I had just stripped the baby down to check her temperature anally when the knock came.
“Can you get that?” I yelled to the babysitter.
She opened the door and immediately called me over. I wander over to the front door with naked, squirming baby in hand, and a very attractive woman greeted me.
“I am with Department of Children and family, child protective service,” she said.
I blinked and just stared at her for a few minutes before mumbling, “Come on in.”
I handed the baby to K- the babysitter – to dress her while I tried to get my brain to focus.
CPS here in my home, why? I have been a good mother, haven’t I? What could this possibly be about? We had an anonymous report called in, saying the home was unsanitary and unsafe for the child,” she explained.
I know I kept breathing, but someone how it didn’t feel like it, and the more she talked the harder it became to breath and the more my disbelief grew, not only because of what she was saying but because I knew who made the complaint and why.
We all have a distinctive way of speaking. It’s the same why all writers have a specific style to their writing. It gives us away all the time.
The accusation was that I had the child lying around in towels and sheets filled with feces and vomit and ooh that I slept in my clothes, and how “a child that suffers from breathing issues can’t live in such conditions.”
Now, first let me say the accusation is false. A month ago the baby was sick with the stomach flu, and all she did for a week was poop or vomit. I was constantly changing her, the bed, and the sofa and wiped out all the towels in the house cleaning up the mess.
I used gloves all the time and put them in garbage bags in a corner of the house to take to a Laundromat. This wasn’t something my little washer and dryer at home could handle and believe me I tired. On at the first sign of improvement, when she went an whole day without popping every hour, I went to Laundromat and washed everything for $80.
A month later that was being used against me to say I am an unfit mother. Hey, I am not the cleanest person, messy, yes – but you try being a single mom, working fulltime, freelance, and taking care of a 9 month old, and maintain an utterly spotless home.
In fact the caseworker said the same thing. She said she saw clutter but nothing that would classified as unsanitary.
She then asked. “Do you have an idea of who would make such a complaint?”
I laughed, a bitter, slightly madwoman laugh. “Yes, her father. A week ago, I filed for child support.”
An expression of understanding dawned on her face. “I don’t mean to tell you what to do, but I would encourage you to continue seeking child support.”
It is the only thing that makes sense. The complaint is about something that was a month old. Anyone who was that concern would have called that day, not a month later, and I doubt CPS sits on complaints for a month. Besides there were only two people allowed in the house at that time, him and the babysitter, and she was as shocked as I was to see CPS.
As I said early, the way we speak, gives us away, and one of his comments that day when he came to visit was, “a child that suffers from breathing issues can’t get fresh air in all this mess.”
It was great for him to judge when in the midst of it all, I had called him to come take her for at least a day to help me, and he bluntly refused.
However the biggest proof was a text message from him 7:19 p.m. Friday April 3 – “So u think I reported u?”
Hmmmm – tell me deadbeat dad how did you know there was a report if I didn’t tell you about it and they didn’t tell you.Anyways, at this point, I wait to hear a final judgment from CPS. Pray for me, even though the casework did says she thinks it’s a nothing case, but I take nothing for granted.
