Is no running water considered neglect?
We just went to pick up DH's nieces, the children of his late brother. They live with their mother, who is a typical welfare mooch. She has 3 by his brother and 2 by other men, including the husband she has now. There are always other adults living in the house--right now there are 10 people living there. Six children and four adults.
There is no running water as I learned when I went in to make a pit stop while we picked them up. The toilets were full of human waste. According to BM, "a pipe is leaking leading to high water bills" and that's why the water is off.
She's had the water cut off before (4 houses ago), once was Thanksgiving and she cancelled that morning saying there was no water. As if they'd shut it off T-day. I think she was hoping we'd offer to pay to have it put back on.
She's a nightmare of a BM, DH's family likes the kids to visit every year (plane ride) and she makes it as big a hassle as she can. She contributes nothing to their trips, like with us, meeting us half-way on a 80 mile ride. We're "rich" (yeah right) so she justifies soaking the family as much as she can. One time they were going to drive up and money was sent to rend a van. The morning they were supposed to leave, she cancelled, saying she wasn't allowed to rent a car. The money never came back, surprise, surprise.
What is surprising is how intelligent, attractive and well-behaved the children are.
My question is, should I report this? The house is just gross, not only no water but trash everywhere and dirty. It's not bad, either, compared to her other ones which were disgusting.
With four adults living there and SS checks coming to support those kids, I don't have much sympathy for BM.
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Comments
Report it. This is a health
Report it. This is a health issue, in many ways. No children should have to live like that. There is no reason that bill should not be paid, with the checks and other adults (do they work?). I think child services needs to come investigate to see what is going on in that home.
I'd report it, and if you
I'd report it, and if you have any documentation, send that to the authorities and CPS as well. Also, has DH's family ever looked into asking the court for grandparent visitation?
So where did they go to the
So where did they go to the bathroom? In this case, human waste is inside the house. I've known people without running water and electricity that do things the old-fashioned way (boil water on stove, get it from the brook or pump it from the well, use an outhouse, use lamps). That's fine and they're clean.
My concern is, if they find out that I called CPS, they will cut off DH's family.
I'm not trying to have them
I'm not trying to have them taken away, just make BM and her husband deal with it. The other two adults are his son and girlfriend and baby. There are always at least two or three other adults, sometimes not related, living with this family.