Life
Mom lets kids play in backyard alone, so neighbors call child protection services
What do you think about this?
Ashley Fike
08.15.17

A woman is terrified that she’s going to have her kids taken away from her. She’s not abusive, the children are loved and well cared for; so you might be asking yourself how on earth this is possible?

Children and Family Services showed up at a woman’s house concerned for the children; someone reported they were playing outside unsupervised.

Whoever reported this “incident” wasn’t wrong — the kids were outside alone. However, the children were playing in a fenced backyard. An adult wasn’t chaperoning them in their own backyard.

It’s safe to say that many people wouldn’t think twice about seeing children playing in their own fenced yard — but someone apparently saw it as a danger and assumed the kids were being neglected.

The children that were playing are 10 and 5-years old — their mother, Jacqui Kendrick, could see them playing through the windows in the living room.

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The mother was stunned when CFS arrived at her home performing a welfare check on her children. They were perfectly fine — they were happy, safe, and loved. She couldn’t believe it.

They told her it was a “concerned citizen” who made the report.

“Now, thanks to “Concerned Citizen”, I have had an intake worker come to my house, have an “interview” with me. Asking me how we discipline our children, if we drink or do drugs, if we have support if we have enough money! Then she had to check to see where my kids sleep, and to make sure we had enough food in the house! How embarrassing, and degrading for me. I am a good parent. My kids are well taken care of,” Jacquie says on Facebook.

CFS was also going to have to talk to her children at their school — making the entire ordeal even more embarrassing.

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Jacqui now has a file with CFS, and if she were ever to be reported again, her kids could be taken away from her. She was told by the CFS intake worker that children under 12 cannot be unsupervised.

Jacqui warns her friends with children under 12 to be careful with letting them walk to school or play at the park — they could have CFS called to their house.

“So all my friends out there with school aged kids, I really hope this never happens to you. I’m terrified to let my kids do anything now, but I will keep doing what we always do cause we did nothing wrong. I just want you all to be aware how easily this could happen to anyone.”

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Jacqui’s Facebook post below has started to garner a lot of attention. What’s your stance on the situation?

Please SHARE this with your friends and family.

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