This leads you to conflicted feelings. On one hand, you will get a definite sense of pleasure from watching her failures. On the other hand, her failures will mean that your niece will be harmed as a result. Her being gone means you don't have to interact with her during family visits, but also means that your niece won't be getting bathed or fed properly. Take a few moments to consider how this really makes you feel.
My wife's sister, spoken of here as Negligent Mother, is an incompetent nitwit who should never have been allowed to reproduce. That being said, she did reproduce, and has yet to take full responsibility for her child. This darling little child may never know what it's like to be properly cared for by someone who loves her. Tennessee child services doesn't think that the girl should be taken from Negligent Mother, even though she doesn't clean, feed, or medicate her daughter. These things are all acceptable according to Tennessee laws. Count this as one of the few times I'm glad to be from Kentucky, though I'm sure there are plenty of similar situations here.
The ideal solution here would be for the state to give custody of the child to my mother-in-law, so that she would actually be properly cared for. Then, Negligent Mother could go off and do whatever it is that she's doing now, without putting her daughter in danger. And now for something completely different. Stay tuned after the jump for a video of my baby girl!
Kennedy went to the doctor again today. Her ear infection is cleared up for now, but there's still fluid behind one eardrum. The doctor prescribed some Benadryl for her rashes and said to start trying to identify what causes them. We think we have it narrowed down to hand lotion that some of the family use. While we were waiting for the results from the tympanogram, Kennedy found this cute little baby looking back at her in the mirror.
She was having such a good time, I had to take a video. She loves mirrors, especially the ones in her grandmother's bedroom.
Over the last few days, Kennedy has started opening her mouth all the way and just leaving it that way for a few moments. I think it's just to show off her little tooth, which I, of course, took a picture of.
Look at those pictures without laughing, I DARE YOU!
If she doesn't want her child why doesn't she give custody to your mother-in-law?
ReplyDeleteYour daughter is a Torrie.
Its not that she doesn't want her, she just thinks that she is doing a great job with this parenting thing, and that is blatantly not the case.
ReplyDeleteMy suggestion is to keep calling the S.S. on her and perhaps have a few others who have seen her parenting skills in action to call. As you well know, the goal of child protective services is to provide parents and children with the resources they need to live healthy and moderately happy lives. Basically, they will wait to take action until it seems like the child is in serious danger-- years even, trust me on that one. If you and others continue to call and report different instances of neglect, then eventually they will have to take action even if it is just making Negligent Mother go through parenting classes.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the advice. At current estimate, CPS has been called at least 20 times, and not just by her family. They basically said what you just did, that they won't step in until she is seriously harmed.
ReplyDelete