18 years ago I had an experience with CPS -- something I was ashamed to share for many years. I had been a very good mother. I was single and very young and not on welfare. I had a good job which ended (didn't get fired). I got another job which was better and making a lot of money ($2,300 at 23). It was a huge change for me -- a good change -- but one I couldn't handle. I didn't handle change very well. Also, I did my fair share of partying, but always took care of my son. After this huge change my "recreational" use of cocaine got out of control. I had gone from a perfect mother to a neglectful mother. CPS was called. When they came to my house they said that there was obviously a tremendous amount of love between my son and I and no problems, offered their services and went on their way. I didn't take them up on their services and continued doing what I was doing. After 8 complaints my son was removed from my custody -- not one of those complaints was ever for physical or sexual abuse of my son. Prior to being ordered to complete various requirements in order to have my son returned to me, I did all of those on my own accord. One of those requirements was treatment. My son was returned to my custody after a 4 month time period. I was told by a CPS worker that there was more damage done to my son being removed from my custody than what I was doing. Not one of those complaints was ever for physical or sexual abuse -- just neglect (which isn't ok either). One thing I learned about myself, was that I would unconsciously sabotage anything good in my life because deep down inside, I felt I didn't deserve anything good. I never, ever, relapsed and would never go back to that state of mind. I had to change everything about my life and at times it was very lonely but I took it very seriously and succeeded.
It seems to me as if SS didn't take things too seriously for whatever reason. It also may be that, due to her tumultuous life that she has had, maybe she too believes that she didn't deserve anything good that came her way and as a result relapsed, met someone, etc. and tragically, her son died. I guess part of the point I am making is that CPS should have pushed harder and maybe her son's life could have been saved. I also wonder if her supposed relapse a week ago has actually been an ongoing thing and RS doesn't want to admit it. After all, there are all those cub scout parents that could be saying how could you knowingly let our sons be in her care when you knew she wasn't ok. Just a thought as to why he didn't openly admit it in the first place. All too often, love protects too much that all it is doing is enabling.
I just thought I should throw in my few dollars after all the comments on CPS issues. I do believe that CPS, in our state, has a very bad rap. They don't protect the kids. I don't know what happened between 18 years ago and now. If you could see the complaints that were against me, you would understand how trivial they were; although, I am thankful that they saved my life. Sadly, there are way more detrimental complaints that are not being acted upon.
Oh and one other thing -- The reason for my success -- I did it for me. I didn't do it to "get my son back." If that were the case, as it is in too many deferred types of cases, I would not have succeeded. The only way a person is going to battle any type of addiction is to do it only for themselves. Once that occurs, everything falls into place as long as you don't get complacent.
Hope I didn't ramble too much and if I did, I guess I needed to do so.