Disturbing Documentary

[jd11365]

Just saw A Boy's Life on HBO and it just tore my heart out. It follows a 7 year old boy living with his mentally disturbed Grandma...or Mee Maw...as she calls herself. She tries to make him and everyone else think he's got a mental disorder...basically shows signs of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy...they live in squalor...it was heartbreaking to watch her treat him the way she did. I know...I can't believe I actually sat through this either, and actually had to fast forward through a part (we have DVR on the TV) where she upset him on purpose and then restrained him. He was screaming for her to let him go and I couldn't watch anymore of it and had to fast forward. Thankfully it had a somewhat happier ending, though not my choice of a life for a child.

Jamie
Mommy to Kayla
5-1-03

[Melanie]

How sad. So what happened?

[deborah_r]

I saw that. It was made by Rory Kennedy (I think she's RFK's yougest daughter), who seems to be making a name for herself as a filmmaker. I think she has made several critically acclaimed documentaries. I felt sad for most of the people in the story, and I also felt for the school principal who saw these kind of situations all the time and was so overwhelmed by it. But she was also very strong and it made me happy that there are people out there like that.

Melanie - The grandma got sick and couldn't really take care of the 2 kids, so the daughter (mother of the boys) got them back and she was doing pretty well with them. She had very low self-esteem because of the way her mom had treated her. Her mom (the grandma) was emotionally abusive, usually in a passive-aggressive kind of way.

[momathome]

Oh, jeez, I saw this documentary today, too, and was blown away by it. That grandmother was completely nuts! I wanted to take that little boy home with me, you just felt so bad for him. Social Services and the school principal just seemed so frustrated by the situation and in wanting to do right by this little boy - it was heartbreaking! I couldn't believe when the social worker concluded that the the little boy did not beat up his grandmother and that she was just trying to make him think that he did. What a nut case! It was a riveting documentary.
-Lauren

[jd11365]

I was a bit frustrated that social services didn't remove the children any earlier. I taught elementary school for years and I had a boy...in 3rd grade...who couldn't recognize the letter R in his own 4 letter name. It was so sad. He and his sister had been removed several times from his mother because of neglect and drug abuse but again got him back. The boy's teenage brother was in juvenille detention for trying to kill him by setting him on fire. He was one of 5 children...from 5 different fathers. The mother only knew his father...who she met at a carnival, stole her car, and beat her. He also molested the teenage babysitter at a later date and vowed to return to come back and attack her 8 year old daughter. You couldn't make this stuff up...the court documents were as thick as a phone book and took me almost a week to read through. It was horrible.

My point is, I know that if this child had been born into a loving family he would have known the R in his name...he was a very bright kid. He was a very sweet kid. But all the abuse...whether he watched it or experienced it turned him into an emotional mess. It is amazing how strong the little boy in the movie was...how when she tried to tell him he did things like say he was going to kill himself, he didn't give in and said he didn't. It is also amazing how he thrived at school...which was the only happy place for him. Generally, these kids act out for attention even if it's negative. And as an educator I cried along with the principal because I felt so bad for her. She could only do so much. At least she was up on things and knew the "real" side of the boy and could be an advocate for him.

BTW...I can't get the picture of that grandmothers teeth out of my head. Just looking at them when she was crying on the bed and they were filled w/ foaming saliva was enough to remove those boys for me!


Jamie
Mommy to Kayla
5-1-03