that some people should not be parents?

Can't say more. I'm angry enough as it is.

[Corruption Winz]

33. Great parenting, obviously...

Once the dog dies, the kids have meals for days. These kids just need to toughen up......

Horrible parents. What would cause people to do things like this? Hmmmmmmmmm.

[bertman]

36. 'Homo sapiens' translates to wise man.

Yeah, right.

[Bluebear]

37. Mark and Kathy Tucker: cops

It read as though the Tuckers are both cops!

[Tess49]

41. That's how I read it too. In fact, I've read the article a couple of times

assuming I had missed that statement regarding the parents.

[Randy_P]

65. That was the exact title of the article

Oddly phrased, I'll admit, but I'm too new here to play fast-and-loose with the rules. ;-)

[kevinbgoode]

38. Well, thank goodness conservatives spent millions and millions

of dollars making sure the state had a constitutional amendment preventing the gays from marrying. And millions more defending adoption laws that excluded gay parents. . .after all, the GOP surely had a reason to protect the highly moral sanctity of the marriage of Mark and Kathy Tucker and the now likely burden on the taxpayers this undesireable legalized union will put on all of us.

[MrMickeysMom]

39. In defense of the DOG...

At least that species takes a pack attitude and minds their young.

What a waste of protoplasm ... Piss poor protoplasm bleeding out of two idiots that know how to copulate and sell piss poor protoplasm for a bad habit of breathing.

It certainly wasn't for their 3 kids.

[patrice]

40. What the FUCK kind of country IS this!!!!!!!!!! nt

[patrice]

42. Fetuses matter more than children do. nt

[WatsonT]

44. One with 300,000,000+ people and an aggressive 24 hour news cycle

One couple does not determine a nation.

Consider: there were far fewer people in Austria than there are in the US, but I wouldn't consider Adolf a representative of that country.

[Keith Bee]

50. I don't think that's what she was saying

Rather, these douchebag parents are symptomatic indicators of a nationwide mentality, which has been with us since the "me first/instant gratification" 1980s.

[WatsonT]

60. Except that they aren't

after every horrific story people leap to this "what is happening to us!??!!" mentality.

When in reality these are just terrible parents that could have been around in any country, at any time point.

The latest generation is always assumed to be the worst. Either we've been in steady decline since the beginning of civilization or people have a poor inherent understanding of statistics.

[mopinko]

56. it's one with a war on drugs that has really made it worse.

turning a public health problem into a massive for profit industry.
i wonder how many people would be doing meth if they could be smoking weed. shit, doing cocaine. but meth is home grown. and the worst there is.

[snooper2]

62. Um, shitty parents do this type of crap all over the World

I guess the good part is they weren't sold to some 67 year old fundie for a couple goats and a new roof right?

[WatsonT]

69. Nope. Only happens in the US, only in the last few years

Or so some of us would believe.

[AndiMer]

77. But we're supposed to be EXCEPTIONAL!

It's quite elementary, my dear.

[WatsonT]

84. Apparently we are, in that

many people believe we are the sole location for all acts of human evil in the entire world.

[slackmaster]

73. Just like other countries. A country where most parents feed their children.

Stop blaming the whole country for the actions of a small number of lowlifes.

[devilgrrl]

43. In their defense, the parents insisted their dog was onthe scene to make sure the children were safe

:eyes:

[KurtNYC]

58. Dogs can actually parent better than many pickle-brained humans

not that I recommend it...

A snip from a story out of the Ukraine (alcoholic parents left 3 YO boy to dogs; they adopted him):

"When social workers finally heeded the warnings from neighbours, the dogs refused to release the boy, who’d be- come a a pack member. He was prised away eventually. “He couldn’t speak and when he saw our cat, he tried to catch her,” says Lyudmila Pohvalnie, who is fostering “Dog Boy”, as he has been called by the Ukrainian press. “When the other children are in bed Edik often whines like a dog. We’re teaching him to eat, sleep, walk and play with kids.” <<

another:

>>"In 1996, Vanya, then four, found himself on the streets of a Moscow suburb after his father was imprisoned and his mother abandoned him. For two years, in freezing conditions, he lived outside with stray dogs. “They cuddled me and licked my face,” he told social workers. “They were better friends than grown-ups.” By day he begged for food, which he shared with the dogs who, as with Edik, became his protectors. When he was put in a children’s home the strays found him, and howled at the gates." <<

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/article1061048.ece

[niyad]

45. apart from anything else, how was the DOG supposed to give them food and water?

[Ghost of Tom Joad]

55. Think about all the similar situations

that don't make the news, because no one cares.

[yellowcanine]

63. At least they are not a gay married couple. Thank God for that.

:sarcasm:

[truthisfreedom]

67. "Police believe a pair of starving children..."

Ok, they're terribly negligent and obviously desperate, but seriously, were these children actually starving to death? Or were the parents trying to sell their blood to buy the day's groceries for everyone? This doesn't seem to be a case of the parents leaving the children permanently and starving them to death like some other stories that have surfaced lately. More a case of the kids saying "I'm starving! Could we have something to eat and drink?"

[Gin]

68. a recent story in the news in Hampton Roads was a 6 yr. old

girl...chained to her crib...covered in feces...and she weighed 16 pounds....6 yrs old and 16 pounds....her pig faced parents are in jail and looked well fed...F'ers....they also had a baby that was buried under a shed...

[Luciferous]

74. Those poor kids.

[BobbyBoring]

75. I know this will go over big!

Some people should be sterilized. They should not be allowed to reproduce.

[AndiMer]

81. We should remember stories like these

I've already printed and saved. You may want to consider doing the same.

[Le Taz Hot]

83. And another couple

who regard their children as nothing more than crotch droppings. If you want to be a junkie, fine. But could you PLEASE not bring children into the world?

Thanks,
Society