Close Call

I am coming to the end of a really crappy week, only to blog and find a troll. It does fit well with my week though. I temporarily removed the last post because I believe I said more than I should have about a case that is getting really nasty. Agree with me or not, I will not pretend to support reunification in cases where it is clearly not in the child's best interest.

If Bubbles has a decent relative that comes forward, with suitable living conditions that can care for her, I will support reunification. I will not be happy about losing her. I will ask what took so long, but if I know she will be cared for, I will grieve her loss and move on(after I gripe a couple posts and let it all out).

Here were some of the highlights:

*We took in a 15 yr old girl Tues night, who was a runaway from another state caught on an A*mber alert. Her mom came for her the next day. She came with nothing. She was very sweet though. Seemed to be a good girl who just made a couple bad decisions.

*My coworker is still giving me fits with her kid. It's amazing how her child is the only one having problems.

*Thursday would have been Princess' first birthday.

*Bubbles sibling almost came into care today(probably Monday). They weren't going to let us take him because we were under adoption contract to adopt Smiley and weren't allowed to take any placements. Then they were talking about removing Bubbles and placing her and her brother somewhere else. I was hysterical! We had to make some frantic phone calls and eventually the judge ordered an investigation and the baby would go with us if the investigators felt the baby needed to be removed. The only reason the baby wasn't taken into care sooner was because the parents were lying about completing crucial parts of their caseplan and noone followed up to check on them. Yes, caseworker has all the police and arrest records since she came into care and is pretending nothing happened.

Just for clarification on my reunification stance:

I will support reunification when:

*It is the child's first time in care and the family has no other history with cps.
*The family made a stupid mistake, like spanking a child in public, or leaving them home a couple hours.
*A family member comes forward that is responsible enough to care for the child and not around when the abuse/neglect happened(like Scooter's dad).
*A child gets taken into care for poverty alone,but the parents are trying to get back on their feet.


I cannot support reunification when:

*Drugs are involved or drug dealing, and the parents are not successfully completing treating or attempting to change.

*Parents have serious mental illnesses and refuse to seek treatment.

*The child has been in care more than once.

*One or both parents have a history of violence towards others, and refuse to admit to the problem and seek treatment.

*Neither of the parents are employed and have no desire to be employed.

Now if Bubbles' mom would leave the violent dad, find adequate housing and keep it clean(it doesn't have to be a nice place, but there's no excuse to have a filthy house), attempt to get a job(daycare is paid, so that's not an excuse) to support her children and finish her education, I would feel a lot better about reunification than I do now. If asking the mom to have these qualifications to support reunification is wrong, then I guess I'm a bad foster parent.