Sometimes, there’s tough love. Other times, it’s just tough.
That’s the situation facing many parents who are trying to win back custody of children who have been placed in the child welfare system. The documentary “Tough Love,” which aired on PBS this summer, follows two such parents on opposite ends of the country as they try to navigate two very different systems.
Recovering methamphetamine addict Patrick Brown is trying to win back his daughter Natalya, who has been living with a foster family in Seattle. In New York, meanwhile, Bangladesh-born Hannah Siddique’s two children were placed with their father’s family after allegations of neglect; she’s trying to get them returned while expecting a third child with her new husband.
“I think there’s a lot of different takeaways from this film, depending on where you’re sitting at the table,” director-producer Stephanie Wang-Breal told Youth Today.
“For judges, I think it’d be great if they could have a little bit more compassion for the parents and think about the way we talk to parents. ... In terms of social workers and foster parents, I think we need to think a little bit more about where these parents are coming from and what kind of childhood they came from before we can judge them.”
Wang-Breal said she got interested in the subject after making an earlier film about Americans adopting children from Chinese foster homes.
Matt Smith
30 September 2015