Disappointed with the Fam

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My wife has jury duty (I'll save that rant for another time). I had hoped the extended family would step up and help out with the childcare, but no cigar. Oh, they talk a good game, but when it comes time to deliver its like "They need someone to keep the autistic kid! Run Away! RunAway!"

My mother is the worst. She begrudgingly kept my daughter for a couple of hours today (I'm off tues and wed) but on Thurs she can't help because she's just so busy, busy, busy running errands. Then we remembered that Thurs is when she has her lady friends over for Bible study. Last year she kept wanting to keep my daughter on Thurs so she could show her off. Now that she's been dx'd and its more obvious, she doesn't want her.Nice.

Hi,

If the jury duty is federal - the fedral courts in Alabama have automatic exemption for:

iii)”... Persons having active care and custody of a child or children under 10 years of age whose health and/or safety would be jeopardized by their absence for jury service

Alabama State law changed in 2005 but allows that a person who is not disqualified from jury duty for other reasons can apply to be excused after showing undue or extreme physical or financial hardship or an incapacitating mental or physical condition (in themselves or someone they care for). For instance, a person who is the primary caregiver of an autistic child could be excused.

As for the family.... condolences

Ps this info courtesy of my most helpful family member - a lawyer

Its for county court. She told them she was primary caregiver for an autistic child and they said we'll see, but basically tough sh**, deal with it. Another woman has a daughter with MS and she has to care for her grandkids and her daughter and she waasn't excused either. For the most part we've been told Alabama doesn't excuse anyone, ever. It pretty much blows. Most of the rednecks here like doing jury duty because the $10 a day is a pay raise.

That seems contradicting of someone that is in a Bible study class. You would think that they would help. Especially a grandma aren't there quotes in the Bible about grandparents. Very baffling. I wish I could remember where that was.

What would happen if your wife brought your daughter along, would they excuse her then?
After all if you have no one to care for her what is your wife suposed to do.
sarcasim to the state of things when a carer can't escape jury duty because the government think that jury duty is more important then the welfare of your child.

I hope something turns up.

We were told that if she brought our daughter that Human Resources would keep her whle she was in court. We were afraid that she would have a meltdown and Child Protective Services could step in because we weren't providing proper care. Fortunately, my boss let me rearrange my schedule so that I was off Tuesday and Wednesday, then worked 3am to 7am on Thursday so I could be home in time for my wife to go to court. Then I would have had to use vacation time to make up the rest of my usual 10hr shift. As it turned out, the jury was able to finish up by noon Thursday so I went back to work and was able to get my hours without using vacation.

The legal system here is totally screwed, as are most other things. If you don't show up for jury duty, they arrest you and put you in jail. What kind of sense does that make? You put someone in jail for not putting someone in jail Then they complain about how the prisons are overcrowded and the courts are overworked.

Grandma ended up going to a lunch meeting with her best friend and her best friend's daughter and an aspie consultant who leads our support group. The daughter has a son who is an aspie, and they were trying to convince her it is okay to have a granddaughter and son who has it. Grandma ended up lying about the whole affair saying our daughter doesn't have an offical diagnosis, and we were going to the support group meetings so we could learn more about it. Grandma also tried to convince them that she was right. The other women thought she was nuts and wonder if she is mentally going insane. We wonder that at times also.

God worked out the jury duty so my husband didn't have to take vacation (only because he worked hard to make up the hours). At least it doesn't screw up the rest of the year for vacation. Glad it is over. Hope to never do it again.

Oh, and the grandparents were not happy because the jury voted against the person they wanted to win the case. Ironic.