Put yourself in my shoes for a moment.
Imagine waking up in your warm, comfy, queen-sized, pillow-top bed in the morning to the sounds of “daddy daddy, I awake” around 7am after getting out of work at 2am. You roll out of bed, wake your fiance so that she can get your 8 year old step-daughter ready for school. You come downstairs with your 4 month old daughter in hand, set her up with a fresh diaper and warm bottle in the baby bouncer. At this point, your 2 year old daughter comes walking down the stairs and says, “hi daddy, I awake, I eat”. You ask what she would like to eat, a choice of pancakes or waffles. “Wafffs” she says, referring to waffles. After a fresh diaper for your 2 year old, you clear off a spot on your kitchen counter for the toaster and begin making morning breakfast and coffee. A short while later, your 8 year old comes downstairs after getting dressed for school, you ask her what she would like for breakfast. “Pancakes daddy.” as she is still shaking off the morning and taking her medication. You set your 2 year old up in her high chair with warm “wafffs” and a sippy cup of milk and after the microwave pancakes are warmed, you carefully place 3 of them on a plate, arranged in the shape of Mickey Mouse’s face and with syrup, you make a smiley face with eyes and a mouth on one of the pancakes. A little while later, the bus pulls up, you and your fiance walk your 8-year-old off to the bus a few steps in front of the house with a hug and kiss and a “have a good day at school”.
Fast forward a few months.
Imagine yourself going from that happy family setting, where you’re making smiley faces on pancakes, changing diapers and dealing with life’s daily challenges of raising a family and holding down a stressful job, car payment, to now finding yourself living in your mother’s efficiency apartment, waking up on a hard leather futon, fired from your job of 13 years, working part time at $3 per hour less than you were previously making and less hours.
Imagine that there’s now a restraining order between you and your 8 year old for no reason other than hearsay without documentation and you are only allowed to see your 2 year old and 4 month old during supervised visits, for 2 hours, once every 7 days.
You also are forced to hear your 2 year old call two different people, “mommy” and “daddy”.
Imagine being forced to do jump through proverbial hoops and jump off cliffs to reach the carrot above far above your head and that carrot is your family and way of life the way it used to be. Proving to a judgmental family court system, that you aren’t the sex offender your record makes you out to be, with everything from positive recommendations from a parenting capacity evaluation and recommendations from a state certified Megan’s Law board psychologist that show that I am NOT a threat to society, let alone my children or anyone else’s.
Imagine all of this, due to an unfair change in a state law.
The Pennsylvania CPSL 6303.
Thanks Sandusky, you’ve made my life a living hell worse than SORNA has done already.