[blparent] Happy Thanksgiving, eh?
Danie and Eden
pumpkin4byron at cox.net
Tue Dec 2 03:06:26 UTC 2008
Oh, this is indeed unpleasant. I am sorry someone decided to meddle like
that. Take care and I am praying for you. Pat Miss Ballad please?
God's Blessings,
Danie
I AM:
http://momof3bbp.livejournal.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jo Elizabeth Pinto" <jopinto at pcdesk.net>
To: "NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, November 30, 2008 7:21 PM
Subject: [blparent] Happy Thanksgiving, eh?
> Hi. To tell the truth, I had a fairly happy Thanksgiving, and I hope you
> all did as well. But I had a really unpleasant surprise yesterday
> afternoon. Count me among the eighty percent of blind parents, I guess,
> who have had encounters with Child Protective Services. I hope that was
> my first, last, and definitely only encounter.
>
> I was minding my own business, doing dishes in the kitchen. Stephen was
> up for the weekend, and an older woman from my church had left her two
> grandchildren with me while she went to serve a Thanksgiving dinner at the
> local affordable housing complex. Stephen and the two younger kids had
> just come in from outside. Ballad, my guide dog, started barking, so
> Gerald went to see who was at the door. A few moments later, I came
> around the corner into my living room and met up with two city police
> officers and a social worker.
>
> It seems that an anonymous caller put in a complaint that I wasn't capable
> of taking care of my baby, along with some other allegations iincluding
> that I had a vicious dog who has bitten me before. (Ballad is a friendly,
> goofy black Labrador who would barely know how to bite anybody if she had
> to.) The social worker talked to Gerald and me for a few minutes and
> then, since we didn't get upset and threaten her or anything crazy, I
> guess, she told the police officers they could leave. hung out for a
> little while longer, then told us that she was going to file a report
> saying that she saw nothing wrong, and the complaint was completely
> unfounded. She said Child Protective Services had no problem whatsoever
> with blind parents or parents who had other disabilities, as long as the
> children were well cared for, and she could see that Sarah was fine. One
> of the complaints had centered on the fact that Gerald is married to
> someone besides me, and the case worker said that wasn't the business of
> her agency. She left soon after.
>
> The thing is, the case worker gave enough hints about exactly what was
> said that I know who filed the complaint, even if it was anonymous. It
> was a friend of mmine, or rather an ex friend. We haven't spoken for over
> a year because when I told her I was pregnant with Gerald's child, she
> went off about how selfish and stupid and immoral I was, and decided she
> didn't want to talk to me. It hurt, but I let her go without much of a
> fight after eighteen years of friendship because in my book, friends stick
> by each other and don't judge. She sent a nasty little note at about the
> time the baby was born, which I ignored because I had bigger fish to fry
> at the time, like caring for an infant and getting my gallbladder removed.
> I don't know now if she called Child Protective Services because of a
> genuine concern for my baby--she sure didn't check with me at any
> point--or whether it was some kind of weird vindictive thing. I'm just in
> shock.
>
> I guess I'm wondering if it's really going to end like the case worker
> says. If she reports that the case has no validity, will it ever come
> back to bite us if something else is filed later? Is my ex friend a
> threat in the future? So far, my gut feeling is that I better not contact
> her about this. I'm mostly too numb to have any emotions of anger or the
> like, but I'm guessing they'll come in time. The two kids I was
> babysitting didn't say anything abot what happened, though I did tell
> their grandparents in case they mentioned it later. But Stephen asked me
> why there were police officers in the house. I told him the lady had come
> to check on how the baby was getting cared for, and he asked again about
> the cops. So I said some people got mad when a person came to check on
> their babies, and the lady brought the police so she could be sure she was
> safe. He seemed to accept that. But I feel violated and a little fearful
> about the future. Actually, I feel sick.
>
> Jo Elizabeth
>
> It is easy--terribly easy--to shake a man's faith in himself. To take
> advantage of that to break a man's spirit is devil's work. Take care of
> what you are doing. Take care.--George Bernard Shaw in "Candide"
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