neglect of 7 yr old

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last night (halloween), i was working our fall festival at our church. i was getting kids into harnesses to do the rock climbing wall. little boy (maybe age 7 - my girl is 6 and he was not much older) came over twice during the night. talked to him about his costume, was he having fun, etc. he came over a 3rd time to get harnessed at about 8:30pm, but we had to shut down b/c of lightening. he asked to borrow my cell phone - said sorry but i did not bring it and asked him "what do you need".

he replied - "i need to call my dad".

i told him to go to the lady doing announcements and have her page him.

he said "no, he is not here - he is writing a contract".

omg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! what is up with that? what idiot drops his 7 yr old little boy off at a carnival (ok, so it was a church carnival) and has no adult watch him (more like watch out for him).

i am really, really, really, really upset about this as i think about it more. i have never seen the child before - don't know his name - sure don't know his jerk father's name (or else would be making cps report). i did not think to follow the little boy at the time. i feel stupid for not doing something, but i was totally shock. i have never been around this kind of neglect (start nursing school in spring 05). tell me what you would have done so that i at least do something if this ever happens again. this is just really eating at me.

thanks for letting me vent.

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Specializes in Telemetry, Case Management.

I don't know if you live in a small town or large, but I live in a small town and it is not uncommon for even people who don't go to a church to let off their children to go to church events and come back and get them. Can't say that in this day and age that it's particularly smart, but happens quite frequently around here, parents don't want to go to church, but want the kids to be church influenced (or maybe they see the church as a free babysitter???).

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Could be a teenager or someone he knew. If he was alone, not a smart thing to drop him off, but like the previous poster said, people do that in small towns. To draw a conclusion of neglect or abuse is absurd.If you really cared that much, you could just wait with the child until hid dad picked him up; and then tell the dad it was not a good idea. Act of kindness goes a long way, but one wrong accusation can totally mess up someone's life.

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Could be a teenager or someone he knew. If he was alone, not a smart thing to drop him off, but like the previous poster said, people do that in small towns. To draw a conclusion of neglect or abuse is absurd.If you really cared that much, you could just wait with the child until hid dad picked him up; and then tell the dad it was not a good idea. Act of kindness goes a long way, but one wrong accusation can totally mess up someone's life.
:angryfire #1 - it is not a small town. Population if about 4000 and it is in the heart of Fort Worth. There were about 300 people at the carnival.

:angryfire #2 - if you SUSPECT child abuse, then isn't it your responsibility to report it? It is up to the authorities to decide if it actually was/is neglect. ONE ACT OF NEGLECT CAN REALLY MESS UP A CHILD'S LIFE! The father is not my concern - he should know better than to abandon his kid like that. The child's safety is my concern.

:angryfire #3 - the issue IS being discussed with the dad - one of the family ministers knew the family and he will talk to the dad about the inappropriate decision. Luckily, there was no harm this time. I would have discussed it with the dad if he had been there - but then, he WAS NOT THERE.

:angryfire #4 - for the SAFETY and PROTECTION of my daughter, I would hope that someone INVESTIGATE this type of situation if they thought she was in danger.If the parent did nothing wrong, then he would be absolved from any charges. If it brought bad consequences upon the parent, then the parent deserved them - who leaves their 7 year old CHILD without SUPERVISION at night at a public place?

:angryfire #5 - if the child had been cared for by a teenager - do you really think he would be asking strangers to use their cell phone so "he could call his dad to come pick him up".

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I live in a small town in central KY.... that being said...a 7 year girl was playing in her own yard one afternoon after school. She was kidnapped raped and then murdered. Her body was found in an abandoned van about 50 miles away months later. A small town DOES NOT equal safety. At a Walmart near us an 8 year old boy was raped in the men's restroom while his mom was waiting outside because he didn't want to go in the women's restroom. At a Sunday night church service a mom of a 3 year old girl heard her duaghter crying for help and found a 13 yearold boy raping her daughter in the bathroom OF THE CHURCH. I can go on and on with instances like this.... my sister is a social worker. There is NO saftey in living in a small town. If you suspect abuse you report it. I would rather be a bit over protective or even paranoid than have to live with the WORST things that could happen to my child.

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Specializes in ED.
#5 - if the child had been cared for by a teenager - do you really think he would be asking strangers to use their cell phone so "he could call his dad to come pick him up".

It could have been that he went with someone else and needed to go home earlier than the other party wanted to. I'm not coming down on anyone here or anything but personally I would have tryed to gain more information before claiming neglect.

Now that being said, neglect could be what happened here. But I would have wanted more info.

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