Quints' Mom Accused of Leaving Them Alone

[kskiska]

WARRENTON, Mo. -- The mother of 2-year-old quintuplets faces criminal charges after being accused of leaving four of them and their 3-year-old brother home alone while she took a fifth quint to a doctor's appointment.

Christine Moungowoolford, 30, of Warren County, was charged last week with five counts of endangering the welfare of a child. The children were left alone for about an hour and 20 minutes, authorities said.

(snip)

The quintuplets -- girls Maryelysee, Natalie, Sidney and Jacquelynn, and their brother Joshua -- were born nearly nine weeks premature. Prosecutors said they delayed filing charges while they investigated, and also took into account the family's tough financial situation.

(snip)

The newspaper said that in an August 2003 feature story, Christine Moungowoolford and her husband, Valmore, said they were struggling with medical expenses and other costs related to the quints. The husband, a truck driver, was often out of town for days at a time.

more…
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-quintuplets-mother-charged,0,667366.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

[burrowowl]

1. Man if I had 5 kids at the same age with no help

I'd leave them alone for a spell or shoot myself.
Teach them right if they used a fertity I gotta have my own babies instead of adopt route.

[DemBones DemBones]

4. She has FIVE 2 year-olds and ONE 3 year-old = SIX TODDLERS!!!

Ack!!!

I think using fertility drugs/ IVF is crazy but adopting an infant can be difficult since fewer are given up for adoption -- legalizing abortion really decreased the supply of babies needing homes. People also worry about adoption today because they fear getting a drug-damaged or genetically defective baby.

[cornermouse]

12. One thought.

Babies need parents and homes, especially drug-damaged or genetically defective babies.

[DemBones DemBones]

17. You didn't need to tell ME that. However,

many people aren't confident about their ability to care for such children, especially if they have no experience raising children.

Others don't think they have the emotional strength to deal with the difficulties of raising a handicapped child.

Another thing that gives people pause about adopting special needs children is that they know they don't have the income necessary to raise such children with proper medical care, private schools or tutoring that may be necessary, etc.

Then there are the people who want a "perfect" baby, and while that may be a shallow viewpoint, would you want such people to adopt a child with genetic defects or prenatal damage? What kind of parents would they be if they were resentful of the child's handicaps?

[DemBones DemBones]

2. Six toddlers is a lot for any one woman to care for.

She shouldn't have left the 3 year-old and four quints home alone while taking the other quint to the doctor, but I'm sure the logistics of taking all of them someplace are a bit daunting. She needs help from social services, I think, since her husband is a trucker and she apparently has no regular help with the children.

[tibbir]

3. She's just in an impossible situation.

It's outrageous that she left those babies by themselves but bringing them all along with her would have been virtually impossible. I hope someone will come forward with an avenue to go down where she can obtain some help.

[chalky]

5. Sorry, but sounds to me like these are babies that should have remained

snowflakes.

From that August featured article mentioned in THIS article:

"The Moungowoolfords tried for seven years to have Valmore Jr.
Christine, 28, and Valmore Sr., 30, finally succeeded with the help of a process called intrauterine insemination, which includes the use of fertility drugs. The plan was to use it to have one more. Instead, Christine learned she was carrying five babies."

Scroll way down to the bottom fourth of the page. You'll see the above paragraph under the subheading, "Back to 'penny-pinching'".

eta: Oh, and a little further down in the article:

A woman of strong religious faith, Christine speaks with confidence about her family's future. She sees the births as "God's will." The babies, she said, are her biggest contribution to the world.

Yeah. Could be it was also "God's will" that you not procreate. Weren't listening too hard to that message, though, were ya?

[FormerOstrich]

15. Thanks for the 2nd Link...

seems there is more....she had day care (at least at one time) and started going to school again..

Not a stay-at-home mom

Christine recently decided to go back to school three days a week this fall. She originally had planned to wait until January but said some time alone would do her good. More important, she said, finishing her schooling will help put the family in a better position.
"I want them to go to the next echelon," she said. "I went to nursing school, I want them to go to medical school."

She has found a home day care in north St. Louis County to look after her six children from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday this fall. It will cost about $2,000 each month.

Christine has two years of classwork to complete, although she realizes there could be delays. "Give me another three years - maybe more."

Still, she said, she thinks of her self-worth in terms of what she gives back to the community. That's why she also plans to complete midwifery training through a school in Kentucky.

The long-term goal is to open a clinic in the Central West End. Christine said she's seen too many mothers "just showing up at the hospital, having babies."

People who know Christine said she can handle both kids and career.
"She's up for the challenge," Bonds said.

Well maybe she wasn't up for the challenge after all. I like the way she didn't want exploit the children but it was okay dokey with her if someone wanted to build an addition to thier house.

Now, the question of the hour. Who thinks this is the first time super-mom left those babies in God's hands while she ran an errand?

[smirkymonkey]

20. Excellent point!

"Yeah. Could be it was also "God's will" that you not procreate. Weren't listening too hard to that message, though, were ya?"

Why are the "faithful" so unable to see their own hypocrisy?

[earth mom]

6. Sounds like that mom is completely overwhelmed....

though it's no excuse.

A few years ago, I discovered by accident that my next door neighbor had left her two kids-a toddler and infant-home asleep while she crossed an extremely busy street to go and get some cigarettes. She was only gone probably less than 10 minutes, but I was shocked to find out after the fact that she had left them alone. She shrugged it off, but I was appalled. I was glad when our family moved away a couple of months later...

[Hekate]

7. Poor soul

It seemed unlikely to me that the mother sought fertility treatments given how close in age her firstborn and the quints are, until I read Post #5. Yow. No, honey, "God's will" was for you and your husband to be unable to conceive. A whole lot of scientific intervention was needed for this to happen.

Even so, that many babies is an overwhelming burden, especially now that the gee-whiz factor is gone. It was one thing when the Dionnes were the only quints on the North American continent in the1930s -- they ended up with lots of help -- way too much interference in fact. But by this time the public has been exposed to a whole slew of super-multiples and the product endorsements and free vans and all that are history.

I wonder if the mom, whose trucker husband is gone much of the time, has any close relatives who will help out for free. I wonder if she is able to find any kind of affordable child care at all, just so she can take a shower in peace, or grocery shop without 6 toddlers in tow.

"More to be pitied than censured, more to be helped than despised."

Hekate

[chalky]

9. See post #5. They DID.

"The Moungowoolfords tried for seven years to have Valmore Jr.
Christine, 28, and Valmore Sr., 30, finally succeeded with the help of a process called intrauterine insemination, which includes the use of fertility drugs. The plan was to use it to have one more. Instead, Christine learned she was carrying five babies."

[bettyellen]

8. wow her church isn't helping her out in times of need?

you think they'd at least rally around the mega-breeder...

[LosinIt]

13. my thoughts exactly

these fundies are so pro-family, now THAT is a family.

[newswolf56]

10. Sorry but I don't see criminalizing the mother,

religious issue or not, when the real crime is the ever-worsening lack of affordable daycare in this country. If she goes to jail -- and she may very well -- she's being punished for being too poor to afford that (unaffordable) day care.

Yes what she did was wrong, but what other alternative did she have?

As to damning her for being a "breeder," it's precisely this very lack of class-consciousness (and that's what it really is, a class issue) that drives so many blue-collar folk into the arms of the Republicans.

[chalky]

11. But she WASN'T a breeder, was she?

This woman who cited "God's will" in the birth of her last five babies.
The same will that she circumvented by using IUI to get pregnant in the first place.

And yes, daycare is expensive. Around here it would have cost her about $8400 to put her first son in daycare.
Just about the price of that second round of IUI she happily ponied up the money to have.

Dammit, but there are so many children, especially minority children (and yes, the first article made it quite clear that this was a minority couple) who need loving homes. But vanity (unlike us, apparently) knows no class distinctions and insists that only our DNA will do. And one healthy child just isn't enough, is it? Never mind that this couple was already used to "pinching pennies". Gotta have that heir and a spare.

So fine. What's done is done. Maybe little Natalie (WHO WAS LEFT HOME ALONE) no longer needs that oxygen cited in the article, and maybe the two babies (WHO WERE LEFT HOME ALONE) that had the heart monitors last year don't need those, either. Hopefully the physical therapy that was required by most of the children (several times a week, by the first articles count) paid off.
And, oh yeah, did I forget to mention....THEY WERE LEFT HOME ALONE?

By all means, let's find someone to help mom out with those kids. I hope shitloads of people step forward to play with, feed, clothe, bathe and most importantly, LOVE those children. But make no mistake--I'm praying this happens because it's those KIDS that matter right now. Despite your compelling argument, I still sure as HELL don't feel sorry for Mrs. Christine Moungowoolford and her loving, albeit frequently absent husband, Valmore.

[fasttense]

14. Good summary of their situation chalky. It's clear that these problems

are not simply a choice of right and wrong. Funny how money would solve their problems so easily.

[Deja Q]

16. Hmm, seems the fad had worn off...

[fortyfeetunder]

18. No support system

Aside from the point that the parents, and yes, I blame BOTH the parents for this one, and I think both should get a lecture, not criminalization.

There is a big disconnect reading this fragmented story. I fail to comprehend this family has not gone out for support, a volunteer, a neighbor, a friend, anyone that could have sat with the kids. Or hell, why couldn't a visiting doctor come and see the family?

[deadparrot]

19. Yup, that's my state.

Methinks mom is not quite right in the head.

[barb162]

21. wonder why a social worker was visiting (previous problems?)

"According to court records, a sheriff's deputy had found the five children alone after a social worker visited March 23 and contacted authorities"