In the Best Interest of the Children

In the Best Interest of the Children 1992 is a factbased TV film starring Sarah Jessica Parker who plays a woman struggling with manicdepression while raising her five children. This leads to the children eventually being taken from her and put in foster care.

The film opens with Callie Cain Parker leading her kids in singing along to John Denvers Take Me Home, Country Roads as she moves back to her hometown of Estherville, Iowa with heryoung daughters plus another baby on the way and boyfriend Ray Hodges. Although Callies brother John Graham and sisterinlaw Wanda Atkinson attempt to help them, the abusive Ray the father of youngest child Jason has no interest in working, and Callie rebuffs Wandas suggestion that she continue treatment for the manic depression she suffers from. As a result, the family soon finds themselves living in poverty, with oldest child Jessi Randall forced to play mother to her younger sisters Julie, Susan, and Cindy and brother. A short time later, Ray leaves them, and Callie continues on a downward spiral.Sensing his sister has some serious problems, John notifies the authorities, who send social worker Donna Evans Barnes to the house. After initially attempting to avoid her, Callie agrees to undergo treatment for her disorder, on the condition that John and Wanda dont get custody of her children, who are instead taken in by Patty and Harlan Pepper Struthers and Johnston. Between the fact that the children are not only thriving in the Peppers care, but also referring to them as Mom and Dad, Patty soon becomes determined that she and Harlan win custody, particularly after seeing the effects that the children suffer after their required visits with Callie at the hospital. This results in a difficult legal battle, which drags on over a period of two years, and generates much media coverage over the legal systems apparent inability to act in the childrens best interest. ........

Source: Wikipedia