Child Protective Services

I did not know what to do. I played the situation over and over in my head. What should I do? Should I call and jeopardize our friendship or let the kids continue to live the way they do? I thought about the vow I took about never making that phone call. Well, that phone call was only going to benefit the children and that is what I told myself.

I remember the heartache of dealing with Child Protective Services (CPS) and it is something no mother should have to go through, well no decent mother anyway. There are plenty of mothers out there that should be reported to CPS but no one ever has the courage to do it. I know that once CPS enters your life, it is typically hard to get them out because it seems like they always tend to keep tabs on you. I think that is why the decision was so hard for me to make.

A friend of mine, who has proven to be very irresponsible, could not seem to keep a roof over her children's heads. Not only that, but she failed to register her daughter in the new school district when they moved. To this day, a good three weeks later, her daughter is still not in school. I also have witnessed her hitting her son with a belt. I did think nothing of it at the time but I could not ignore it any longer.

I had spoken to my friend's mother a few times and discussed the matter with her. My friend's mother told me that I should do what's right for the children, because it is about them, not my friend. My friend's mother even told me that I could not let my friendship with her daughter get in the way of helping the children because someone needed to care. I believe that is one of the things that helped sway me to make my decision.

I thought about the situation over and over again. Could I really do that to my friend? My only options were to call or not call. Knowing what CPS could do to a family I first decided that I would not call and stick to my vow of never doing that to anyone, especially someone that I was close to. I