...what would you do?
Sorry, this might be kind of long. First I want to start out by saying I think this is definately neglect (if not abuse) but since I'm close to the situation I want to be sure I'm not just mad at these people.
The child is 5. She is very skinny and sickly looking all the time. She has a chronic cough, black circles under her eyes, bad teeth and an all around unhealthy look. I don't know if she has some sort of health problem because her parents do not take her to the doctors.
Her mom lives in the house about 1/3 of the week. Her dad works long hours. She stays mostly with her 12 year old sister.
There have been MANY times when she comes to my house to play with DD and when it is time for her to go home, there is nobody at her house. The parents ALWAYS blame the 12yo, saying she was supossed to be home. When this happens we usually dress her in DD's clothes and shoes (which are too big) and bring her with us. She is never dressed appropriately for the weather.
On the weekends she eats all of her meals at our house. I honestly don't know if she has dinner on weeknights or not. She lies and is very manipulative, and definately has problems due to her family life.
I also suspect at least the mom of drug use.
I'm pretty sure they have been reported to DCF before, the whole neighborhood apparently pretty much watched because the police escorted the social worker to the house. Not sure who reported, maybe the school. Things got slighty better right after this, but now they are right back to where they were.
I'm a mandatory reporter. But I am VERY afraid to report these parents because they have retaliated against other neighbors for dumb little things with violence and property damage. The victims were afraid to report this to the police.
This might sound bad (selfish), but I'm exhausted from trying to almost raise this little girl. I wanted 1 kid, now it seems like I have 2 (and 1 with big problems). It's affecting the quality of my life with my own family. What would you do?
Sorry, this might be kind of long. First I want to start out by saying I think this is definately neglect (if not abuse) but since I'm close to the situation I want to be sure I'm not just mad at these people.
The child is 5. She is very skinny and sickly looking all the time. She has a chronic cough, black circles under her eyes, bad teeth and an all around unhealthy look. I don't know if she has some sort of health problem because her parents do not take her to the doctors.
Her mom lives in the house about 1/3 of the week. Her dad works long hours. She stays mostly with her 12 year old sister.
There have been MANY times when she comes to my house to play with DD and when it is time for her to go home, there is nobody at her house. The parents ALWAYS blame the 12yo, saying she was supossed to be home. When this happens we usually dress her in DD's clothes and shoes (which are too big) and bring her with us. She is never dressed appropriately for the weather.
On the weekends she eats all of her meals at our house. I honestly don't know if she has dinner on weeknights or not. She lies and is very manipulative, and definately has problems due to her family life.
I also suspect at least the mom of drug use.
I'm pretty sure they have been reported to DCF before, the whole neighborhood apparently pretty much watched because the police escorted the social worker to the house. Not sure who reported, maybe the school. Things got slighty better right after this, but now they are right back to where they were.
I'm a mandatory reporter. But I am VERY afraid to report these parents because they have retaliated against other neighbors for dumb little things with violence and property damage. The victims were afraid to report this to the police.
This might sound bad (selfish), but I'm exhausted from trying to almost raise this little girl. I wanted 1 kid, now it seems like I have 2 (and 1 with big problems). It's affecting the quality of my life with my own family. What would you do?
