I opened my email this morning and saw my usual bunch of crap waiting for me. Express spam, Diapers.com spam, a group message from the Yahoo gDiapers group. But something else caught my eye. A blog post from BlogHer, with the title stating, "A Blog Reader Called CPS on Me."
I've linked the article. If you are so inclined, read it and then come back. And please make sure you read the comments too.
(waiting...waiting...tapping foot..waiting).
Well? Are you as outraged as I am? This is ridiculous. I understand CPS is an agency that is designed to protect children from abuse, but where is the line? That someone (a virtual stranger) can read such a normal, mother-rant blog post, decide there is some "mental abuse" going on, and then call CPS. Didn't CPS read the post, shrug their shoulders and think "What's the big deal?" Did they actually think that a mother promoting consequences for her 12 year old son was enough to warrant a child interview as well as a home visit?
Furthermore, if you read the comments, a woman was given a citation for having crumbs on her floor and some piles of laundry in her house and was subject to a follow up visit, although it was clear she and her children had had the stomach flu for a few days. Crumbs and laundry piles? How many of you have had a bad stretch of days where maybe the house wasn't looking so hot? (I'm guessing we've all raised our hands). And sorry, government, but if the stomach flu is involved, then nothing is getting done.
A government agency that has the power to remove your children from your home with a very minimal amount of evidence terrifies me. Am I, as the parent to my own child, setting the standards, expectations and consequences in my home, or is the government?
Is it me or does the scope of "freedom" in which we live feel like it's getting smaller and smaller and smaller...?
i agree that was completely ridiculous. and it makes me wonder how i haven't had someone crazy person call CPS on me yet.
ReplyDeleteThat was the most ridiculous thing I have ever read! I can't believe someone did that! And now I'm freaked out, because in a guest post I jokingly commented on how sometimes my kids drive me so crazy I want to punt them through a window...is CPS going to come crashing through my door to take my kids away because someone can't take a joke? Yikes!
ReplyDeleteWow. Everything you said, I concur. It's scary to think that someone could show up on my door, see my untidy kitchen and threaten to take my daughter away and/or call us unfit parents. What kind of world are we living in?
ReplyDeleteI'm nearly in tears i'm so angry!!! These services are terrifying in the way the take EVERY little thing they hear to be gospel!! My sister fell victim to this when a very spiteful someone told the CPS ( We call it CYFS here) that she was hitting her foster child and he had bruises to show for it! After showing the officer that came to visit her the Mongolian birthmark on the kids back (I guess it could be mistaken for a bruise from a distance?) they told her not to worry about it, but the complaint itself will always be visible to anyone that views her file even though the other person was proved to be lying!! It makes me so mad!!!
ReplyDeleteHoly F*@%!!! This is insane, outrageous, horrible! This scares the crap out of me. What a nightmare for that poor mother and her family. Blogging can bring you into such a wonderful community but it also leaves you so vulnerable because you really don't know what crazies are out there reading your stuff...
ReplyDeleteI am completely outraged as well. Especially when I work with kids in foster care and have seen abused kids being returned to their parents. It seems like there isn't a whole lot of consistency across the board.
ReplyDeleteI'm amazed that they felt the allegation was worth investigating, but I'm not sorry that CPS exists and has the powers they do. I have personally worked with kids in the worst kinds of abuse situations and if anything there need to be more CPS workers than there are now.
Ugh. That article made me sick when I read it too. Subjecting those kids to lines of questioning about their mother/father's use of disciplinary methods including physical abuse when clearly the mom was joking around about teaching her oldest a life lesson the way she saw fit. I used to work closely with those types of workers and although they often do much good in helping children that ARE being abused it hurts me to think that a child might have actually been abused while a worker was too busy investigating a freaking nothingness blog post. It's insane to think how quickly our rights to freedom and rights to privacy in our own home go out the door sometimes.
ReplyDeleteRidiculous!
ReplyDeleteWhoa! Agreed. I totally agree with the woman's original post - does that warrant someone calling CPS on me? Sheesh. I'd imagine ridicutlous calls like that to CPS takes time away from their people to investigate than for the legitimate cases.
ReplyDelete