Children sue mom for "bad mothering"

I feel sorry for the two Barrington Hills adult children who recently lost the lawsuit they filed against their mother. In a court battle that’s been going on for two years now, Steven II, 23, and his sister Kathryn, 20, sought more than $50,000 in damages from their mother, Kimberly Garrity, for “emotional distress”. In their description, things were bad in their $1.5 million home before their parents marriage crumbled. But apparently things just got worse when their mother divorced their father, Steven Miner. Armed with their dad as their attorney, they pointed out all the ways their mom had been a “bad mother”.

• She told her then 7-year-old son to wear a seatbelt or she would contact the police.
• She wouldn’t spend a ton of money on her daughter’s party dresses.
• She enforced a midnight curfew on her daughter’s Homecoming night, calling her and telling her to come home.
• She bought her son a birthday card he didn’t like, and didn’t include any cash with it.
• She never sent care packages when he was in college.

“(The children) do not view their (lawsuit) as an attack on mothering, but rather on accountability,” Steven Miner wrote, noting that this is no different than a patient suing a physician “for bad doctoring.” “Everyone makes mistakes, but … there must be accountability for actions. Parenting is no different.”

Poor, poor spoiled children.

Ok, obviously these kids are off their rocker. If they think not getting money in a birthday card is suffering, the only thing I see BOTH their parents guilty of is allowing them to lead such a sheltered life. There are children out there who have been locked in basements without food, beaten to near-death, forced to work in grueling environments, sold for profit, and enduring unthinkable horrors we can’t even imagine. These spoiled adult children think they’ve suffered?

They owe abused children around the world a huge apology.

By their description of a “bad mother”, I could only imagine what my own children would file against me should they get the idea that it’s perfectly sensible to sue the person who raised them….for simply raising them.

• Raising my voice to get a point across, and occasionally letting pirate-speak fly.
• Making them take at least one bite of every meal whether they think they’ll like it or not.
• Paying them only $5 a week to do a chore or two every day.
• Forcing them to finish out a sports season when they wish to quit it mid-season only because I paid for it and can’t get my money back.
• Keeping them to a $75 gift limit at birthdays and holiday.
• Making them clean their rooms every couple of days.
• Dragging them along on grocery shopping trips.
• Enforcing limits on their use of technology.
• Countless other ways I’ve scarred them for life and destined them to years on a therapist’s couch talking about their mother.

But seriously, I do feel sorry for these kids, and here’s why. First of all, they don’t have a clue what a real parent is. They are suing their mother who was only being a parent.  Their father, who should instead be telling them to grow up and get a life, is aiding them. And on that note, WHY is their father helping them? Because he’s pissed about their failed marriage, that’s why. These kids have no idea that they are merely pawns in this whole lawsuit mess that they, thankfully lost.

Their father is a lawyer. As a lawyer, he should know better about frivolous lawsuits. But because he’s a lawyer, he doesn’t have to pay any costs for his children’s court case in the two years they’ve been battling in court.

His ex-wife does.

Anyone can tell that this was a case that was to be lost from the beginning. A lawyer would know that. Steven Miner would have known that. The only reason I can think of for the lawsuit was to lock Kimberly Garrity in battle for two years, costing her a ton of money in legal fees, and financially ruin her. It’s obvious that this is not a case about “bad mothering”, but more about an ex-husband getting back at the woman who scorned him.

And perhaps this was the kids’ idea as well. I find a two-year battle to the tune of $50,000 a little ridiculous for any case when the prosecuting team obviously has a ton of money at their fingertips. It sounds like $50,000 would be a drop in the bucket to them. It’s likely that Kimberly Garrity spent more on that in legal fees alone.

At any rate, Kimberly Garrity deserves a countersuit towards her ex-husband for “bad lawyering” to get back some of the funds she lost. And her kids deserve to be stricken from her life. But even after being dragged through the court system, publicly humiliated, and raped of her paycheck through legal fees, she still says she loves her kids.

By the standards of this lawsuit, could you be sued for “bad parenting” as well?