Veganism and other surprising reasons for losing child custody

Veganism and other surprising reasons for losing child custody

Parenting is one of the most rewarding life experiences, like ever. Watching your kids learn life skills, grow into responsible adults, and become parents themselves is what makes being a parent such a joy.

But for some people, being a parent is like solving a mysterious puzzle that you spend an entire lifetime doing...Or is it like puzzling over a mysterious solution? Anyways, parenting can sometimes be so difficult that it can make one yearn for the single life.

In any case, we won’t bombard you with unsolicited advice on how to raise your kids. But we’d like for you to learn a thing or two from these peculiar child custody cases.

The Vegan couple who deprived their child of essential animal proteins

There are many tried-and-true methods for raising children, but feeding them a strictly vegan diet isn’t one of them.

A one-year-old child was brought to a Milan hospital due to perilously low calcium levels that led to other ailments. After several tests, the child was revealed to be malnourished, and it’s all because the parents insisted on raising their little bundle of joy on nothing but leaves and twigs.

Even after being told that the diet aggravated the child’s poor health, the parents refused to bend to the doctors’ -- and to science’s -- will. This prompted hospital staff to alert child services and obtain a court order to keep the infant under the hospital’s custody.

Many parents are inclined to impose their beliefs (including, but not limited to, dietary ones) on their children and believe they’re acting in the youngsters’ best interests. But when it puts one’s life in danger, there’s very little chance that the court will view it as acceptable parenting.

For a child to grow healthy, wealthy, and wise, a well-rounded diet is a must -- one that generally includes animal products!

The pranking parents that curse at their kids for kicks

Seeing your kids weep over their emptied Halloween candy baskets is fun. Pulling pranks that involve shoving and/or cursing at them -- and recording it on video -- is not.

Maryland couple Michael and Heather Martin thought it would be hilarious to repeatedly prank their 10-year-old son Cody for their YouTube channel DaddyOFive. One video that landed them in serious trouble involved Heather pouring ink on their carpet, accusing Cody of the misdeed, and dropping f-bombs on him, while dutiful Michael recorded the kid’s meltdown.

The video sparked outrage online and induced the family to address the “haters” and claim that everything was scripted.

But Child Protective Services were not fooled. They investigated the couple and later sentenced them to five years’ probation for two counts of child neglect. Martin and Heather entered Alford pleas, which basically means they asserted their innocence while at the same time admitting there was sufficient evidence to prove their guilt.

The Martins would have had no trouble if they’d made a crotch-kick video in the grand tradition of AFV instead.

The single mom who was dominated by her kink-shaming ex

Literary sensation EL James and her insanely popular ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ novels received multiple lashings from the BDSM community for inaccurately depicting their lifestyle. However, at least one parent from that community is grateful for helping shape the outcome of her child custody battle.

In 2013, a vindictive man exposed his ex-partner Samantha’s BDSM proclivities. He told social services that her unorthodox lifestyle was harming her children, which resulted in her losing custody of the kids.

Samantha sought the help of the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (NCSF), a nonprofit organization that provides legal aid to individuals with “alternative lifestyles,” and appealed for a re-evaluation from the court.

It didn’t take long for Samantha to regain custody of her children when it was proven that their well-being was in no way compromised by her affinity to play leather-and-latex dress-up in the privacy of her own bedroom.

NCSF spokesperson Susan Wright credits the massive popularity of ‘50 Shades’ for ‘breaking through the media of sensationalism,’ which, as it applied to Samantha’s case, meant that engaging in a BDSM lifestyle is really not that unusual and definitely does not harm the children of parents who practice it.

Take that, Christian Grey haters!

You don’t need to drop by our Renton offices to be told that physically, mentally, or emotionally abusing your kids or failing to provide for their basic needs is a surefire way to lose custody. For custody matters more serious than an I-ate-all-your-candy fake-out, call Buckingham, LaGrandeur & Williams, Attorneys at Law for advice.