When my son was only 8 months old, my mom was supposed to watch my son for only 2 weeks while I worked a couple of gigs in Las Vegas. I came back and checked on him after a week and give my mom a little bit of money for helping me out. This was the first break I had away from my son since he was born. I had an angry ex-boyfriend who spread rumors about me because he was upset that I didn’t want to be around him. Apparently the rumors got around to my mom. The next week right before I was supposed to go do photography for a wedding in Las Vegas, my mom shows up at my aunt’s house and tells me they’re doing an intervention. I’m like intervention for what? And they blatantly accused me of doing heroin and prostituting, which was not true at all. They said I seem tired and keep nodding out. My doctor at the time had me on Klonopin and I had no idea how much the medication would impact me. The dose was too strong. I tried to explain that it’s just Klonopin that my doctor has prescribed me. That I wasn’t familiar with the medication. I had made my mom promise not to try to take my child before I left him with her. And she did. Well after their apparent intervention, without any evidence at all, she left me in Las Vegas with no ride home and I had to hitch hike to the bus station and beg for money for a bus ticket as I had not yet completed my work in Vegas or got paid yet. The police helped my mom kidnap My child. I went to court for 4 months, getting drug tested twice a week including hair follicle tests, all which came up clean. They even tested my fingernails and that came up clean too. But they kept drug testing me for 4 months and kept my son away from me, saying that I’m a danger to my son despite me having clean drug tests over and over. The judge just blatantly told me eventually they’ll catch me just like they catch all drug addicts. They just assumed I was an addict even though I’m not. My mother also came up dirty for marijuana. They let her keep my child until his first birthday. I had a court date and since they couldn’t find any evidence, they had to give my child back. I missed 4 months of my son’s infancy, which sent me into depression. During that time I lost my home and slept on the streets and in cheap bed bug hotels. It destroyed my goals and my blossoming careers in modeling and photography. I also developed CPTSD and quit trusting people. Life after that was unstable and scary. Eventually I got on My feet again. The day I won my son back in court I moved out of Utah. We moved to like three states trying to figure out how to get on our feet with nothing. I worked and eventually got on my feet but the negative impact to my life lasted years. I still can’t trust people. I still think about the time I lost with my son and I cry, and my son turns 14 tomorrow. I still never really developed the careers I was chasing because after that I just had to do whatever to survive instead of do what I love. Nobody had any evidence. Just a statement from an angry ex-boyfriend who couldn’t have his way with me.
Tabatha Pinkston: The Time I Lost With My Son…
