Children of addicts (Iowa)

COLLEEN KRANTZ
SPECIAL TO THE REGISTER
Zoey Montgomery was 8 years old when she got on her hands and knees to look for a missing television remote under her family's couch and found bags of drugs instead.

She knew her mother was the reason the marijuana was there in the room where she and her little brother played.

It's the kind of story that Zoey, now 10, knows only her friend Toddy Svoboda — and other children of addicts — could truly understand.

It was those shared stories of methamphetamine-addicted mothers leaving them for long periods, of caring for themselves too often, too young, and of being sent to live with grandparents when things went badly that led the two Fort Dodge girls to start a support group for children of addicts. They started out planning to call it Kids of Meth Heads, but were soon persuaded by other adults in their lives that it might go off better as Kids Supporting Kids of Addicted Parents.

They've hung fliers around Fort Dodge, which begin: "Do your parents spend more time with their 'friends' than with you? Are your parents taking money from you? Do you feel like you are being dumped?"

See more of this story at:
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060401/NEWS01/604010322/1002