What Do You Do In This Situation?

[becka]

Thankfully I have not had this experience much and while it always made me feel terrible since I had DS it just makes me feel so much more strongly.

Yesterday when I went grocery shopping I ran into a family with 4 kids. It is obvious that these kids are not being taken care of properly. They were all dressed in filthy clothes that looked like they had been worn for weeks. They had dirt all over their faces, filthy hair, etc. One little boy was wearing a blue blanket sleeper with holes in the feet and it was maybe 20 degrees outside.

The parents kept yelling at the kids and dragging them hard by their arms all through out the store.

I just didn't know what to do. Obviously if I knew names and where they lived I could call family services but what do you do when you see this kind of behavior just out in public?

It makes me feel terrible to do nothing but I just don't know what I can do, if anything.

 

[browneyes]

It's tough to say, Becka. If you say anything publicly, the parents might take it out on the kids privately, like it's their fault instead of the parents. You could call the store manager and ask him/her what to do, but I'm sure he/she will tell you there's nothing he/she can do.

It breaks your heart, doesn't it.

 

[Serena]

I really don't know either.

 

[Snow White]

I guess if you see them again, you can ask the store manager if they know who the people are, and then you can report them to DHS so a CW worker could look into it, at least for the kid's safety's sake. Thats so sad that kids have to endure things like that!

 

[DaisyDebbie]

unfortunately there really isn't much you can do. It does break your heart though.

 

[Keli]

The only other thing I can think of is to maybe to get their license plate number. I'm not sure the DFS would follow up on a lead like that though. Situations like that make me feel so sad.

 

[p-nut]

If you thought you saw any kind of abuse you should have called the police. They are the only ones that could call social services and get them involved right then and there. The store manager cannot step in because the store can then be sued by that family for harassment. That and the fact that they probably have so many customers there is no way to know who these people are and where they live.