Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

(long) Horrible dilemma (or, why I drink, reason 343453.)

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • (long) Horrible dilemma (or, why I drink, reason 343453.)

    This is freaking disturbing. As in "pathos involving children" disturbing. Personally, I would not like reading this story. However, since I heard it over the phone, while my sister was trying to work through her outrage, I am kind of stuck with it in my head. So if you are like me, and need a stiff drink when you hear about shit like this, stop reading here.

    Okay. The rest of you. So my sister is taking her boy to this birthday party at 4:30. She got the invitation on Thursday, which is a bit late for such a thing, but whatever. She's managed to get out to it.

    She knocks on the door and this teenager opens the door and just looks at her. She introduces herself and says she's here for Johnny's birthday party and does she have the right house? Kid says "Yeah." and then just turns away and goes back into the house, leaving the door wide open.

    Thinking this is a bit unsettling, she goes in. I must interject here that as a parent, you will put up with far and away more horseshit on your kid's behalf than you ever would normally. So while she would never tolerate this if it was just her going somewhere, taking her five year old to a party merits more tolerance for rudeness than if it was just her alone.

    Nothing going on. Only people in the house are the surly teenager, and two men she's never met, one of whom says "oh, sorry, yeah, we're running a little late." No introduction, no nothing. She still has no idea if he was Johnny's father or whatever.

    Johnny runs up to my nephew, very happy to see him, and takes him back into the bedroom so they can play. Now, my sister knows nothing about these people, so she goes back there with them and sees no evidence whatsoever that the child actually lives there. No toys, no kid's room nothing. Mattresses on the floor, clothes stacked up on dresser, floor not particularly visible among crap stacked there. Not terribly dirty, but certainly not what you'd let a guest see. Unkempt man cave, basically.

    Twenty minutes go by. Nobody says shit to my sister. She starts freaking out a bit, to be honest. The whole situation is just way too creepy and she starts to panic. Nobody visible in entire house. She's wandering around this house of these total strangers for almost half an hour, and nobody has said two words to her.

    So she takes her kid and leaves. And it's awful. Because here is this poor little boy getting abandoned by what was evidently the only people who showed up. House was so empty there was nobody to even tell she was leaving, other than the little kid.

    By the time she gets home, she's totally freaking crying, and my nephew is totally freaking crying, and her husband is utterly flabbergasted. I mean, they set out to go to a kid's birthday party, for fuck's sake.

    So, I dunno. Would I have done it differently? Maybe. I don't know. That sounds like a pretty creepy, messed up situation. Maybe I would have left. Maybe I would have sat in the car and waited till someone showed up. Maybe I would have left and tried to come back later. Like I said, you put up with shit on kid's behalf. But I don't know. I wasn't there.

    Anyways, she couldn't even sleep that night she was so upset. She didn't want to leave and she was too afraid to stay. She says she wasn't exactly thinking clearly, she just wanted to get out of there. On one hand, she's more timid than I am. On the other hand, hell, I'm the first one to tell you to listen to the caveman voice.

    Anyone like to weigh in with their thoughts on this?
    Last edited by RecoveringKinkoid; 11-09-2009, 04:57 AM.

  • #2
    Don't freak. Call child protective services immediately!
    At best it's neglect from a depressed or otherwise non-visibly handicapped parent.
    At worst, well... we don't want to dwell on that.

    Comment


    • #3
      You know, I thought about that. I wondered if maybe the man was maybe mentally deficit in some way.

      This sort of stuff really bothers me. I felt so bad for my sister, and for the little boy, and yes, even the little boys clearly messed up family. I couldn't help it. Maybe they were not entirely mentally there. Maybe they were just plain stupid.

      Stupid is way more common than malice.

      At the very least, I told my sister she should at least discuss it with the boy's teacher at school (he's in my nephew's preschool...you end up going to a lot of parties to people's houses you only know in passing, if at all.)

      Maybe the boy lived with his mom and didn't live there at all. Who knows? At least, I hope that was the case, but sheesh, wouldn't you at least have some toys in the place, if you have a son that visits?

      It's just sad. I'm sad.

      Comment


      • #4
        My heart breaks for Johnny.

        Your sister did the right thing, but I wish this little boy could have had a nice birthday. It sounds like he needed a party more than most kids.

        Comment


        • #5
          Thanks, Boozy, I thought the same thing, If any kid needed a decent day, it was this poor little guy.

          My sister was so torn up over it, she was pretty much calling everyone to talk about it. Not because she was trying to gossip, but because she was so upset at how she handled it and wanted to be reassured that her reaction was not unreasonable.

          Heck, even my husband agreed that the situation would have made him very, very wary.

          Comment


          • #6
            The story gave me chills just reading it. I can't imagine it having happened first hand.

            Do you know your sister has reported it to the school like you advised?


            I feel sorry for all parties: the kid, your nephew and your sister too. And I'm really worried for that boy.

            Comment


            • #7
              Yeah, I talked to her today. She did speak to the teacher this morning. Evidenly, the boy has a step dad, and that may be the man she "met", although we have no clue since the guy never introduced himself. Apparently, the boy does also have a mom, one who evidently couldn't be bothered to show up to her five year old son's party on time.

              And according to the teacher, he's out of school a lot.

              Comment


              • #8
                What a sad story. I think your sister probably did the right thing in the end. I agree with listening to those cave-man instincts. My intuition has been dead-on on a number of occasions. The only thing I may have done differently would be to assert myself a bit more to the supposed step-dad. If I had been your sister, I would have introduced myself, and if he didn't say anything, I would have asked who he was. At least so I knew who I was leaving my kid with.

                Comment


                • #9
                  It sounds to me like your sister did the best she could, RK. I got goosebumps just reading about that!

                  I don't have any kids, but I do have a brother, and if I had been asked to drop him off in a situation like that, I absolutely would have left and taken him with me.

                  The situation is definitely worrying, and I think she did the right thing by speaking to the boy's teacher.
                  "Children are our future" -LaceNeilSinger
                  "And that future is fucked...with a capital F" -AmethystHunter

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Well, it's not that she was gonna leave him there. That was never the option, it was just that she wasn't even comfortable staying their, either. She did introduce herself to the guy, he just never really said anything back to her other than "Yeah, we're running late." No introduction back.

                    It was just bizarre.

                    She just emailed me that the kid wasn't in school yesterday.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      I would be incredily disturbed.
                      Jack Faire
                      Friend
                      Father
                      Smartass

                      Comment

                      Working...
                      X