I found a lost little boy yesterday....
By jillbeth
@jillbeth (2705)
United States
March 4, 2008 6:21am CST
Or rather, my granddaughter did. Yesterday evening she walked from her dad's house to mine, and a little fella came up to her outside our house, wanting her to help him find his brother. He couldn't have been more than three years old. It was cold and rainy, and he only had on a lightweight jacket. He didn't want to go home; he wanted to find his brother. I didn't recognize him from our block, so we carried him down the street and knocked on a neighbor's door and asked if they knew him. They said no, we checked at a few more houses and someone told me they thought he lived around the corner. So we go around the corner, no luck there.
Around the next corner a lady was outside with her dogs. She knew where he lived and wondered who was supposed to be watching him. Apparently he and his brother (who is only six) run around that neighborhood quite a bit. She went over to his house and nobody was there. She called his mom on her cell phone but only got a voice message. So she went to the house next door and asked the neighbor if he knew where mom was. He said she had run to cash her check and had told him her boys were in the house alone but she'd be right back. This neighbor lived in an apartment with an entry door, and in the basement apartment, and there is no way he could see their house from his without going outside. We waited for a quite a while for mom to come back then the neighbor said he would keep the boy in his apartment until she returned. So I let it go at that, and went home. I had to wonder where the six-year-old had wandered off to. But apparently these neighbors know each other pretty well, and this type of thing has happened before.
So I am wrestling with my conscience about whether to inform the welfare department of this situation or not. I know from experience that getting social services involved can cause bigger problems than it solves, and that kids aren't always better off in foster homes. And the neighbors do seem to be aware of the problem and kind of watch out for the kids. Our town is small and has little crime, and we've never had a child snatched around here, but those little guys could get hurt even being left alone in their own home or crossing the street (he had to cross at least two streets to get to my house).
So what would you do in this situation?
6 people like this
13 responses
@twoey68 (13627)
• United States
4 Mar 08
This is probably going to be the unpopular opinion but I'd turn it in. There are so many kids getting hurt, snatched, killed and missing and here is a mother who just goes off and leaves her kids to cash a check. The 6 year old brother is not old enough to babysit (here in Missouri you have to be 12) and if the 3 year old is out wandering the streets that's a problem. If the neighbor's now the situation and know she has children, why didn't she ask one of them to keep an eye on the two boys? Or take them with her?
The fact that one child was so far from home alone and the other was no where to be found tells me that the mother is more worried about what she wants to do then making sure her kids are safe.
**AT PEACE WITHIN**
~~STAND STRONG IN YOUR BELIEFS~~
2 people like this
@jillmalitz (5131)
• United States
4 Mar 08
Wow that is very unsettling. I can understand your feelings. I hope that the family and their neighbors do take better care of those kids. It is really not a good idea to leave kids alone like that. We may trust our neighbors but you never know. I would have been more at ease if the mother had left the kids with the neighbor rather than alone. Kids can get into so much trouble even with an adult in the house. I would hate to think of what might happen if they are by themselves.
2 people like this
@jillbeth (2705)
• United States
4 Mar 08
Yeah, I don't know why she just didn't leave them next door. The neighbor guy said the kids (his own and these boys) spent a lot of time running back and forth between houses. What if she had come home and just assumed they were over there without checking on them? I never did know where the other boy was...
@p3halliwel2005 (3156)
• Philippines
5 Mar 08
Well, if I were in your place I would go back to that little boys house just to check on him and to let the mother know what happened. Not to appear nosy tell her you just got worried about the little boy since you have kids of your own as well...Just in case the neighbor didn't tell her the boy wondered off...We can never trust everyone this days not even our neighbors.
@aretha (2538)
• United States
4 Mar 08
oh boy we had something like this happen when we lived in oklahoma. we had a little boy who was 5 that lived 2 houses down and he was a sweet kid but his mom was always gone and would leave him with his 11 year old sister witch was very mean to him. one night we sat outside and he had come over to play as always and his mom had backed down the street and was kind of yelling then she drove off. he just sat at the edge of the yard when i called my son to come over and see what was wrong he said that she left him there and she locked the door so he had to stay outside until she came home(she was going to ok city a 45 minute drive) or until his sister got home. i was so mad but thought maybe he didn't understand her so i took him to his house and was very surprised to find no one there and all doors locked. so i took him back to my house and got him something to eat and it was dark out and my son had to get ready for bed so i gave her 15 more minutes to get home or i was calling the cops. just then his sister came walking up the street. i told my hubby the next time it happened i was just calling the cops if we had not been home he would of been left sitting out side for a couple hours alone and we didn't live in a very good place. now to look back at it i wish i would of called and got the cops invalved because of a few other things that happened after that.
yeah know it just makes me so made to think any parent in their right mind would do that. and i hear a lot well shes a single mom.SO! i was a single mom for year while my hubby was in iraq and i never left my kids alone for a minute if i needed to run to the back they went. people like this make me so mad!
2 people like this
@jillbeth (2705)
• United States
4 Mar 08
I think any woman who can't be bothered to bundle the kids up to go to the bank is probably not much of a mother. She may think she can count on the neighbors to help watch her kids, but apparently not! I hope she has learned her lesson, but I doubt it.
1 person likes this
@enchantedleppard (1541)
• United States
4 Mar 08
My first instinct would be to call social services. I dont think children that age should be left alone, even for only a few minutes. If this sort of thing happens all the time, the neighbor still isnt responsible for them, they aren't his kids. If it were me and something happened to the kids I wouldnt be able to live with my conscience. But thats just my first instinct. I would really have to be involved in the situation to make the right decision about it.. and I hope thats a situation I never come across.
@ebberts (784)
• United States
4 Mar 08
Mother's that have children and don't take care of them, shouldn't have them. God has given a gift and it should be cherrished. You should call family services, not only for their safty now, but for their future. What chance do they have in life with no one to care for them while they are little. I don't think I would confront the mother, she will just be on the defensive and it may come back to bite you. If you don't want to call family services, perhaps you may get to know her and offer to watch the children if she has a need for a sitter. But it has been my experience that once you do this you will probally have them most of the time, so be prepared.
1 person likes this
@jillbeth (2705)
• United States
6 Mar 08
I would like to meet the mother before calling in social services, and I realize that I could just stir up worse trouble by doing that. She may not be receptive at all to my interference, or she might be glad somebody cares. Who knows? My heart is telling me to stick my nose in.
@violeta_va (4831)
• Australia
4 Mar 08
Well I waited few minutes after reading this to compose my self and not write anything in rush or this would have been one colourfull post. What is that women thinking for gods sake. I would not do that to an animal let alone my own flesh and blood. I dont care if the town has 10 houses and population of 50 it is nor right to put a child in that situation. I could imagine how scared the little child must have been. There is always a first time I would not want that child to be the first child snatched or killed.
2 people like this
@jillbeth (2705)
• United States
4 Mar 08
Yes, I was waiting for the mother to come home so I could give her a piece of my mind, and I would not have been very kind! Maybe it's just as well the neighbor took the child in. I am seriously considering reporting the house number to the welfare department so they can check out the situation. If I heard of something happening to one of those boys that might have been prevented, I would probably never forgive myself for not speaking up.
1 person likes this
@makingpots (11915)
• United States
4 Mar 08
I think you have to think about how you are going to feel if someday something bad happens and you did not notify anyone about this. I understand your feeling about getting protective services involved, but someone needs to be making adult decisions for them and right now they don't seem to have anyone with their best interest in mind. That is the bottom line at this point. Three years old is very young to be wondering a neighborhood and 6 yrs old is too young to be responsible for watching a little brother.
1 person likes this
@crazed_moma (1054)
• United States
5 Mar 08
Wow that's way to young to be left home alone..... There are bad things that could happen that don't even involve "bad people" or crime. Every year here we hear about kids drowning in the irrigation ditches and it makes me sick because it's totally preventable!
@mrsjbelle (1640)
• United States
5 Mar 08
Come to think she is guilty of neglect. A coworker of mines 3 yr old wandered out the house to the neighbors and the neighbor called the cops and my friend was arrested. It was an honest mistake they realized pretty much right away the girl wasnt in the room but it was to late. The neighbor lady had found her and called the cops. My coworker was exonerated of any charges.
1 person likes this
@mrsjbelle (1640)
• United States
5 Mar 08
I think you should call it in anonamously. I am praying for those boys.
1 person likes this
@Ldyjarhead (10233)
• United States
5 Mar 08
Wow, how scary. Some Mom to leave her kids like that. Why couldn't she just take them with her?
I have to ask, though, and please don't think I'm being critical, I'm just trying to picture what happened here.
You went knocking on doors until you found someone that knew the boy, and left him with someone you didn't know, that claimed to be a neighbor?
I think I would have called the authorities first before leaving a young child with someone that I was not absolutely convinced was the parent, or whoever was responsible for the child at the time.
1 person likes this
@jillbeth (2705)
• United States
6 Mar 08
I thought about that, but the neighbor lady I spoke to first apparently knew the neighbor pretty well and I didn't get any "bad vibes" about doing so. I could hear a lot of kid noise coming from his apartment and the first neighbor I met seemed to think it would be appropriate. I was afraid if I took the boy to my own home, I would get charged with kidnapping or something like that. I probably should have just taken him to the police, but I didn't feel right about that either.
@bluebutterfly1234 (92)
• United States
5 Mar 08
I think you should call. Parents that can just leave there young children at home and not really have anyone watching them that is crazy. I think that is alot of what is wrong with the world today parents just don't care like they used to. But that goes into a whole new can of beans.
