What chance has he got?

I try not to be judgmental about people, especially given my vulnerability to criticism of my sexuality, but sometimes it's difficult to avoid. I've spent an hour or so this afternoon in 'stereotypical suburb' Wetherspoons on a table adjacent to a pair of twenty-something women, apparently sisters, who were having a series of unignorably loud conversations, between themselves and on their respective mobile phones. The tale they told was of broken relationships and court appearances, family infighting and abuse. In short - and here comes the judgmentalism I mentioned - 'poor white trash', to borrow the Americanism. What depressed me, though, was that the older of the two evidently has a son, who, given her age, can't be more than about 10 or 11, maybe younger, and who, from one of the phone calls, between the woman and her current partner, seems to be little more than a 'bargaining chip' in the arguments between them. What chance has that child got - and, in this context, his gender is irrelevant, I would feel the same way about a girl in similar circumstances - of ever fulfilling his potential? 'Give me a boy until he's 7, and he's mine forever', as the saying goes. Poor little guy.

Love & best wishes to all
Sammy B