The Poopers thought it was okay to tell those kids that their mother was a bad person because she was sick. It was obvious Patty Pooper had issues about children . I was glad when it was decided to remove them from there home. Callie Cain at least deserved the chance to try to get better and take care of her own kids.
shareHow can you say that? Do you really believe Callie Cain's illness was the only reason she was a lousy mother? Please! I realize she had mental issues, but it was hardly an excuse to treat her kids like dirt. She was lazy, irresponsible, and downright neglectful to her kids. She never wanted any of those children. They were all nothing more to her than the unexpected side effect of her own irresponsible actions. She didn't neglect them just because she was sick, she neglected them because she cared more about herself and what she wanted than taking care of them. Her illness may have contributed to the situation, but I fully believe she would have been the same way, sick or not. How could the foster parents not think badly of her? I do think they may have overstepped their position a little and probably shouldn't have encouraged the kids alienation from her, but at least their intent was good. They loved the kids and wanted the best for them. I'd feel a little differently if Callie had actually been realizing the error of her ways and was making an honest apparent effort to change, but she didn't even seem to be recognizing that she'd been wrong and insisted it was the foster parents that were poisoning her kids against her, not even stopping to think that SHE was the one who did that. I was 100% for the foster parents. The kids were happy for the first time in their lives with them and should have been allowed to stay there.
shareOk, I'm Bipolar, and my children are well loved and taken care of. So I can see the situation from my own point of view...my children are my life line. I adore them, and they adore me.
There is little excuse...except moments of psychotic break...that the children lived in SUCH deplorable conditions. Except that the mother either did not care, or did not know how, to provide a relatively habitable home for her children. They lived in third-world squalor, and you cannot entirely blame Bipolar for THAT.
However, I grew up with a Schizophrenic mother & I actually identify with the kids a lot...I dealt with many of the same things as I grew up. I can see both sides. I have been in foster care myself.
The bottom-line reality is that the 'Peppers' gave those children the first taste of a normal, healthy life they had ever had. And that is a gift of immeasurable value. They got to understand that they could be loved and cared for...that life didn't HAVE to be so terrible. Do you remember living with mentally ill parents...no food in the house...being mentally and physically abused? Not knowing EVER that you were a worthy person...as a child? I do. Unless you do too, you really have NO IDEA what the 'Peppers' did for those children.
However, the 'Peppers' were wrong to call the mother a bad person. When you sign up for foster care, you agree to help the process of the parent and child reuniting. Adoption doesn't enter the picture unless there is NO possibility of a reunion. Nobody was all good here...neither was anybody all bad. But I cannot speak a bad word about the 'Peppers.' They handled things badly in a lot of ways, but they loved those kids.
I agree with janielovesebay. The Peppers were not perfect, but they loved those children dearly and took good care of them. I couldn't stand Callie Cain in this film. She was selfish, lazy, and needy. Yes, she was sick but she neglected those kids especially when a man entered the picture.
Jessie called it right when she lambasted Callie (I cheered in those scenes) that all she wanted was to be in bed with somebody, that she pushed them aside.
She seemed to want to have kids to try and keep a man. The scene that shocked me even more was when she wouldn't take 'charity' from her brother for her kids' Christmas. But she didn't mind taking 'charity' from the state: welfare.
She wasn't very smart in this film: It took her years to figure out she was wrong at all!
However that said, the Peppers never ever should have allowed the kids to call them "Mom and Dad". Foster parents are not supposed to ever do that. And telling the kids they'd be there with them forever...not right.
Plus Patty Pepper had serious issues, and had no business asking if the kids could be adopted less than an HOUR of when they arrived! She knew next to nothing about Callie's situation then, and she was talking about taking her kids away from her.
And Harlan and Patty's marriage had wide fissures in it before those kids arrived, and the kids helped patch it over. The Peppers meant well, but not allowing Callie's brother John to see the kids, or talk to them was very wrong also. Like the above poster said, nobody was 100% right or 100% wrong.
I felt bad for the kids though, they were the real victims.
"I'd say this cloud is Cumulo Nimbus."
"Didn't he discover America?"
"Penfold, shush."
She was a bad mother, period.
I'm glad Obama won, but I will not jump on the Pro-Choice bandwagon
Well yeah, I mean Patti Pepper shouldn't have told the kids that they had a bad mother but it isn't like it was any big secret, I mean geez, the kids already knew that.
If you weigh what Patti did compared to a "mother" who allowed men to beat her kids, hit her kid with a dog leash because she believed the Bible told her to, didn't cook for the kids, let them live in filth, wouldn't breast feed a baby when there was no milk in the house because she was laying in bed with some man, brought random possibly dangerous men in the house with her children, made them wear dirty clothes to school that smelled - I mean the list goes on and on, I think what Patti did PALES in comparison.
I agree. Patty's biggest "sin" was falling in love with the children and making them feel comfortable and wanted. Leave it to the stupid bureaucracy to decide that was a horrible thing and to slash the relationship to pieces as soon as possible. It's very sad to know that the children (now all grown-up) have no contact with "Patty Pepper" or with their aunt and uncle, who subsequently adopted them! The powers-that-be really did a number on these kids' heads; I'm sure the remainder of them are in therapy---for life. I'm not saying that Patty was right in trying to turn the kids away from their mother (that's what she did), but the case workers/judicial system were so set on returning the Cain children to a hideously unfit mother that a hatchet-job was in place almost as soon as Patty and her husband said OK to caring for the family.
shareFirst of all it is Peppers not Poopers, second, the kids had everything that they were deprived of thanks to their mother (mental illness or not), thirdly the kids didn't have rights no one seemed to care about them except their aunt and uncle and the Peppers. The social worker only cared about bringing the family back together but that is a stupid system! You might as well call a foster family babysitters or good families for rent. It is like taking the kids out of Hell and putting them into Heaven and showing them the beauty of it then shoving them back with their bio-mom and telling them 'That is what you can't have kids, you can't have that'.
I think it is stupid to help out a selfish, spoiled and arrogant mom like Callie with her *beep* problems, problems that she brought up onto herself. The kids deserved better and if she truly loved them (which she didn't mentally sick or not) she would have released them to the Peppers, that would have been her one true act of kindness.
[deleted]
That is terriable, it sounds like you loved her enough to keep her forever but didn't, that is not right.
share[deleted]
I am so sorry, sometimes social workers and all those people suck at their jobs, look at the bitch working on bringing the Cain kids back together with their sick mama?
Best interest of the child my ass.
[deleted]
If I were you, I'd track her down, find her and see how she is doing for myself and make sure she is alright and if she isn't then let her know "I am still here". Why cut off ties with her? Because some Social worker said "Thanks for looking after her now she can go home to her mother" sounds like babysitting duty is over doesn't it?
Seriously though, seek her out.
[deleted]
No, she did not deserve another chance with her kids, and she wasn't just sick, she was selfish, spineless and unfit to have custody of a pet rock, let alone five kids. Like Jessie says, she's had ten years of chances, enough is enough. Yes, she was sick - and you know what, she could've sought help sooner. She wasn't stranded on a desert island with no one to turn to for help. Everything in her situation was of her own making - for starters, in the era of easily available birth control, there's zero, zero justification for having FIVE kids if you can't get your act together - that's child abuse, plain and simple. Second, her poverty also was of her own making - she didn't put much time or effort into taking care of the kids or of the house, so why couldn't she get a job? She could've tried, but she never lifted a finger. She rejected her brother's help - claimed she was too proud to take charity, though she took welfare. Of course, the difference is that the State doesn't demand anything in return, whereas the brother and his wife wanted to "meddle."
Most important, the kids weren't "her" kids in the sense that parents don't OWN their kids - they're their responsibility, not their property, and if they're found wanting, the kids have the right to have a shot at a decent childhood - at least one in which babies get fed and children aren't beaten up at the drop of a hat. Seriously, malnourishing a baby can cause permanent brain damage, that was even more serious than letting the kids get beat up by the boyfriend or hitting Jessie with a dog chain. Again, if you can't take care of a baby, don't have one, and certainly not five of them.
The Peppers were by no means perfect, but they were still way better than the biological mother.
It wasn't just "mental" issues..she was downright a lazy mother! She wanted to keep sleeping with men, making babies..and not once accept the consequences of her actions. Instead, her small children had to raise their siblings & fend for themselves. The Peppers LOVED the children. Unfortunately, our system still works like this every day.
I guess I'll cut my losses, and turn my tricks at the magic show..
IheartRiloKiley.
While it is obvious that the Pepper did love those children they still made some mistakes as foster parents that cost them dearly. They never should have told them that they could call them mom and dad cuz they were only the foster parents not adoptive parents. The social worker told Patty up front that it was just temporary. And they certainly never should've badmouthed the children's mother to them either. I think that Patty never came to terms with her own desire to be a mother and developed a rather unhealthy attachment with the Cain kids. My heart went out to her because of that but they did cross the line.
And those of who are bashing the mother: Have you people ever stopped to think about how she became the she is?! There was NO mention of her parents in this movie so I'm guessing that they don't speak to each other. She may have had a horrible childhood herself and never received help or the life skills that she needed to learn in order to become a responsible adult. I say this because most mental illnesses are caused by some kind of trauma. She didn't just become bipolar out of nowhere so something must've happened to bring this on. Also most of you must not know the symptoms of bipolar disorder. The highs: poor judgment, risky behavior, aggressive behavior, increased sex drive, delusions or a break from reality. The lows: loss of interest in activities, irritability. These are all the symptoms that were displayed in this movie.
Callie Cain was trash and didn't deserve to get her kids back.
share