Last Updated on: 22nd March 2021, 07:47 pm
After using that Nebraska safe haven law we used towrite about all the time until it was finally fixedto unload 9 of your kids because you’ve lost the will to be a parent, what’s the next logical step? Well, if you’re Gary Staton, the answer isgo out and knock up your new woman.
When he tells the story of what drove him to turn in his kids, you almost want to feel sympathy for him. I say almost because he makes it clear very quickly that he is, in fact, an unrelenting dickhead.
Staton became the single father of 10 kids — ages 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 9, 8, 5, 4 and 1 month — in February 2007 when his wife, RebelJane, died after suffering a cerebral aneurysm. The oldest child was his wife’s daughter from a previous relationship that he had raised as his own.
Without his wife, Gary Staton said, the amount of work involved and the stress of raising the kids on $10.75 an hour wages were too much to handle.
“I was 100 percent sure that I couldn’t last much longer doing this routine over and over, and I wanted to just walk away from it all,” he said in March, when he granted interviews to The World-Herald to share his side of the story with the public.
Aside from his oldest daughter, he said, he did not ask for help from anyone in the family. He did not seek government assistance after losing his job in September.
Poor guy…in a way.
But unfortunately, as happens so many times, there’s more.
That month, he told his kids — all but the oldest, who legally was an adult — he was taking them to Creighton University Medical Center for grief counseling. When they arrived, he notified hospital staff that he was invoking Nebraska’s safe haven law, which allowed parents to leave their children without facing criminal prosecution.
And with that, any good will he may have had disappears.
But just to make sure it’s really gone, he continues.
In later interviews, Staton said he was not haunted by his decision.
He said he still loved his children. “I’m just so worried about trying again and failing.”
At the time, Staton said he did not want more children and would be willing to take steps to make sure he couldn’t father any more.
“If I had a thousand dollars,” he said, “I’d get fixed.”
A thousand dollars? I didn’t think they could transplant a conscience and a personality that cheaply.
Oh, and what has he to say about the impending arrival of his new bundle of abandonment?
The couple declined last week to discuss the pregnancy, calling it a private matter. But Staton addressed the matter briefly in an e-mail to The World-Herald.
“Do you think I’m going to raise this one alone?” he asked.
Prick.