I do tend to believe the intention and purpose with the CPAs around the world is good. I know almost nothing about the US CPA, but I have had some experiences with the Norwegian child protection authorities (barnevernet) - both first hand, second hand and through media reports. Let me assume for a while that this applies to "CPA"s everywhere. Some thoughts:

• We only hear about one side of the story - when some parents tell their version to the media, they can claim anything and hide whatever. The government officials have no rights to comment on the cases. I believe that at least here in Norway, a child would not be taken away from the parents without a very good reason (usually violence, alcoholism or drug abuse). Whenever there are cases like this in the media, probably there are some dark secrets that we haven't heard of. Even close friends may hide or understate their darkest secrets. Truth is, some people simply aren't fit for being parents - and they may not even realize it themselves.

• Perhaps in most of the cases the agency does the right thing, in some few cases they do really terrible things, destroying families and only making things worse for the children they are supposed to protect. Of course, only the worst examples gets through to the media, so when reading stories ... one is to believe the CPA is all bad and nothing good. (every now and then there are also cases reported in the media where the CPA absolutely should have intervened, but didn't - in the hindsight it's always easy to point out that someone haven't been doing their job).

• Quite some of the employees at the CPA are young ladies, without any life experience and without any parental experience. They may do terrible things, still believing they do what is best for the child.

• Children have very different personalities. There has been a report in media recently here in Norway - and it's our experience as well - that the threshold for personnel in schools and kindergardens to file a report with the CPA is very low for children that are outside the "normal" (i.e. ADHD), this can cause conflicts and problems.

• Cultural differences - what one party may think is completely OK may be very not-OK for someone else. On the extreme, there are quite many immigrants here in Norway that thinks it's completely ok to spank naughty children ... but that's an extreme no-no here in Norway, if there is a significant risk that the child may get spanked it will be taken away from its parents. I'd actually side with the CPA in such cases, that's not the way to raise children ... at least not in Norway! Weather it's OK to live in a caravan or not, that may also be sort of a "cultural difference". In this case, I'd side completely with the poster, as long as the children are healthy and happy, it's completely OK to live in a mobile home! It even looks very cozy from the pictures!

• The CPA does have a quite awkward job after all - damned if they do, damned if they don't. The solid evidence is often missing, but still they have to do what they believe is the best for the children. It's for sure not a good situation.

• Bureaucrazy! (misspelling intended). Create a simple rule like ... "parents need to be registered with a permanent address of residence", and cases can be decided without involving belief, feelings or personal opinions ... it also saves time, effort and taxpayers money, it's not even needed to visit the family and check how they are living. Unfortunately such rules does not always make sense, and there may be many reasons why the rules don't fit everyone (in Norway we even have natives that have been living a nomadic lifestyle for a countless number of generations ... still, one is very much supposed to be living permanently on one address in this country, particularly if having children).