it's nine o'clock. do you know where your children are?

this is very sad. we have some white trash neighbors. or, a white trash neighbor.  the aforementioned white trash (a chick and her boyfriend du jour and four kids by various du jours) will be from this point referred to as WT. this is reason #1623 that she is white trash:

this morning, robbie (WT's son who is the same age as the J-man) came over to play, around 10 a.m.  the child is a perfectly nice boy, has some manners, is extremely sweet and cute as a button.  we love to have him over. at about noon, WT dropped by and said she was going to her mother's which is "just a few miles down the road" and "robbie knows grandma's number".  she would be back in an hour. we of course are completely agreeable, because, well, why not? the kids had a great time, playing rock band, twister, whatever. we didn't mind, because we didn't have anywhere to go. at SIX o'clock, after we'd fed robbie lunch and then eventually dinner, we decided it might be a good idea to check in with WT. we  call WT's cell phone number. a pre-recorded message proclaims that "this number is not taking phone calls right now". we ask robbie for grandma's number. turns out robbie doesn't actually know grandma's number. hubs drives robbie home, (it's only about two blocks away but it's cold and dark and we have no idea if there is an axe murderer who's just killed his WT family and is waiting for him to get there too) -- but there was no car in the driveway, the house was black. so hubs brings robbie back. we call 411 for info after asking poor robbie 20 questions about grandma's name, any close relatives, etc. WE EVEN CALL WT's EX's PHONE NUMBER, that i happened to have on a post-it next to my computer. (we actually did not know that he no longer lived with robbie and WT until tonight when we asked robbie another 20 questions)  his cell, of course, "is not taking phone calls right now".  lovely. seems as if everyone associated with WT neighbor is unlisted. so, it's not a complete urgency, QUITE yet, really, because the kid is safe with us for the time being. but what parent does this?  WT, that's who! seven o'clock, eight o'clock, nine o'clock roll by. i am ready to whip out a sleeping bag, call the child welfare people and start the adoption paperwork. finally, about nine-thirty, the phone rings. it is WT. she says that she has been home all along, and after hubs tells her he was there and the house was dark, she says "well i was asleep".  what? where are your other children? you just turn off all of your lights, put your children in a closet and nap at six o'clock in the evening???  hubs gets ready to bring robbie home again, and as robbie's putting on his coat he says "if she was home, i wonder where she parked her car?"  um. there is no other place to park the car. she wasn't home.  she is WT. and i'm sorry that you have to go home to her.

i am really p.o.'d, appalled, and sad. it just hits me hard. am i overreacting?  am i just an ultra-conservative-check-in-with-your-kids-every-once-in-a-while parenting nazi?  WT doesn't really even KNOW us. if i leave my child with someone for nearly 12 hours i sure as hell am going to make sure i know a lot about them.

dang! i hate stupid parents who don't do their freaking job.  their parenting licenses should be revoked.  it just hit me that this sort of goes hand in hand with zoe's most recent post. not that drastic, but at least zoe's story will have a happy ending.  i hope against all odds that robbie's does, too.

Comments

[Jan]

WT is not a mother, she's a breeder. My husband is retired from LAPD, one of his most memorable arrest (family-wise), was he had to take a woman to jail. The cops knew all about her family, at least two sons were doing hard time. As they were removing her from her home, they were locking everything up, and asked her, "Is there anything else, or anyone else here that needs to be removed?" She said, no. Just then my husband saw a pile of laundry move; it was a 6 month old, buried under a pile of launry. The baby had diaper rash from her navel to her knees. And the "Mom" had forgotten she was there. If they'd locked the house, who knows what would have happened.

[Lina]

I whole-heartedly agree with you that she is WT & what a sad situation for that little boy. At least he had somewhere stable to be for 12 hours.

[zoe]

robbie is very lucky to have your family. my son has a friend like this. we have cared for him for YEARS. he even lived with us for awhile. he always tells me i am the only mother he has ever had. trust me robbie will cherish the time he has with your family. i hope you take every opportunity to include him. you may be what saves him from becoming wt.

[Cass]

That is awful. At least he has one good family unit to look up to...because what a shame. I always think it's so bizarre that anyone can just go out and have children but you need a license to breed puppies.

[michelle]

How sad. Poor kid. If I were you, I would call CPS. That is not appropriate for one thing, and she should be investigated for "worse" behavior. I'm sorry this poor child has to live like that!

[Karen]

Not good. Not good at all. I'm not a panicky, freaky kind of mom but that smacks of neglect. Some day that poor little boy will be taken away. And it may not be the worst thing that's ever happened to him.

[jenny]

that would piss me off bad. i have no time for parents that seem to brush off their responsiblity (aka wt mo-fo's). sounds like she is probably a repeat offender in this area. it's just a damn good thing that that poor kid is friends with jman.

[Robyn]

OMG, does she not even care? That is crazy. She probably forgot she even had a kid until she was going to bed and was like oh, yeah, Robbie, at friends house. I hope they don't call cps.

[Hyphen Mama]

This is exactly what is wrong with the world today. And where were the other kids? Did she have them all planted around the neighborhood with different friends?

Wouldn't it be great if we could snatch all these kids up and take them off to live in a fairy tale land of perfect parenting and nothing but unconditional love?

[April]

That is totally shitty and I HATE to hear stories like that. I know a WT mom and dad like that (i'm ashamed to be related to them) and it kills me how little regard people have for their OWN CHILDREN. It's appalling!

[the benevolent dictator]

You are not overreacting by any means. There is a huge difference between leaving your kid for an hour and leaving him for ten hours. The saddest part of the situation is that the child is no doubt aware of disparity in terms of parenting at his house and parenting at yours.