Let's celebrate a little fighter: Against all odds, the baby dumped in a drain has survived.

MY OPEN LETTER TO MAMAMIA (which they already deleted once, by the look of it):

Oh, the power of the internet. It seems that anyone with a keyboard can call themselves a writer, especially if someone working at Mamamia validates their comments by publishing them. A domain name does not make you an authority. I have read many so-called articles published by this company over the last few years and, most of the time, they make me cringe. Whether it be due to the poor editing process that allows a ridiculous number of grammatical and spelling errors to go to print, or the ridiculous assertions made by the author/s. This time, I can’t sit here reading it without responding.

To the “Mamamia Team” who penned the article about the young baby found abandoned in a drain: get a clue! First of all, Family and Community Services have not been known as “DOCS” for several years now. A basic Google search may have helped you do some actual research. Secondly, and more importantly, I need to deal with your assertion that what the baby needs is the public to “recognise his bravery”. This in itself sounds like a lovely sentiment, sure. Given that it follows comments that not only degrade the foster care system but make false assumptions about the child’s situation and presents these as fact, it is flippant at best.

You actually have no proof, whatsoever, that no family members have come forward to volunteer to care for the child. Any such family member is not allowed to take immediate care of a child under this kind of duress. The court system has to ascertain how many people are available to care for him long term. FaCS has to investigate and profile each potential kinship carer in order to help the court make a decision about where he will go. In the interim, a foster carer, who has already been assessed, trained and had their background check, will take him into their home for an emergency short term stay whilst this process occurs. FaCS is not actually legally able to tell you how many family members have put their hand up to look after him. In the meantime, he needs to remain in hospital before any of this occurs.

Then there’s your assumption that being in foster care will ultimately mean he will remain “in his drain, alone.” How many of the so-called writers working on this drab piece of rubbish are foster carers? How many foster carers did you talk to? Have you spoken, researched or even ever met any children who have been in foster care? I am a foster carer. And I am not amused. I cannot delve into too many details due to child protection issues, but rest assured that I was one of many who volunteered to care for this young boy. I saw what kind of criteria FaCS wanted to be met when assessing who would care for him. My partner and I were not chosen to be his carers because we didn’t quite fit the criteria. Someone who is just right for him will no doubt look after him as soon as he is well.

I don’t pretend to have intimate knowledge of where he will be when he recovers. I do, however, know that your assumption that all children who end up in care move from house to house and never have anyone to love them is insulting. It is true, that multiple placements over the years may be a fate some children experience. I have been a carer long enough to know that this is a reality. I also know that it is more common for children who are removed later in life, as their behaviour has unfortunately developed in response to circumstances that their young minds may not have been ready to handle. That they shouldn’t have had to handle.
I have looked after multiple teenagers who seemed determined to break connections with people around them because their childhood years had not given them the opportunity to learn how to accept love from other people. This boy, five days underground, is not a teenager. He is a newborn. Any research at all might have helped you discover that the younger a child is removed from an abusive situation, the more likely they are to remain in their foster placement without needing to move. You have taken every stereotype there is about foster care and foster carers and wrapped it all up into one seemingly neat little package. You want people to click on your article, because then you sell more advertising. So you write what you think will make the average person shake their fist in anger, but what you are actually doing is this:

1. Commodifying this child through rhetoric designed to manipulate reader emotions, but ultimately using his situation to make money through advertising and

2. Perpetuating a negative stereotype of a group of people who rip their lives apart and tie them back together again on a regular basis in order to provide care for children. You have no idea how hard this is if you haven’t done it.

Let me ask you this: is recognising the bravery of this boy (and trust me, I have shed tears for him, many tears) what he needs? You write this as though it is an end in itself. Or is what he needs actually a society that promotes positive images of foster carers so that MORE people will actually DO it? What about all the other children? The ones who are not put in drains, but are slowly but surely neglected or abused? Every single one deserves a foster carer who will love them. There are many people who volunteer to do this, and in all the time I’ve being doing respite care, I’ve never ceased being amazed by the dedication, patience and un-ending propensity for love that I see in all the carers I meet. Your thoughtless remarks discourage participation in such a worthy activity.

Get out from behind your keyboard. Stop writing absolute crap to make money from advertising. Become a foster carer instead. Help these children in a way that is real, rather than using meaningless words to create a high horse that you can ride off into your dreams on top of, thinking you’re changing the world by including a link to a charity (which, by the way, is less than half the size of the movie ad on the page).
To the people who have actually gone through the assessment, the interviews, the training, the background checks and the emotional rollercoaster that is getting a new child placed with you at any moment: well done. You don’t write dribble that throws words around, you are doing something. Something real. Something beautiful. You do not leave children feeling alone. You hug them. You love them. You keep them safe and allow them to have a chance to re-build their confidence. This boy is no different. He is no longer in a drain. He is actually surrounded by love, from the carers who will look after him, to the many more who volunteered to do so, to all the agency workers who haven’t stopped thinking about, and working for him since he was found, to the lovely people who found him and the hospital staff who have showered him with their positivity. He is not alone.

Why does he have to be Fostered? Why could he not be adopted?