Can confirm that “aging hippie” is not a rare look for techies (at least in Portland). There’s always that one guy with long hair tied back in a leather string, a tie-dyed T-shirt, and Birkenstocks.
That’s my point. There’s nothing wrong with being strange or doing things outside the norm. Sometimes it’s hard tell the difference between someone who has bad hygiene and poor interpersonal skills (ala Consolation’s co-worker) and someone who is being shackled to their bed when they return home each night from classes at community college.
No, not IT type guys. People–male and female–who wrote systems software that only the IT people were aware of at customer companies.
Here is a definition of assembler:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembly_language
The vast majority of computer users–and probably tech types/programmers these days–have little no concept of programming down at the register level, stuff just above machine code. It is not needed for the vast majority of tasks.
But to get back to the kids, I don’t think that they should be turned over to ANY members of either family. It should be possible for people to work together so that they can remain close with each other for as long as they choose.
Decades ago, a very successful law firm had an older guy who looked a bit disheveled who would walk around the firm after hours acting like he owned the place. I happened to know him but others wondered why he was such a self-assured janitor. He was actually one of the founding partners and was happy to be “incognito.”
My sister in law works for Northrup, as an admin. She dresses for work like she does for riding her horse, minus the boots (and wearing sneakers instead.)
Does she commute to Northrop by horse?
If she could, she would! (She takes care of/rides before and after work)
It’s kind of hard to believe that young adults - grown men and women - would not walk out of this situation. Maybe they feared for their siblings?
I’ve known a whole lot of home schoolers, and this is representative of no one. But of course, it always gets brought up as if the home schooling is the cause of this crazy.
I too think the relatives should not be entrusted with taking care of the children.
It is being reported the 6 youngest are going to two separate foster homes and the 7 adults will be going to the same assisted living facility.
The adult children were malnourished … I would think that the many years of abuse and lack of proper nourishment contributed to the fact that they did not walk out. Perhaps they didn’t even realize that was an option. The parents bought pies & set them out just to torment their children. They chained them. They didn’t let them use bathrooms. They allowed them to shower once a year. I think this & the rest of the abuse were more than enough to explain why the adult children didn’t walk out. This was not a normal situation, and the children cannot have been expected to behave as if they were raised in a normal situation.
If the penalty for playing with the water while washing your hands is being chained to your bed in your own filth imagine what the penalty for trying to leave would be. These kids were clearly petrified. Neighbors tell of trying to talk to the kids and seeing the kids freeze like scared rabbits.
Some of the kids also seem to be developmentally delayed. Not enough nutrition for brain growth coupled with a lack of contact with the outside world are a recipe for an inability to make and act upon an escape plan.
It doesn’t sound like anyone ever intervened to help these kids despite the fact that some of their relatives had spent time with them. Under those conditions I can imagine that they thought no one would be there to help them if they left.
“It’s kind of hard to believe that young adults - grown men and women - would not walk out of this situation. Maybe they feared for their siblings?”
I’m an adoptive parent and was a foster parent for a while. When we taking the required training courses for both, we were told that no matter how neglected and abused a child was, that they almost always preferred to be with their biological family. We adopted internationally, and we also heard many stories of older children who were adopted from pretty horrible institutions who took many years to adjust to their loving adoptive families and their improved living conditions (being well fed and clothed, having their own toys and books, being allowed to go to school, family trips and outings, etc.). Many of them would’ve gone back to their orphanage “home” with none of those “luxuries” if they’d had that option.
It’s hard to break family bonds and feelings of belonging and familiarity. Change is sometimes frightening to the most well adjusted kids.
Also, these kids were demeaned, tied up, and severely abused - they probably feared for their lives (and siblings) if they’d have tried to leave. I also don’t think they knew there were any alternatives to their situation (they weren’t allowed to watch TV I think?). They supposedly didn’t know much about the world outside their home.
Finally, there have been plenty of other crimes like this with extreme maltreatment of children by their parents and also children and adults who were kidnapped by complete strangers where the victims didn’t walk away.
It’s all so horrible and hard to believe.
And we now know that when the oldest girl went to school she was bullied and ostracized. At the age of 8, she probably thought this was proof that the outside world was a bad place.
What is surprising is not that the rest of them did not escape, but that the 17 yr old did.
She must be extraordinary. I believe I read that another of the children initially went with her, but turned back.
Was it this family or another one mentioned above where a kid escaped, and the person who picked them up returned them to the family?
These adults & children knew literally nothing else.
I’ve worked with a lot of abused women and children. Nothing on this scale of course. Anyone who asks “why didn’t they leave?” has clearly never worked with a survivor.
We only know about this because one of them left. I just wonder why it was only one, why it wasn’t even one of the oldest ones, just all kinds of questions.
There is a video I saw of the couple renewing their vows in 2013, I think it was. The kids are present and kind of dancing around (though faces are blurred out). They didn’t look frail or very small in the video. But I haven’t followed everything in this case.
The whole thing is just bizarre.
Our news showed all of their faces barely blurred. It was possible to make out their features.
It just surprised me.
Again, you might think they didn’t look malnourished, but when you realize how old they actually were then it should be obvious that something is wrong with this picture.