discussion title:
Feeling helpless...what should I do?
Okay, just so you know, I'm writing this in reference to what my sister is going through right now, not me. She and her dh are caught in the middle of something and she is unsure of what to do. Her 8 year old son's friend is going through a terrible time at home. From what my sis has told me, his mother is a drug addict who is in the middle of a divorce with an abusive, drug addicted husband. The kid has been "pawned" off on my sister several times for days at a time and once for a couple of weeks. My sister doesn't mind having him over, she says he is a sweet kid, and she mainly takes him in because she feels sorry for him. When the mom comes over to drop off/pick up her son she has bruises all over her arms. One time my sister called after having this kid for a couple of days to see when she could come get him. In the middle of the phone conversation, the mother and father got into a screaming match at eachother with threats of killing the mother. My sister at that point said "nevermind, I'll just keep him and take him on our weekend camping trip with us." The mother said "could you? Oh that would be great."
Then the other night this kid called over at my sisters house asking to speak to her son. He wasn't there and told him that. She said she could tell he was upset so she called him back and asked if everything was alright. He said no and that he was hungry and they had no food in the house and his parents were fighting. My sister asked if he wanted to come stay the night even though my sis's son wasn't there. He said yes. So the mom brought him over. My sister laid it on the table to this mom and said "look, you are seriously going to lose your kids if you don't get straightened up." The mom agreed. She admitted to my sister that the father is a drug addict and admitted that he abuses her. When asked if he abuses the kids she said he didn't.
My sister and her husband have already talked about taking this kid into their home as a foster child, but they are afraid to call CPS because this kid has expressed a lot of fear about being placed in a home he doesn't know. I told my sister that even if he is placed in a home he doesn't know, most likely it will be a lot better than the one he is in. Yesterday my sister told me that the mom was moving out of town to live with her brother and taking the kids. This is just so frustrating to me because I fear these kids' future. This kid has been at my house and he is really very quiet and reserved. I'm assuming it's his way of protecting himself. I feel like this is my sister's call, but I think she won't call cps. Any advice?
