Reporting my brother to child protective services?

HeIsRight wrote:

I should qualify what I said. OP if he is ditching your nephew while your parents are not home that is a huge problem.

Yeah, this is really my complaint. Sorry if that wasn't clear. If he's watching his kid, he'll take it as an excuse to wander off any time anyone else shows up. This sometimes happens when my parents are home, but also sometimes happens when it's just me.

The example that really made me mad enough to start this thread was one day last week. I had a volunteer activity planned in the evening, so I was in a hurry to get home from school and get in my run because I didn't have a lot of time. When I walked in the door after school, my brother was in the living room with his kid. In the two minutes it took me to change, my brother wandered off so his kid was in the living room by himself when I was ready to head out the door. Obviously, I wasn't about to leave the kid there unattended, so I just hung out there. By the time my brother wandered back in, I had to bail on my run because I didn't have enough time to get it in.

Yeah, calling child protective services is probably more just me venting than an actual idea that I'd follow through on. Just makes me mad both for selfish reasons and because I know my nephew isn't really getting good parenting.

Ward Cleaver wrote:

If his parents tell him that he needs to look after his nephew then he does have to look after his nephew. It's their house and it's certainly not uncommon for older family members to look after younger ones. If he really doesn't want to do that he needs to work it out with his parents.

Not sure where you're getting this idea, but to be clear, my parents aren't telling me to do anything. That's the whole problem. If someone actually asked me in advance to take care of the kid, I could plan around it and it wouldn't be a problem. The whole problem is that the parents just wander off randomly and leave me alone with their kid without any kind of notice.

UPDATE: I decided to solve this once and for all. I left a tide pod on the ground and the kid ate it. No more babysitting for me!

brother of a loser wrote:

UPDATE: I decided to solve this once and for all. I left a tide pod on the ground and the kid ate it. No more babysitting for me!

Really clever.

No, don't do it!

Doing this could potentially set in motion a lifetime of animosity between you and a lot of people, including the little kid. Your brother and his GF are AHs and the situation definitely needs to be dealt with, but the situation as you describe it does not nearly rise to the level of reporting them to CPS. This is a family issue and needs to be handled within the family, getting the gov't and/or law involved in this matter is not necessary.

Ward Cleaver wrote:

If his parents tell him that he needs to look after his nephew then he does have to look after his nephew. It's their house and it's certainly not uncommon for older family members to look after younger ones. If he really doesn't want to do that he needs to work it out with his parents.

WRONG! That would be child abuse, and neglect on the part of both sets of parents.

Rash-putin wrote:

It's not the same as leaving kids at the mall, obviously. Your home is not a public place. You and your wife, to whom the child is related, are there. But if you're really lucky CPS may grant you custody of the kids as an homage to your zealous whistleblowing antics. I hope you're ready to be a real man.

This

here you go wrote:

Yes, of course you call, but you need to set it up first. You will start by getting a baby monitor if they don't already own one. Then the next time they leave the kid with you without asking you leave the house but stay in range with the monitor so you can make sure nothing bad happens and you call the F-ing police and say you hear a child crying, but it looks like nobody is home. Then you wait for the cops to show up. If they break in, great, you win. If they don't you ditch the monitor and walk towards the house as you see them walking away and ask them what the problem is. They will tell you that they are doing a welfare check and you say, "Oh no, did my brother leave his baby home alone again?"

Brilliant, my friend, brilliant!