People can be so mean...........

[greensinestro]

PLEASE EDIT QUOTES

my mom was being investigated for leaving my FOURTEEN year old sister home alone during the day.

HELLO? I used to babysit when I was 14. It's not like she was 5 or even 9!

That's awful! I have neighbors with children about this age, if not younger, and nobody thinks it's a terrible thing for them to be left alone at home, as long as they are responsible enough. 14 is the minimum age requirement to use the community swimming pool where I live, and that's the HOA's rule, not anyone else's!

[April]

when my mom was divorcing my step dad, he beat up my youngest sister while she was at his house. Mom filed a police report and the police called CPS. They came over and interviewed my 14 year old sister, and also interviewd me since I had been abused by him as a young child. She spoke to everyone and everyone told her of his temper and the abuse.

A few days later theperson came back and stated that my sister HAD to keep going to her father's because they had spoken to him and he told a different story (we had pictures of the bruises on her neck, the cut on her eye, the bruises on her face and everything) but that my mom was being investigated for leaving my FOURTEEN year old sister home alone during the day.

HELLO? I used to babysit when I was 14. It's not like she was 5 or even 9!

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Bonus points if a large, jiggly lady in hair rollers and too-small clothing comes running out of nowhere screaming "He's mah man! Ah loves him!"

Hey! You forgot the Marlboro dangling from between her lips

[Shironu-Akaineko]

Tollbaby, I understand your hell from a child's point of view.
I was getting beaten up at school and the school called Child Protection accusing my mom of beating me!

Took my poor mom 4 years to get those people off of our bums. I just kept telling them "But it's at school! I'm getting beaten up at school!!!" No way in HELL would they believe me.

It's incredibly frustrating. They got on my mom's case because at the time I had a black and white TV and no video in my room. OH GOD THE HORROR!

I'm of course not accusing Child protection of all being dumbasses, but we did get a pretty dim one on our doorstep...

[greensinestro]

Good story there. Yep, I think a judge with case after case of that would have a toll taken on her. I at one time wanted to be a volunteer for children's services, perhaps later on when my kids get older. Now, I don't think so. We adults are supposed to be trusted with our children as well as other people's, but it's just not a safe profession anymore, not unless you're a woman. Women can't be on fatherly Boy Scout trips and things of that nature, unless the rules are changed.

[AFpheonix]

I'd like to see that one on COPS.

Officer: We got a report of someone engaging in sexual acts with their daughter.
Him: What? She was scratching an itch on my back!
Officer: Really? Well...huh...

Bonus points if a large, jiggly lady in hair rollers and too-small clothing comes running out of nowhere screaming "He's mah man! Ah loves him!"

[tollbaby]

Tollbaby, I don't know about you, but I would have (possibly) had her ass reported for kidnapping if she lied about her knowledge of your daughter's whereabouts.

I figured that since we were moving, it wasn't worth the bother. Besides, I'm pretty sure one of our other neighbors reported her shortly after we moved for tossing her three year old out of the house one Saturday morning (since we had moved, he had no nice safe house to go hide in until his parents got up). In addition to that, she could have conceivably claimed cultural differences or a language barrier. They were Lebanese, and spoke mostly Arabic in the house.

(besides, I wouldn't wish what we went through on ANYONE, even HER).

[greensinestro]

Tollbaby, I don't know about you, but I would have (possibly) had her ass reported for kidnapping if she lied about her knowledge of your daughter's whereabouts.

[tollbaby]

I've been reported to children's services TWICE, and I do NOT beat or molest my kids.

My son, when he started kindergarten, has undiagnosed Asperger's and when frustrated, would become very self-violent and uncontrollable. So the aide in his kindy class (they needed one because it was such a BIG class) got it into his head that he should report us to CAS. We went through six months of hell, social workers showing up unexpectedly to our house for *surprise* inspections, etc, and if the place wasn't SPOTLESS, they'd threaten to take our kids away (we got our daughter THROUGH CAS, so I knew they weren't kidding about removing them).

Second time was a neighbor. She knew about the CAS trouble. Our kids used to play together, and her youngest took to coming into our house uninvited because his parents used to just boot him out of the house on Saturday mornings so they could sleep in. So he'd just waltz into our house and make himself breakfast, often trashing my kitchen in the process (kid was like 3). Well, at one point I got fed up with this woman dumping her kids on me when she didn't feel like parenting, but the straw that broke the camel's back was one day when my daughter went out to play with the other kids and suddenly disappeared. I looked everywhere for her, then went and knocked on this woman's door to ask if she'd seen my daughter. She said no.... TWO HOURS LATER, guess where my daughter comes waltzing out of? This lady's HOUSE!!!! SHE LIED ABOUT MY CHILD'S WHEREABOUTS! So I forbade my kids to ever go over there again... what does wonder-mommy do? Reports me to CAS for abuse.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat. UGH.

Haven't had any problems since we moved to Hull though.

[ForestDragon]

Oh, yeeeeah, her. It rang a bell when you mentioned Drew Carey. Ze obnoxious vun. Yep, I can see what you mean - rather like asking Mrs. Slocombe for hair-coloring tips...

[protege]

Stoopid question time - who's Mimi Bobeck?

Mimi was a character on the Drew Carey show. She had some um, "interesting" makeup ideas.

[ForestDragon]

Stoopid question time - who's Mimi Bobeck?

As for the original situation in the OP - sounds like the nark was a frickin' idiot, not knowing the difference between primate-style grooming (snicker) and child molestation. And would whoever it was rather have seen Daddy scratching his back with a fork in public?

[zzapp the witch]

My mom got reported to CPS because my little sister was crying at school. (My sis....well, girly girl drama is the nicest way to describe this). Teacher asked her why she was crying. Because mom made her take makeup off before she came to school. Family rule was no makeup til 14 (reasonable, I still believe) and no way you're getting out of the house looking like Mimi Bobeck. Sis was 12 AND looked WORSE than Mimi.

My mom was not only enforcing reasonable family rules and teaching her not to leave the house looking like a streetwalker, but probably saved her from a bunch of ridicule from her classmates. And she got reported to CPS for it.

They made my parents' lives HELL! For no damn good reason either. When they found out the reason from my sister that she was crying, they went off on this tangent asking her about spanking and molestation! Then she was crying because they were trying to convince her that she had bad parents!

She later told us that they literally sat there and kept telling her over and over that her parents were bad and that she needed to tell them all the bad things that they were doing to her, and then started suggesting things! Even stupid crap like my mom going in the bathroom for something while my sister was in the shower....stupid crap that happens everyday in a house with 6 people and one bathroom.

I was married at the time, and my husband was a result of New York state foster care. Only in his case, the removal from his mother was the best thing in the world. She asked him for advice, he just looked at her and said, "Well, with the way you're feeding into this with the drama....have fun being molested and beaten in foster homes." She didn't believe him until he took off his shirt and started telling stories about where all of his scars came from.

In the end, I don't know what exactly she told those idiots, probably something my hubby scripted for her, but they dropped everything like a hot potato and left after incurring two weeks of constant hell upon my family. My mother's bald spot eventually filled back in.

[Arachne]

The 'guilty until proven innocent' attitude we have the moment that children are involved in our society is really disturbing. I know several people who've had extensive dealings with CPS, and every single one of them cannot speak of the subject without cursing up a storm.

I actually had a lady come into my store a couple of days ago. She used to be a judge, but stopped being a judge because she'd get all these cases where CPS was taking "bad parents" to trial, having already taken their kids and put them in foster homes, tearing their families and lives apart when there was NO REASON TO DO SO. Some of these cases were exactly what the OP described -- due to anonymous tips by people who didn't know jack of the situation, or due to neighbors with grudges making up blatant lies. She got sick of seeing it over and over and stepped off the bench to be an attorney representing families who get persecuted in this manner.

She was telling me about a girl who got pregnant -- she was way underage, but decided to keep the baby. Her boyfriend was charged with statiatory (sp?) rape, and to "keep her away from him", she was relocated to another state, far away from her friends, family, and support network. And then they expected her to basically fend for herself. If she didn't obey, they took the baby away from her.

Anyway, listening to the outrage in this (very reasonable, educated) woman's voice really got me outraged all over again. Every time I read stories like the OP, or greeninestro's friend, I just want to go find whoever is responsible and smack them.

[BunnyJas]

I work at a few of the elementary schools in my area. Earlier this week I came to one of my schools and there were police cars all around the front of the school and when I came in, the office had three officers in there talking to the administrators. I found out later that some parent had accused a male teacher's aide of touching her son inappropriately. That morning instead of calling the school first, she had called the local news station and the cops. The school was basically ambushed and didn't know what was going on until they were questioned by the news media and the officers! I don't know what really happened, but I would think that any sane person who actually feared that her son was being abused would call the school first to report the teacher. The school would then launch their own investigation and the aide would be suspended during this time. What's worse is if this aide is innocent, then this will be on his record and jepordize any future employment. All because someone wanted be a drama queen. This incident has increased my fear of working with children, knowing that there are nuts out there who will literally believe everything precious says without question and have teachers arrested.