The Latest In Neighbors Reporting Parents
It gets crazier and crazier. A woman in Winnipeg was just reported to child services there for the horrible, neglectful practice of letting her kids play outside unsupervised...in their own fenced-in backyard.
Was she out at the mall? In a drug den?
Um, no -- just inside the house, feet away.
After the neighbor snitched on her, child services showed up to question the mother, asking her how she was raised, where the kids slept, and how they were punished. The rep also looked in the refrigerator.
Granted, child services agencies can't just ignore a report.
More from Canada's National Post:
Jacqui Kendrick, a stay-at-home mom, says a CFS worker showed up unexpectedly in early April, saying they had received a complaint about her children being unsupervised.Kendrick has three children ages two, five and 10, and says they often played in her fenced-in backyard after school.
Kendrick says she's either with them or watching them from her living room, though she says her oldest child also helps out by looking after her younger siblings.
...Kendrick says her children have been well trained in how to be safe.
"We've taught both the (older) kids so far that you look after each other. That's kind of the point. The older ones should be looking after the younger ones," Kendrick says.
"My 10-year-old is very responsible. We've taught the older ones already the whole stranger danger, and they know what to do. When my five-year-old's out there, she knows she's not supposed to go up to the fence."
As I've noted before, children, throughout human history, have been tasked with caring for younger siblings. It probably teaches responsibility.
As Lenore Skenazy puts it at Reason about this ridiculousness:
Barring actual abuse, parents must be allowed to raise their kids the way they think is best, even if a CPS worker would raise her kids some other way.And barring, say, a backyard filled with heroin and alligators, kids must be allowed to be outside, unsupervised, even if a neighbor faints at the idea.
Love the "heroin and alligators" line.
Sounds like a cross between our modern cultures of SWATing and false accusations. Both are consequence-free for the perpetrator, natch.
I'm reminded of when a man was out watering in his yard using a hose with one of those nozzles shaped like a pistol grip. A neighbor phoned it in to the police. A cop crept up on the man, and shot him dead - from concealment and without warning.
Lastango at April 23, 2016 11:30 PM
"(The worker was) asking me about if we’ve ever dealt with CFS before, what my childhood was like, how I punish my children," Kendrick says. "She had to look to see where my kid slept. She had to see if we had enough food in the house."
She made only one mistake, as far as I can see: letting this woman into her house in the first place. Little people with a little bit of power.
Child services have no more business in your home than any other stranger. Don't let them in. If you have the presence of mind, extract as much information as possible, asking why they are there, what complaint they have. Ask questions, but give no information. But the bottom line is important: don't let them through your door; insist that they leave your property. If they refuse, call the police and report a trespasser.
Since petty bureaucrats don't like being defied, get read for the inevitable push-back: call your lawyer, tell them what's going on, and follow their advice.
a_random_guy at April 23, 2016 11:56 PM
If I had to be a child again, I'd feel like I was in prison. I used to take out my bike and go wherever I wanted. If someone were to ask my mother where I was, she wouldn't have been able to tell them.
And this was when cell phones didn't exist.
Yet, I managed to avoid all the heroin-dealing alligators. Lucky, I guess.
Patrick at April 24, 2016 2:21 AM
This is getting absolutely ridiculous. Back in the Dark Ages when I was a child, we took off on our bikes in the morning and were likely not seen again until the street lights came on. They're in a FENCED IN YARD, FFS.
Daghain at April 24, 2016 8:20 AM
I live in Winnipeg and I've been involved with CFS because my wife`s daughter was unable to care for her son. We are raising him as foster parents with CFS as his legal guardians. They did a similar check on our home and we both had to pass a criminal record check.
I don`t see that CFS has done anything wrong. When they get a report, they have to investigate even when the complaint is likely frivolous. It sounds like they checked things out and realized that this was not an issue.
As I see it, all of the blame is on the idiot neighbour.
Steamer at April 24, 2016 9:54 AM
The solution is simple, anonymous reports will not be accepted.
You want to report a NEW crime, as opposed to a police call for info on a high profile crime they are investigating, you have to give your name, address, and social security number and a DETAILED description of the supposed crime.
Had anyone asked this cunt (cause it isnt men passive aggressively calling CPS) half a dozen questions CPS never would have even opened a file
lujlp at April 24, 2016 10:05 AM
Daghain: "Back in the Dark Ages when I was a child, we took off on our bikes in the morning and were likely not seen again until the street lights came on."
And even then, in the summer we didn't have to go in the house. We just had to play on our own street after dark. But our parents started easing up on us when we reached about 10 or 11. Then we were allowed to prowl nearby neighborhoods after dark, as long as we knew someone who lived in those neighborhoods.
My parents didn't want us playing after dark in neighborhoods where we didn't know anyone, not because they thought we weren't safe, but because they thought it was rude and intrusive.
Ken R at April 24, 2016 10:31 AM
Maybe the neighbor is nasty or mentally ill.
But...unfortunately, there's also the possibility the kids were making too much noise and the parents didn't care. Not that that justifies a false accusation of neglect, per se.
Reminds me of this, also in Canada, where the parents clearly WERE being neglectful (for one thing, their kids threw a rock and other objects at a neighbor's toddler):
http://www.refugees.bratfree.com/read.php?2,404906
Excerpts from the news article itself:
A Coquitlam mother of three is outraged after she received a bylaw violation warning because her children were being too noisy playing outside.
Jana D’Addabbo’s Facebook post, which is making the rounds on social media, shows a photograph of the “Notice of Violation” issued Saturday just before 2pm.
It advises D’Addabbo to speak to her children about being considerate of neighbours when playing outside, and to have them keep yelling and screaming to a minimum...
...Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart is now responding to the “Notice of Violation.”
Mayor Stewart says *many* people in the neighborhood have complained, including one woman who says her toddler had a close call.
Stewart says it’s not the joyful cry of street hockey that has many neighbours upset.
“[One neighbour] has a toddler who almost got hit by a tennis-ball size rock. A number of items came over the fence, and there was screaming and essentially no supervision.”...
(end)
lenona at April 24, 2016 11:37 AM
And, as some in the Bratfree thread pointed out, the authorities probably wouldn't have cared about the constant screaming, despite the complaints from multiple neighbors, if the innocent neighbor's toddler hadn't been put in danger.
lenona at April 24, 2016 11:40 AM
Well, that would rule out half of Florida.
Conan the Grammarian at April 24, 2016 3:34 PM
Funny. This was my FB status update about an hour ago:
"Looked out the window while studying, and saw the 2 littles and our neighbor had thrown a rope over a (high!) branch in one of our trees, looped it through little mans belt loops, and were systematically hauling him up into the treetop. I don't know WHY we're at the ER so often....."
Ages 6 to 9. In my front yard. Glad my neighbors aren't busy-bodies. My kids are developing resilience. Something they can't learn inside safe on the couch watching tv and getting fat.
momof4 at April 24, 2016 5:10 PM
A Coquitlam mother of three is outraged after she received a bylaw violation warning because her children were being too noisy playing outside.
Wanna give me a noise complaint before sundown, come out with an audiometer and prove your case
lujlp at April 24, 2016 8:08 PM
"I used to take out my bike and go wherever I wanted. If someone were to ask my mother where I was, she wouldn't have been able to tell them."
We here have more in common than we admit...
Bet I was faster than you, though!
Radwaste at April 25, 2016 1:30 AM
"If I had to be a child again, I'd feel like I was in prison. "
This, exactly. The worst part for me would be having every minute of every day scheduled, like parents tend to do today. Never a moment to myself, to wander around or read or do what I want to do.
Cousin Dave at April 25, 2016 8:23 AM
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