A question about neglect! Define neglect....?

Question

Reason I'm asking this is because in your neighbourhood now, can you see children that you would say are neglected...

What would you do if u saw this? What would the social workers do?

In my area at the moment, I personally haven't seen her, but she's about 6 and knocking on doors for food, if the door is open she is going into people's houses and taking food or searching through bags that have shopping in them or she will ask for money..

Answer 1

I had neighbors kid who would come knock on my door for lunch when she was little?how do you say no to hungry kid.

Her mother openly admitted she wasn't a good mom.But i keep my house fully stocked w food i have to i have tons of kids.

did she do it cause her mom just didn't have what she wanted or she didn't feed her?who am i to judge?

social workers are overloaded and dont have enough places to put kids now...they will go in and look to see what mother has in the house..maybe there is NOTHING.

she needs to be taken.I would go by the moms house and say hey i was just checking cause the child knocked on my door for lunch...(but then she might get mad at kid and take her anger out)

I would be real nice and kind of go look and judge it has to be VERY VERY VERY bad for them to take the kids away..dealt with this before.I am in fla not sure where you live.

Answer 2

That's awful. I would call social services.

Also neglect is "forgetting" to feed your child, or change their nappy. Meaning being too busy on facebook to bother.

Answer 3

Not knowing your neighbourhood  one can't be precise, but any 6 year old behaving like that rings alarm bells. If she's knocking on doors I'm surprised someone hasn't attempted to befriend her and try to get some answers. I've never found it hard to make some form of contact with local children who are ready to approach me, and I've been a single bloke for a long time. Why aren't some of the locals being pro-active here? It sounds like plenty of gossip and no action from someone.

Answer 4

could this child have mental health problems? if so, it is neglect by the parents to let her out and about on her own.  she shouldn't be going into other peoples homes, especially those she doesn't know.  so yes, whether the child in question is being underfed at home or whether she has any kind of learning disabilities she clearly isn't getting the care she should have.  for her own safety, she should be taught not to go into someone's house without her parents permission.  certainly, if she came to my door, i would call the relevent authorities.

Answer 5

neglect could be in the form of lack of money time  attention or affection it happens in poor and rich families

well dressed clean well fed kids can be being  physically or sexually abused

if you ever see this child speak to her or her parents and find out what is going on  

Answer 6

Call the police, any social worker of any integrity would remove that child from its home.

Answer 7

Totally agree with Scotch Mist. Neglect is failing to care for a dependant person.

That poor little girl i would call SS and report it

Answer 8

Have you reported this situation to anyone? And you say that you personally haven't seen her, so are you sure this is really happening?

If you are really concerned, ring up social services.

Answer 9

you must inform the authorities at once about this

Answer 10

I didn't know that sort of thing is still happening in Europe but I see all the time very young children, unsupervised by their parents, riding their bicycles around the block or just playing football on the streets that I just feel like going to the parents and ask them if they have ever heard of the McCann case, and if so do they care !!

That is neglecting one's own parental responsibility... duty of care...

"Neglect" ?  I think it is wilfully failing in one's duty of care for something or someone.

Answer 11

Madeleine McCann!

Answer 12

Do something now mrs s..you won't be signing the child away from it's family you will just put the child and family on social services radar.

My daughter had a friend who was one of 7 ( all under 7 ! ) neither parent worked and the house....well you could smell it from the bottom of the road.

Anyway this poor little mite came to play one time and said to me ' can I see what your fridge looks like?'

I gave her a load of stuff for her brothers and sisters under the pretence it wasn't fair for her to take home goodies without being able to share. But she had still stolen little things like biscuits in her pockets and stuff.

It sounds like events from another era rather than modern day doesn't it?

Answer 13

neglect is failing to care for someone be it a

child or someone you're responsible for.

their are no kids roaming around here tonight,

if what you're saying is correct then that's not

right, 6 year old shouldn't be knocking on other

peoples door begging.

Answer 14

She is six and knocks on doors asking for food?

That's sad.

I'd get ahold of someone the police ect anyone that could help her out.

Answer 15

The neighbourhood I work in is very poor. The scenario you talk about actually happened a few years ago. One of the parents came into school to ask what she should do, she had seen one of the pupils begging at doors for food. The girl was 10 and had a brother of 8 and had a baby sister. School contacted Social Services, they visited the family. They found the single mother was an alcoholic, incapable of looking after her children, the eldest daughter was trying to see to everything.The children were removed and help was found for the mother. All the children returned after mum managed to get back on track.

It is very difficult to get a child removed from its parents. It is quite rightly a very last resort, social services will move heaven and earth to keep families together by providing all sorts of help. I work with some families that have had social service involvement for years and there are cases were I wish they would remove the children as they are condemned to following in the feckless parents footsteps.

Answer 16

When my kids were in primary school I used to be a dinner lady.  There was one family of children who would always, always ask if they could have whatever any other child left at the dinner table.

They would hold onto the extra plate with one hand while they ate from their own plate.  They were all very thin and undernourished.

in the playground their clothing was really inadequate on a cold day. And, you could see the lice crawling in their hair. I even saw hand marks in them, where they had been slapped.  I often brought matters to the attention of the headmaster, but was always told that social services were aware and the school could do nothing.

The  strangest and most touching thing about these children was how much they spoke about their parents and how much they loved them???

They would even tell me very proudly things like, 'last night we had oxo and crisps for our tea.'  As if that was a real treat for them.

That was neglect in it's worst form,  I still wonder what happened to those children as they grew up.

EDIT.

Mrs S  Your story reminds me of the report earlier this year when kids were picking up bread on the street and before anything was done one of them died from starvation.

This needs to be reported.

Answer 17

Aww poor little mite-she seems as if she's neglected and dragging herself up! Trace her family!

Answer 18

Interesting question Neglect can come in many forms and degrees  Depriving a child of food and water and shelter. Leaving a child alone for long periods of time. Sexual neglect. Physical neglect although the last 2 normally are termed as abuse. You can have mental neglect where the parent continues to scold them or never communicates with them at all. I would guess that the little 6 year old is not being fed and this must be reported to social services ASAP.Never feel bad by reporting Its far better to be wrong than let the neglect to continue. That child needs help NOW. She could be in grave danger by knocking on doors where a paedophile may live.