Middle and lower class families in that scenario will usually just make a deal that the parents fuck off but dont have to worry about taking care of the kids anymore (via taking custody), but it might be different for oil barons.
How old are the grandparents? Long-term, they may not be quite suitable for five kids - youngest six. However, at this time I’m not sure either parent is ever going to be recoverable full-time.
He talked to a lawyer first to make sure it was OK to talk about it. "talk to a lawyer" was the first thing Sean said when he showed up, and Aaron confirmed he did.
The “talk to a lawyer” really should be “listen to a lawyer” because too many fuckers don’t realize that you need to find a lawyer, spill
all the beans, and then
listen when they tell you to fuck the shut up. Not doing the last part means you just did a checkbox and are not listening to advice at all.
I'm inlined to agree with you. I think success and addiction rewired his brain. Shit was like the One Ring for him.
People greatly underestimate the number of narcissistic assholes that get through life without ever really being narcissistic assholes because they never get the chance to explore and develop it, and by the time they’re comfortable in life, most of the edge has been taken off. Really
really caring for others and putting them before self is something many (if not all) people have to learn and work at.
Libertarians are so fucking stupid.
Libertarians are just “fuck you I got mine” as a political philosophy. It’s fucking incoherent and the only ones who survive are the ones who can carefully thread the hedonistic needle just right without exploding. The asshole thing is they don’t make it clear that’s what they’re doing, and instead pretend it’s all easy and natural. Perfect example: Juju the Cow does all sorts of shit but keeps it carefully controlled so it never bites him in the ass; that takes skill which most imitators won’t have.
Having a family with a trust fund in the millions doesn't hurt, either.
Apparently it does hurt pretty bad in some cases. The hardest part is how do you raise a trust fund baby as a normal person? It apparently is damn near impossible.
They are homeschooled. What few peers they have are few and far between.
Modern homeschooling is nothing like the “family living in a cabin disconnected from the world” that people portray it as. And we know this one was a co-op and connected to a church group that was active as all get-out. These kids likely not only have a similar number of peers to most small-town kids but the ones they do have are likely much much closer than the average “see them at school” types. And it’ll be cross-ages, too.
In other words: they all know and they all know so much you’d be surprised. And from what I know of small towns, this wouldn’t be the first time something has gone down in the congregation; just one that the world noticed because the explosion is visible from space.
Again, money and the trust fund are a downside here, because in a small poor community they reign you in by limiting the “help” that everyone gives each other (like getting together to fix the house or replace a roof) if you’re a fuckup. If you can pay for that stuff, you don’t get touched.
For the kid’s sake I hope the parents stay alive and around even if they don’t have custody, it’s a lot easier to recover when you can still talk and visit. All other options get dark really fast.
