YouTuber Myka Stauffer slammed for 'rehoming' adopted autistic son: 'Being a parent requires sacrifice'
A YouTube influencer has sparked outrage for announcing that she gave up her autistic four-year-old son three years after adopting him. The woman, 32-year-old Myka Stauffer, and her husband James posted a video showing them crying saying that they had decided to "rehome" their adopted son Huxley. She announced that she "rehomed" him after adopting him from China nearly three years ago.
James revealed that after almost three years after adopting the boy, he and his wife had come to realize that Huxley had a lot more special needs that they were not aware of. Myka shared, "Do I feel like a failure as a mom? 500 percent!"
Myka has a following of around 717,000 subscribers on YouTube. She grew to fame with her popular videos — REAL Newborn Morning Routine 2019, What I Eat In A Day To Stay Healthy And Lean, and SURVIVE Quarantine like a BOSS! THRIVE AND get your life BACK! According to the New York Post, Myka also has sponsor partners such as Big Lots, TJ Maxx and Danimals yogurt.
Both Myka and James had cited medical privacy concerns and did not go into detail as to why they chose to give their son up. She had earlier stated that the toddler has autism and brain trauma. However, this decision did not sit well with social media users. Many took to Twitter to slam the couple for their decision in comments.
One such user shared, "Being a parent requires sacrifice if he was too much work she needed to dial back on her other responsibilities like her YouTube channel which I’m sure is also a lot of work and focus on him. Once she signed those adoption papers she was responsible for that kid for life smh."
A second wrote, "I adopted a little boy who has special needs. I would never tape his arms or 'return' him. Children are not merchandise you can discard, they're human beings who are different and sometimes require special attention." "As a person w/disability, this hurts. U don't just return a child because they have more special needs than u bargained for. Hell, u don't return children, period. But children w/ disabilities arent burdens! If that was her thought process she needs 2 take a good look at herself," wrote a third.
"When you adopt a kid you’re supposed to love them like you do your biological kids. If you can’t, don’t adopt. If they actually cared about him they would have kept him no matter his disabilities. You don’t get rid of biological kid because they’re 'more difficult than expected'," commented another user. "You adopted him solely for the attention it would give you and now you're giving him away. Unbelievable," shared an outraged user.
In her video, Myka had shared that it was not her fault and that she had made the difficult decision for Huxley's own benefit. She shared, "I didn't adopt a little boy to share these things publicly … Ninety-nine, 95 percent of the struggles we have never publicly aired." "Numerous medical professionals have felt that he needed a different fit. He needed more," she shared. She also added that an adoption agency had placed Huxley with his "forever family". "He's thriving, he's doing really well, and his new mommy has medical, professional training," Myka said.