Aren't our jobs hard enough already?

“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies and statistics”

Benjamin Disraeli

Oh Ben, you clearly didn’t work with the same folks I do!!

Honey, let me tell you there are WAAAY more kinds than that!

And, can I just say, the ones that piss me off the most are the lies told by staff in government agencies who are supposed to be ‘our partners’ in protecting kids!!

We don’t have a choice – we HAVE to work with these people.

I’d like to know at what point the ability to lie with a straight face becomes so routine and habitual that it gets incorporated as part of a person’s character… because I swear that’s the point at which workers are promoted from the front lines to Supervisors at DCFS (Department of Children and Family Services).

I was happy (well, willing to oblige, if not exactly gleeful) the request last week to admit a 3yr old female who had obviously been wailed on and beaten for some time.

There wasn’t an extremity or body surface that didn’t have some mark, bruise or healing scar to attest to the cruelty she’d experienced at the hands of mom and her partner - and for those of you who suspect I’m always ‘picking’ on male partners, let me clarify that this partner was female.

(Dear Moms,

The people you pick to sleep with, regardless of gender, who have NO biological, financial or emotional attachment to your children are NOT going to be ‘bonded’ with them in the same way that, hopefully, you are – and bad things can, and DO, happen.

End of discussion)

This kid had the misfortune to live in an area across the river from us into which not even State Troopers go alone after midnight.

So I initially had some sympathy for the investigating worker who promised she’d go out to the home in the morning and then approach her Supervisor about taking protective custody if no suitable family member could be found for placement.

(You may be amazed to know how many kids are raised in such multigenerational dysfunctional families that no one for three generations can pass a background check and serve as a placement for kids; then again, if you've been reading this blog for any length of time, maybe you wouldn't be surprised at all!)

My sympathy also extended to later that day when I was told the court docket was full and they couldn’t get her case before a judge until Monday.

See, here’s the problem…

while on any given day we’re a regular laugh riot of a fun place to work and hang out, we’re not a frickkin’ resort.

There was NO medical reason for this child to be admitted in the first place and, if there’s NO medical care being provided, we don’t get paid!

Is money more important than protecting a child’s life?…of course not.

But you know when shit starts to roll about this unreimbursed admission, it will land on my doorstep!

Needless to say, my sympathy was evaporating more quickly than spit on a hot griddle!

In a nut shell, phone calls were exchanged on Monday, with all kinds of time frames and excuses from the DCFS Supervisor about how “things weren’t moving along as quickly as they’d hoped”.

When she insisted on additional days, it lead to a quick phone call (placed by me) to Court which confirmed my suspicion that DCFS never contacted them about this kid (not this week nor last) so, of course, her case wasn’t anywhere on the docket!

I admit it, I was a bitch when I called them back at 4:45pm and told them I had spoken to court.

I also told them the day spa was closing, the kid would be on the corner waiting for pickup within the hour and if they couldn’t find a way to take her into custody by then, she’d be turned over to an investigative reporter from the local paper who was more than willing to do his own investigation.

In rush hour traffic, it’s a 45” drive from their offices.

They were at the hospital within a half hour.

All of which begs the question: WHY should it be this hard?!