My son’s two children are three (girl) and five years old (boy) and live in a tiny grungy two bedroom apartment with their mother and the mother’s girlfriend. When I visited them, they looked like they hadn’t had a bath in days, the apartment was dirty and the mother and girlfriend looked even more unkept.
There was little food available for the children and most of was junk like canned spaghetti. I didn’t look in their fridge or anything I just noticed the food when the cupboard doors were opened. I also noticed how frequently the two women went out to smoke their weed, which isn’t free. My son has noted how much alcohol is in their house. Now, I have no issue with someone having a toke and a drink but you have to have the budget for it. Children should not have to go without proper nutrition just so the parents can smoke weed and get drunk.
My son tells me the children are often left alone when they are sleeping while the women visit their downstairs neighbour to drink and have sex. They take the baby monitor with them and think that’s enough. As if that weren’t bad enough, I’m told there are no smoke detectors in the apartment.
It’s the kind of situation where you hope Child Protection Services would get involved but at the same time don’t. The children deserve better and foster care is not always better. My son is working on getting into a position to take the kids himself. He is, however, prepared to call CPS as a last resort. Why don’t I call CPS myself? I didn’t notice a lack of smoke detectors, I haven’t seen her leave her children at home, I’m just going by what my son tells me, and, like I said, foster care isn’t always better.
Why don’t I take them? Honestly, I don’t have the financial means or physical ability to raise two children at this stage in my life. I haven’t got the stamina to keep up with them in addition to having chronic pain issues. Raising children is also mentally demanding and I am not in a place to meet that demand.
My Phoenix Rising 