I agree that these parents are seriously flawed, and that something must be done to change the situation soon for the sake of those lovely kids who are definitely being abused. But I am disturbed at the comments by those who think that the children should be taken out of the home immediately. If they could stay with a suitable family member until their parents get their act together, it would be one thing, but the foster home system is not all sweetness and light.
I know a little bit about these sorts of situations. In the first place, the children would be horribly traumatized by being removed from their home. (I know they are already being traumatized, but surely you can see that these kids, like most kids, are terrified of the very idea of losing their parents.) In the second place, although there are some fine foster homes out there, there are also many that are not so fine. In fact, some are worse than the parents who lost custody.
Mom and Dad need to be trained to be loving parents, and monitored. The children should only be removed if that doesn't work. But I'm afraid that this is now such a high-profile case that the local agency may overreact.
