i heard on the news this morning (didn't check it out on-line) that she is a single mother living with her parents in a three bedroom, two bathroom house and already has six kids...

but getting back to your question (between the lines) -- yes, that is outrageous! something just doesn't add up. babies are sweet and all, but someday they turn into teenagers! i couldn't imagine two at a time ganging up on me -- definately not six or fourteen! Lord, help her in about twelve years!

You're right DS, I found that online too, that she's unmarried and living with her parents. Apparently she's claimed bankruptcy and her house had been foreclosed on. Her dad (the kid's grandpa) is going back to work in Iraq to earn enough money to support them all.

This sounds like something out of a Law and Order episode.

You know that hording disease that causes people to collect way too many cats? Can that apply to children as well?

That is a good point MZ. I've seen it with a couple that I know who started with a couple foster children and now have seven -- three have been adopted and they are working on the other four -- with intentions of adopting more! They're not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination, but they just feel like they have to have a lot of children...

that is just insane! we keep creating government run programs to help people, but backfire and end up being abused... our country is broken...

I've been reading the story that G-Gal was talking about too.

I'm amazed it's taken them this long to catch onto it. I've always heard stories of people that do that to the system. Claim to watch 5 kids every day and make $1000 a week when in reality they're not watching any kids.

Stuff like that is why I'm typically against government run assistance programs. The oversight is always pathetically lacking and if it IS in place it's usually corrupt.

I believe charity should come from private institutions and individuals. The government can give tax breaks to those who do charitable work, that's the full extent of involvement government should have.

In my humble, Republican opinion.

Yeah, it burns me up, too, when i see people abuse a system created to help people who really need it. Check out the basics on the Wisconsin Shares investigation:

Sisters get $540,000 from state mostly for watching each other's kids, and it's perfectly legal

By Raquel Rutledge of the Journal Sentinel

That is just the problem. I know one person who actually does need and does receive some government assistance as a single mother of a special needs child. I've seen people who desperately need assistance who cannot get it. I've also seen a lady wearing a $20K+ diamond ring using food stamps at the grocery store, then piling her groceries into her brand new Mercedes Benz. Sure, she might have been shopping for someone else, but probably not. There are users and abusers out there for sure.


As for this lady, I have not bothered to try to read more on her story. I'd heard that she has 6 kids already, which I assumed were her first shot at fertility treatments. Personally, I cannot fathom why someone would want that many kids, let alone would consider fertility treatments to have more. As I have stated before, it's a va-jay-jay... NOT a clown car. Even if she did want more kids, I cannot understand WHY any ethical fertility specialist would work with her when there are other people out there who have no children but desperately want them.

confuzzed wrote:

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You know what my next question is (which no one will be able to answer) - did they pay taxes on this money?

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I'm not sure about the sisters who collected $540K, but here's an interesting continuation on the article that does comment on another "offender":

Providers and parents are also exploiting the rule that allows parents to become employees of the child-care center where they enroll their children, documents show.

The provision is common in the child-care industry. It provides an often-necessary perk for a typically low-wage job, professionals in the business say. However, if not properly monitored, providers and parents can team up to easily defraud the system.

In October, the Milwaukee County DA's office filed charges against the owner of Tender Moments Day Care Center on W. Capitol Drive.

The complaint alleges the owner, Shartavia Adams, and her mother, Bernice Watson, bilked the system out of more than $360,000 from September 2006 through October 2007. It was the first time in the last five years that prosecutors in southeastern Wisconsin have brought charges of suspected child-care fraud. And it is the largest such case in Milwaukee County history.

"There's no reason to believe that was an isolated case," said David Feiss, a Milwaukee County assistant district attorney who is prosecuting the case.

Watson and Adams allegedly recruited women to work at the day care center. The women would then enroll their children in the center - bringing in roughly $150 to $220 per week per child. The children seldom attended and their mothers rarely worked, according to the complaint. But Adams billed the state more than $2 million in 2006-'07.

As one state worker put it in a memo to colleagues, Bernice Watson is "known in the child-care community as the 'day-care pimp.'"

Watson and Adams have pleaded not guilty. Both declined to talk to the Journal Sentinel.

The Wisconsin Department of Revenue could not locate tax records for Adams in 2006 or 2007.

What I don't understand it that states have been given less and less money for a few years now. So why don't they watch more of where the funding goes? The government is cracking down on audits. State and local governments are focusing more on enforcement because they are getting less federal money. Stop harboring on those that are paying and go find the ones who aren't paying. For once do a comparison of w-2 filings vs tax returns filed. Audit those that aren't filing. You will probably find a lot more money that way. Occasionally you will find someone who doesn't need to file or shuold file to get a small refund, but the amount recovered should easily outweigh the money and time spent on behalf of the government.

To claim the child care credit they are supposed to have an EIN or SS. I suppose you could just make one up. Unless the government follows up to ensure it is valid, it doesn't matter. Those that prepare return know that any legit daycare will provide parents with a statement of how much was paid and their EIN. If people are preparing their own returns there are ways around it. I don't think anyone fears an audit anymore.

I am sure you have seen some of the other tricks too Mz.

If I could figure a way to make it work, I would start my own company and market myself to the state and federal government and work on comparing w-2s vs filings and then doing audits. As long as I had access to the right info, it would be steady work.

Octuplets' mother wanted 'huge family' for feeling of connection [UPDATED]
3:57 PM, February 5, 2009

Nadya Suleman tells Ann Curry of NBC she wanted many children because of a dysfunctional childhood

Updated at 4:14 p.m.: State workers compensation records reviewed by The Times show that Suleman had three miscarriages before finally giving birth. In 2001, she reported being depressed "with recurrent thoughts of death," according to the records.

She told a doctor that the depression was related to "the powerful and uncontrollable emotions associated with her pregnancy: both the fear that it would end and her elation that it might be brought to fruition and she would realize her dream of having a child."

In 1999, she was injured during a riot at Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk when she was hit in the back with a desk. She went on temporary disability and was paid nearly $170,000 in disability benefits between 2000 and 2008 for injuries to her back, neck and shoulder, the records show.

The mother of octuplets born last week in Bellflower told NBC News she wanted to have a "huge family" because she longed for personal connections she felt she lacked in her childhood.

"I just longed for certain connections and attachments with another person that I -- I really lacked, I believe, growing up," Nadya Suleman said in an interview today with NBC's Ann Curry. "Reflecting back on my childhood, I know it wasn't functional. It was pretty -- pretty dysfunctional, and whose isn't?"

Suleman said she had tried to become pregnant for seven years, including though artificial insemination, before going to an unnamed fertilization facility where she finally became pregnant. She had six other children before becoming pregnant with octuplets.

The full excerpt of the interview follows:

ANN CURRY: How did an only child end up with 14 children?

NADYA SULEMAN: That was always a dream of mine, to have a large family, a huge family, and -- I just longed for certain connections and attachments with another person that I -- I really lacked, I believe, growing up.

ANN CURRY: Describe what you felt you lacked within.

NADYA SULEMAN: Feeling of self and identity. I didn't feel as though, when I was a child, I had much control of my environment. I felt powerless. And that gave me a sense of predictability. I -- reflecting back on my childhood, I know it wasn't functional. It was pretty -- pretty dysfunctional, and whose isn't?

ANN CURRY: So, the first time when you tried to become pregnant, you actually had tried how many times before you were successful?

NADYA SULEMAN: Oh, boy. Well, I went through about seven years of trying. And -- through artificial insemination. And through medication. And all of which was unsuccessful. And then the first -- IVF procedure from that -- from that facility -- it was successful. And then I just kept going in.

--Kimi Yoshino and Jessica Garrison

"welfare mothers make better lovers"- Neil Young

So she is justifying having a litter of children by the fact that she had a dysfunctional childhood? She lacked control of her environment back then and she somehow thinks she is going to control the environment of having 14 kids running around?

Again, it's NOT a clown car.