Hi, I am a grandparent of two grandchildren and a mother of six children. I currently have grandchildren who are in foster care, they are in foster care because social services decided to give them back to there abusive father who does drugs. My daughter got invovled with the kids father when she was seventeen years old and she graduated from high school at eighteen years old the next thing I know she was pregnant. I was so happy to be a grandparent,but was worried about the way things was going. I would go over there to visit with my daughter and one day I asked her if she wanted to go for a walk around the marina and her boyfriend got mad at me for asking her if she wanted to go out and take a walk. I could see the signs of abuse and tried to tell my daughter that she should leave him before things got worse. As time went on she would call me up on the phone crying and telling me that he would hit her in the stomach while she was pregnant and call her all kinds of names sometimes he would get so out of control that he would break things in the house that they lived in,but when I would call the cops over there she would not press charges against him for the abuse. Later on I found out that the father of my grandchildren was doing drugs and had got my daughter hooked on meth a very bad drug. It got so bad that he would not pay the rent where they lived and they got kicked out of the place they lived at and ended up living in a motel with two kids. My daughter got tired of the abuse and decided to leave him,so I helped her get into an apartment I paid the rent and deposit on the apartment and bought the food and diapers for her and the grandchildren. Little did I know she decided to move a man in the apartment while I was buying food and paying the bills. She didn't go out and look for a job and I felt like I was being taken advantage of and so I decided to stop paying the rent there. It had gotten so bad that the kids was not being taken care of and she asked me if I could take the kids for awhile until she got things straightened out, so I decided to take care of the grandchildren and I just had neck surgery on my neck and wasn't suppose to do any lifting at all so I called to see if social services would take care of the grandchildren until I got healed up. The social worker came over and picked the kids up and gave them back to there abusive father that does drugs and I couldn't understand why they did that because social services is supposed to be there to protect the kids,but they didn't. The next thing that I know the grandkids are back in foster care because the father was doing drugs around them and didn't take care of them and they was being underfed along with having major ear infections and colds. I was going to try and get my grandkids out of the system but social services said that I would have to become a foster parent and have to be finger printed. I only get to visit with my grandkids about once a month right now and if I do visit with them I have to be with my daughter when I go to the visits, so If me and my daughter are not getting along I don't get any visits with my grandkids. I believe this law should be changed social services treats us grandparents like we are criminals and they have the right to place children in harms way such as placing them in unlicensed foster care homes or back with the parents that abused them to begin with. What kind of system is that, I thought they was suppose to protect the children, that is what they are paid for arn't they. Could you please help me change this system the last time I had a petitition on this site I had 35 signatures,but we need more signatures to change the way this system works with children so that they are not placed back into the abusive homes and unlicensed foster care homes. Thanks,Dina
Hi, I am a grandparent of two grandchildren and a mother of six children. I currently have grandchildren who are in foster care, they are in foster care because social services decided to give them back to there abusive father who does drugs. My daughter got invovled with the kids father when she was seventeen years old and she graduated from high school at eighteen years old the next thing I know she was pregnant. I was so happy to be a grandparent,but was worried about the way things was going. I would go over there to visit with my daughter and one day I asked her if she wanted to go for a walk around the marina and her boyfriend got mad at me for asking her if she wanted to go out and take a walk. I could see the signs of abuse and tried to tell my daughter that she should leave him before things got worse. As time went on she would call me up on the phone crying and telling me that he would hit her in the stomach while she was pregnant and call her all kinds of names sometimes he would get so out of control that he would break things in the house that they lived in,but when I would call the cops over there she would not press charges against him for the abuse. Later on I found out that the father of my grandchildren was doing drugs and had got my daughter hooked on meth a very bad drug. It got so bad that he would not pay the rent where they lived and they got kicked out of the place they lived at and ended up living in a motel with two kids. My daughter got tired of the abuse and decided to leave him,so I helped her get into an apartment I paid the rent and deposit on the apartment and bought the food and diapers for her and the grandchildren. Little did I know she decided to move a man in the apartment while I was buying food and paying the bills. She didn't go out and look for a job and I felt like I was being taken advantage of and so I decided to stop paying the rent there. It had gotten so bad that the kids was not being taken care of and she asked me if I could take the kids for awhile until she got things straightened out, so I decided to take care of the grandchildren and I just had neck surgery on my neck and wasn't suppose to do any lifting at all so I called to see if social services would take care of the grandchildren until I got healed up. The social worker came over and picked the kids up and gave them back to there abusive father that does drugs and I couldn't understand why they did that because social services is supposed to be there to protect the kids,but they didn't. The next thing that I know the grandkids are back in foster care because the father was doing drugs around them and didn't take care of them and they was being underfed along with having major ear infections and colds. I was going to try and get my grandkids out of the system but social services said that I would have to become a foster parent and have to be finger printed. I only get to visit with my grandkids about once a month right now and if I do visit with them I have to be with my daughter when I go to the visits, so If me and my daughter are not getting along I don't get any visits with my grandkids. I believe this law should be changed social services treats us grandparents like we are criminals and they have the right to place children in harms way such as placing them in unlicensed foster care homes or back with the parents that abused them to begin with. What kind of system is that, I thought they was suppose to protect the children, that is what they are paid for arn't they. Could you please help me change this system the last time I had a petitition on this site I had 35 signatures,but we need more signatures to change the way this system works with children so that they are not placed back into the abusive homes and unlicensed foster care homes. Thanks,Dina
2:57 am PST, Nov 8,Katie Thicke, Canada
I whole heartedly agree with the plight you are going through. May I suggest also that there be a government sponsored group in which the grandparents of these innocent children be enlightened to the resources available to them. It would be a wise action to have the history of convictions of drug use and abuse(any and all)on file with the Family Court by way of documentation stemming from Children and family Services aquainted with the family.
# 14:
8:24 am PST, Nov 6,Susan Hall, Tennessee
Dina, I am a grandparent of two grandchilren in foster care in TN. I am not allowed to see them because I made the call to DCS to protect the children from the parents with drug issues.Our story ended up a happy one, because family adopted them, but I still have my petiion going because of Grandparent Rights in TN. I feel we should have these rights and DCS is a poor, unintellegent group of misfits I have ever dealt with. They are heartless and they say what's best for the chldren. That's a joke! Hope your petition gets a good response, mine has 41 votes and has been on here maybe 2 weeks. Anyway keep it going. Good Luck.
# 13:
3:14 pm PST, Nov 5,Name not displayed, Pennsylvania
# 12:
1:47 pm PST, Nov 5,Richard Ruscoe, Canada
Unfortunately, proper assessment and care of Canadian children or its citizens does not benefit the priviledged few who are, instead, building larger jails for tomorrow`s workforce, our grandchildren. As a telecommunications rigger, and grandfather, I can only hope that our efforts, and this petition will meet with a good result. God bless you and yours Gramma.
