raeanna74

1. The kids are never washed or changed. All three have worn the same outfit at least 2 days in a row for EACH outfit they've ever worn here. The baby wore the same outfit that I sent her home in the very next day 3 times in a row. This means that the only time she gets clean clothes are when I change them and she's not gotten a bath any of those nights. The baby spits up a lot with the formular and bottles mom uses so she gets quite stinky. I gave the baby a full bath yesterday. I also trimmed the babies nails last week when she was continuously scratching her own face with these long DIRTY nails.
2. The two older children are more trouble than their worth. I allowed the kids to play in the pool today and when they finally got out I felt like I'd been sucked dry by a vampire. I had to watch them 100% of the time and even then the girl especially was furtively looking to see if I was aware of her mean pranks. She was either doing something mean or screaming at the top of her lungs at someone else (usually over absolutely nothing) the entire time. She was NEVER quiet. I made each of them get out for stints sitting and watching the other's play as punishment for bad behavior. The girl hit two kids yesterday, dumped water over a child (who was not in a swimsuit), and deliberately broke a toy yesterday. When I told the mother she just said "oh Hmm." and never said a word to the daughter.
3. The father was supposed to take the kids for the weekend and I was supposed to have yesterday off. Since he and his girlfriend were getting evicted yesterday (as told to me by his wife) they could not keep the kids so I got them at 5:00am until 4:00pm.
4. The mother is never home on time. She has no concept of time either. If she gets off at 3:00 she will tell me that she is going to pick them up at 3:00. When in actuallity she works 30 min away and will really be able to pick them up at 3:30. She also claims that she cannot get from work to here in less than 45 min. She works fairly close to where hubby works and he is home like clockwork in 25-30 min every day even despite the construction he must navigate. She is usually here 30 min later than she could be. On Wednesday this week she called me at 4:00 to ask if I would watch the kids for an extra 1 1/2 hrs that day. Which interpreted means 2 hours extra. I told her no as I had already kept them for 11 hours that day alone. She had someone else pick them up. That particular person was true poor white trash. Filthy mouth, dirty clothes, car littered with fast food and cigarrette junk, and the car looked like she'd dragged it from the junk yard. She was late too.
5. I originally had agreed to only watch from 6:30 till 3:30pm for $100/week. Plus she had agreed to bring groceries. She did not bring many groceries to speak of. Just 2 boxes of cereal and a pack of pudding cups in 2 weeks. Finally after she informed me that she was going to 10 hr days I changed the contract to a different hourly arrangement at a slightly higher rate. This would account for a lack of groceries, her tardiness, and the added hours. She complained several times before finally signing the contract. Then she asked me what kind of groceries would I have wanted, she "didn't know what to fix for the kids for lunches." The oldest is 7 yrs old. What HAS she been feeding him?
6. The father just finished a second sentence in prison about a year ago. He has not been in these children's lives hardly at all and when he has it's been basically only long enough to create another child.
7. The mother was in special ed classes in highschool so one might think she just didn't know any better. My mother and aunt have both babysat for her for years and both have attempted to teach her HOW to care for the children better. She argues that she likes how she does things and does not want to change. I suggested a different formula because the infant seems to spit up half her bottle every time she eats. The mother argued with me, That how ALL my children did. Soooo? They all had a problem. And she shrugged, and turned her back on me.
8. The mother rarely holds the baby. I've tried handing the baby too her and she turns away or crosses her arms. I pretty much have to load her car and put the baby in the car seat and into the car myself. I have to make sure the kids have their shoes on too - IF they brought any. She has brought them half the time with no shoes at all. She says that it's the kids fault for loosing them. But the girl is only 6 yrs old. My daughter looses her shoes too (she'll be 6 in 2 weeks) and every other 6 yr old that I know of are REALLY good at loosing things. It's the parents job to make the kid go look for things.

Yes I have considered calling Child services for this situation. I know I would be able to make an annonymous report or at the very least they would not inform the mother WHO reported her. Unfortunately I'm afraid that the Dad will be asked to take the kid, since the Mom and Dad are separated and in the middle of a divorce. I think he'd be a worse parent than the Mom. He has also been attempting to convince the Mom to say that he is still living with her so that he won't have to pay child support. He's also in and out of their house, moving in when it's convenient. So even if he had the kids he'd be dropping them off with mom or moving in with mom eventually. If I could be sure that neither of the parents would be caring for the kids then I would call. I'm also reticent to call without much concrete evidence. A person coming in to see the baby would see a happy, chubby, relatively healthy baby that was stinky but spits up a lot. The girl has already gotten in trouble for shoplifting and the boy has gotten in trouble for setting a fire at school. The woman is on Welfare, food stamps and WIC so I'm sure she gets checked on a little. The baby gets a checkup every other time she picks up her WIC check. I know how that system works. Do I personally have anything concrete enough? I know the home is a wreck, I've seen it before. How do I document this? How much is too much neglect? Where does one draw the line?

__________________
"Always learn the rules so that you can break them properly." Dalai Lama
My Karma just ran over your Dogma.