Child Protective Services has done serious damage to society, and here’s why.
This is my story.
My daughter burned herself today. It looks a lot more painful than it is, but I’m terrified to take her in to be looked at. Wanna know why? Child protective services. I’m afraid that even through a simple accident, my family will be subjected to a Gestapo like interrogation where simply not liking me could be grounds to remove my children. I understand why they’re there, and why they should exist, but hate how much power they’ve been given.
Usually only the threat of a attorney will get them to back off.
The way they get you is by getting you to agree to tons of parenting classes under threat of removal, and then they can grab your kids if you miss even one class. Yes one.
Going to the emergency room for a simple accident can render you suspect for child abuse, and cause untold trauma to your family through investigations, kids being pulled from school and asked hundreds of invasive questions, your home can be torn apart in the search of suspect items, and tons and tons of hoops to jump through and unreasonable demands. I hate that it’s this way.
Turns out she’s fine. It’s a simple first degree burn that won’t need extra treatment, so I’m okay for now. What happens though when my accident prone kid jumps off something and breaks her nose or hand or something worse? Will I then lose my children due to their own carelessness? I watch them as closely as I can but accidents happen.
Raising kids is messy and hard, without the threat of trauma from an investigation. I have heard stories upon stories of parents who have done everything they should, but then lost their children because a CPS worker thought they weren’t doing their job. We should rethink how we investigate families or change the parameters that end up catching loving parents doing everything right and still lose their babies. We also need to take away the financial benefit of removing children and adopting them out. Yes adopting shouldn’t be a financial death for those adopting, but not paid as a bonus for separating families who don’t deserve it!
