Small communities are the best form of government.

I don’t have children. I cannot imagine how horrifying that is. But I remember as a child when I heard of cases of parents losing custody of their children, and how frightened I was by the thought of someone taking me from my parents. My mam told me that only happens in extreme cases, but then I watched that episode of the Simpsons where CPS took Bart, Lisa and Maggie away over misunderstandings. It’s a cartoon, but shit like this does happen. Especially nowadays, thanks to neoliberalism.

I live in Ireland. Up until the 1980's, if a mother died, the government in Ireland used to come and take the children away from the father and put them in orphanages, where the children were abused. The government's excuse was "men can’t raise children on their own." Except that men can, and if a widowed father is struggling, his relatives and neighbours can help. Thankfully, one rich widower refused to stand for it, so he sued the government and won his case. Nowadays, if a mother dies, the father raises the kids on his own, and might even get a lone parent allowance until he remarries or cohabitates with a new partner. And it wasn’t just widowed fathers who used to get screwed. Decades ago, single mothers were bullied into giving away their kids, and in some cases, hospitals would just give their babies away and tell the mothers that the babies died. Ireland used to have an adoption industry, where there was demand from wealthy families in America or England looking for Irish orphans. Thankfully, it is rare for a parent to lose custody of their child in Ireland. Sadly, Ireland is a neoliberal country. This might come back. Especially how that there are transgender activists trying to convince children with mental health problems that they are trans. This could lead to legislation forcing parents to accept their trans children, like in Canada or Australia. This is why I plan on never adopting a child, just in case I adopt a child who turns out was kidnapped from a loving family.