Case Studies
The Lambert Family
by P.J. McWilliam
Stacy Lambert is 19 years old and the mother of
three young children. Lucas is almost 4 years old, LaTeisha is
2 *, and her youngest, John Ray, is only 8 weeks old. Stacy had
been going with LaTeisha's and the baby's father on and off until
a few months before John Ray was born, but then she had finally
had enough of him and broke it off for good. Now she's going out
with someone new and they've been talking a lot lately about maybe
getting married soon.
Although it's been hard taking care of the new baby
and taking care of Lucas and LaTeisha at the same time, Stacy
is a lot happier now that she finally has a place of her own.
Sure, it's in a bad neighborhood, but the apartment was re-done
and painted up just before she moved in. It even has new carpeting
and a new refrigerator and stove in the kitchen. As long as she
keeps the kids inside and makes sure the doors are always locked,
they'll probably be all right. There was some shooting going on
in the row of apartments behind Stacy's a couple of weeks ago
that had scared her, but that's the only time something like that
has happened since she moved in. Besides, Stacy would rather take
the risk of being shot at than to live at home with her mother
again. Maybe she didn't always do right by her kids, but she sure
was a good sight better mother than her own mother ever was. At
least she isn't a drunk.
Stacy was only 15 years old when Lucas was born.
She continued living at home with her mother and her younger sister,
Pauline, so she could keep going to school. She stayed in school
even after she got pregnant again and she finished 9th grade.
LaTeisha was born that summer and Stacy tried going back to school
again in the fall, but it got to be too much for her to handle
and her mother sure wasn't any help. Stacy dropped out and has
never gone back again. Maybe if LaTeisha hadn't been so sick all
the time it could've worked out, but it didn't seem to make much
difference now anyway.
As a baby, LaTeisha was always spitting up her formula
and it got to where she didn't even hardly want to take a bottle
at all. Then she got real sick one night—running a high fever
and all—and Stacy was so scared that she wrapped the baby
up in a blanket and ran across the road to a neighbor's and begged
them to drive her in their car to the hospital. At the hospital,
they said the baby was starving and started accusing Stacy of
all kinds of things. They even threatened to take LaTeisha away
from her. LaTeisha stayed in the hospital for nearly two weeks
and it ended up that she was what they called "failure to
thrive" because of some kind of "reflux" thing
in her stomach. They gave LaTeisha medicine to take and some special
kind of formula that was supposed to fatten her up. At first,
things didn't get all that much better with feeding LaTeisha,
but a nurse from the hospital came out to the house every week
for a while and helped Stacy figure out better ways to get LaTeisha
to take her formula and to keep her from spitting up.
It wasn't long after LaTeisha came home from the
hospital that Stacy moved out of her mother's house to live with
her Aunt Vivian. Living with Aunt Viv was a whole lot better but
it was crowded, what with Stacy and her two children in addition
to Aunt Viv and her own two kids who were still living at home.
Aunt Viv also had a lot more rules than Stacy was used to living
by. When Stacy got pregnant with John Ray she could tell that
Aunt Viv was disappointed in her and there was a lot of tension
between them. Stacy talked to the social worker, who was still
coming out to see her on account of LaTeisha, and the woman helped
Stacy get this apartment so she could be on her own.
The social worker also talked Stacy into putting
Lucas into Head Start. She said that at least it would give Stacy
a break from one of the kids for a while each day. That sounded
good to Stacy, so she and LaTeisha walked the six blocks to and
from the Head Start classroom every day to take Lucas and pick
him back up again. But after John Ray was born, things weren't
the same. It took too much effort to get out of bed early every
morning, get all three kids dressed, and walk them all the six
blocks to Head Start. It just wasn't worth it. It was easier just
keeping them all at home.
Of course the social worker didn't approve of Stacy's
decision to keep Lucas at home. She kept harping on and on about
how Lucas needed to go for the sake of his development. Well,
he could just watch Sesame Street and Barney to learn his numbers
and his ABCs like every other kid did. She'd tell the social worker
this too, except Stacy knew that the woman didn't approve of the
fact that she was buying the TV and the CD system on a rent-to-own
plan. There wasn't any sense bringing up that sore subject again.
And she sure wasn't about to tell the woman that the reason she
was sometimes so tired in the morning was that she had had friends
over the night before and they had stayed up until the early morning
hours. After all, the only time she could have some fun for herself
was after the kids were in bed. What did the woman expect her
to be—a nun?
Discussion Questions
- Is there reason to be concerned about
the health, safety, or development of Stacy Lambert's three children
(Lucas, LaTeisha, and John Ray)? If so, what factors contribute
to the risks you identified?
- What, if any, policies, programs, or resources
are available in your own state or community that may have prevented
or reduced the complexity of the Stacy Lambert's current situation
(e.g., pregnancy prevention, teen parenting program, cash incentives
for pregnancy prevention, mother-child foster care for teens)?
- We know that Head Start is available for
Stacy's oldest child, Lucas. Would Head Start or another type
of publicly-funded child care be available to all children like
Lucas in your own state or community?
- If the Lambert family lived in your own
state or community, what child care resources would be available
for her two younger children, LaTeisha and John Ray? What would
the quality of child care in these programs be like? Is there
a charge for these services? What are the eligibility requirements?
Are they easily accessible by all children for whom they are intended?
- What types of financial assistance would
be available to Stacy—or other young mothers like her—in
your own state or community?
- What other forms of assistance would be
available to young mothers like Stacy in your own state or community
(e.g., food stamps, education programs, health care, subsidized
housing, etc.)? Would these be available to all mothers living
in poverty?
- If Stacy considered returning to school,
getting her GED, or getting a job, what policies or programs are
in place in your own state or community that would motivate her
to do so and make this possible? How might her eligibility for
other forms of assistance change if she resumed her schooling
or got a job(See answers to questions 3—6 above)?
- If Stacy were, in fact, to marry her current
boyfriend, how might this change her eligibility for various types
of assistance?
- What programs or resources are available
in your own state or community that would help Stacy learn more
about child development and improve her parenting skills? Would
all mothers like Stacy know about these programs? Are these programs
available to all young mothers and to mothers of all ages? Are
these programs easily accessible (location, child care)? And,
finally, are they designed and operated in such a way that young
mothers like Stacy would be motivated to use them and to improve
their parenting skills?
- Mothers like Stacy Lambert are likely
to be involved with several human service agencies at the same
time (Head Start, social services, public health, etc.). In your
own state or community, do the various agencies/programs with
which she might be involved communicate well with one another
and combine their efforts?
- What policies and practices are in place
in your own state or community that serve to monitor the welfare
of children like Stacy Lambert's? Are these effective in terms
of identifying children at risk? Are they effective in increasing
the likelihood that these children will enter school "prepared
to learn"?
Lambert Family Profile
Guide
to analyze child and family needs, existing resources,
barriers or gaps in the system, and potential solutions
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