Child safety has it's place in society and anyone would be stupid to refute this... Sadly there ARE children out there who are being subjected to abuse and neglect by parents and they need help.

But what is becoming more and more obvious as time wears on is that abuse and neglect today is NOT what it used to be.

Back in the day abuse would be Little Johnny going to school with constant black eyes or fronting up at the hospital on a regular basis with broken limbs or needing stitches.

Neglect would be the emaciated child dressed in filthy clothing riddled with head lice who hasn't had a bath since Adam was a boy with a nose continuously pouring green muck.

These days the majority of what is considered abuse and neglect (which are umbrella terms) falls within the realm of normal parenting skills, social acceptance and common sense.

But if DoCS can get an order (and any order will do!) it brings the almighty dollar into the coffers of the office who is granted the order for the length of time the order exists.

The longer DoCS can maintain a custodial order on a child, the longer they are guaranteed tax payer's dollars... Yet by the time they have no choice but to return the child to his/her parents the original "concern" has been long ignored and left unfixed.

Through my own communication with parents dealing with DoCS it's become painfully obvious that the majority of parents dealing with these vicious CSOs are "soft targets".

We all get stereotyped... Put in a box that usually has at least 3 labels on it. It's almost like our characteristics make up a certain recipe for a particular stereotype.