Mom and Dad are hanging in there too after an emotional beating from their neighbor about their parenting. We were approached by our neighbor who was concerned...well that is questionable...about Tyler's well being. She approached us by saying that she was worried about him and his crying and that 15 minutes or more of crying is child abuse and as a social worker she may report us to DCFS, but did not want to. She said if she didn't and someone else did then she could lose her liscense. Needless to say we were pretty insulted, frustrated, confused, etc. We feel that we meet Tyler's needs very well and are sometimes over protective, rather than under. We are not abusive or anywhere close to. It happened because the night before was when his teeth were breaking through and he cried on and off for half the night. We rocked him, gave him teethers, bottles, Ibprofen and took him for walks, but he was just plain upset. We have shared this story numerous times with friends and people laugh when we tell them and say that she is ridiculous. It was even the start of a great sermon illustration that Dave used the next day at church. If you want to listen to it you can go to our church website, the link is connected here...www.onevoicechurch.com. Well, that drama is subsiding and we are starting to feel at home again, besides the fact we are avoiding our neighbor temporarily, until we figure out how to reconcile this awkward situation.
Some fun things happened this week too...I do not mean to be such a downer. Tyler started playing with a little T-ball set that we got him. He likes to put the ball on and hit it. He also got to ride his first horse this week. One of his friends, Chase, that we met at swimming invited us to his house to play. His dad is a professional polo player and they own horses. He was not a big fan of riding the horse. I got my first riding lesson, which was really fun, but scary. The horse got a little spooked and took a few jumps to the side, but the guy that was teaching said I handled it perfectly. I even got up to a trot by myself in a circle ring. He said I was a natural. After the lesson, Tyler got to play with all sorts of fun toys at their house. They had bikes to ride, paints to paint with and a couple of doggies. He loved it and it made me miss having a yard.
This weekend we spent some time with Daddy, when he wasn't sick. We went swimming a few times, on a bike ride, out to eat at Bucca de Beppo, went to the Kidspace museum and we played with lots of balls. Mommy and Daddy went roller skating for the first time in years for Kristy's 30th birthday. We topped off the weekend with a nice relaxing evening at home:)
Kristy's roller skating birthday party
Painting at Kidspace with Clay
3 comments:
oh my some people have quite the nerve! i have had people, strangers even, question my parenting before as well. it's frustrating. but you have to remember that YOU are the parents, not them. and you are doing your best to raise tyler with the Lord's help...and that is all that matters.
tyler is such a cutie. it's so hard when they get so many teeth at one time.
Tyler is getting SO big!!! I wouldn't worry about that neighbor...I'm sure living in such close proximity to others is hard enough, but for them to lend out unwanted advice or threats is just rediculous. People always give out parenting advice and most of the time I think to myself, "easier said than done."
Glad you guys are doing well!!
As a social worker and a mandated reporter in Missouri your post made me furious to be quite honest. I think your social worker neighbor should check out the laws to what constitutes abuse or neglect in California: http://www.childwelfare.gov/systemwide/laws_policies/statutes/define.cfm No where does it say anything about crying for 15 minutes! So lucky for her she's not at risk of losing her license if she doesn't report you ;) You guys are great parents I'm sure, I hope to be able to see Tyler in person sometime...he's gotten so big from what I have seen on your blog!
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