The Hardest Call: I Called Children Services Hours After My Neighbor Left Her 6 Kids in My Care

The ethical line between neighborly kindness and enabling child neglect is often blurred, but for one woman, the line was violently crossed. A critical dilemma landed on the social platform Reddit, where an original poster (OP) sought validation for a decision that left her family divided and her conscience tormented: she contacted Child Protective Services (CPS) only hours after her neighbor, the mother of six young children, abruptly abandoned them on her doorstep with no warning and no plan.

The core of the issue centers on a sudden, immense burden of care and a mother’s profound display of calculated irresponsibility. The OP explained that the children’s mother had a remarkable, manipulative knack for persuading neighbors to babysit. Even though the OP was the type of person who typically refused to watch other people’s kids, she too admitted to having been deceived into taking them in previously, suggesting a pattern of exploitation and boundary violation by the mother. The shocking details of the abandonment and the subsequent dramatic fallout with her husband highlight the immense weight placed on one individual when a parent abdicates their fundamental responsibility.

The Calculated Act of Abandonment

The abandonment was not accidental; it was a deliberate, forced imposition. The OP described the scene with mounting tension: “Yesterday, she started knocking on my door again. So, I tried pretending I wasn’t home.” The mother, however, was relentless, escalating her efforts until the OP was forced to answer: “She continued to knock even harder; I honestly thought she was going to pull the letterbox right off. That’s when I finally went to answer.”

The mother’s action was swift and strategic, designed to overpower resistance: “She quickly spoke a few rushed sentences that I couldn’t quite grasp and informed me that she would be back on Sunday.” The sheer volume and age range of the children made the demand impossible to accommodate: “She has six children, whose ages range from six months to seven years old.” The group included an infant, all requiring intensive, non-stop care. The OP instantly refused the impossible task, stating clearly, “I told her I couldn’t do it.” The mother’s response was a profound act of disregard: “She just said the black cab was waiting for her. I attempted to grab her hand to physically stop her from leaving, and when I reiterated that I was unavailable, she simply ran off and got into the taxi.”

The OP was left instantaneously holding six children, ranging from a six-month-old infant to a seven-year-old, with no supplies, no plan, and no confirmation of return until an arbitrarily chosen day—Sunday. The OP felt the only humane choice was to bring the abandoned children inside her home, but the sheer chaos and logistical nightmare she now faced were immense, requiring constant attention and resources for which she was completely unprepared.

The Escalation and the Final Ultimatum

Unsure how to proceed and knowing the abandonment was unacceptable, the OP sought a non-confrontational solution. She sent the mother a text message stating that she expected her to return within the next 40 minutes to collect her children, or she would be forced to contact Children’s Services. The mother failed to reply to the initial message, forcing the OP to escalate. The OP tried calling her and delivered the same firm ultimatum.

The mother, however, immediately sought to deflect responsibility and impose the burden onto other vulnerable people. She claimed she was already out of town and couldn’t possibly return in such a short timeframe. She then compounded the neglect by suggesting that if the OP couldn’t manage the six children, she should just drop them off with another neighbor, Jennifer, who was 68 years old and in delicate health. This suggestion—forcing the extreme burden of six young children onto an elderly, infirm neighbor—confirmed the mother’s calculated negligence and complete disregard for the well-being of both the children and the community members she sought to exploit.

The OP, recognizing the manipulation and the danger posed by the mother’s complete absence of a safety plan, delivered a final, unwavering boundary. “I firmly repeated that if she wasn’t here in 10 minutes she could arrange to pick them up at the local council building if they deemed her to be a fit enough mother.” The mother’s response was a furious confirmation of her guilt: “She swore at me repeatedly and declared that I would never actually go through with it.” The mother was not fearful of losing her children; she was simply confident that the OP lacked the courage to call her bluff.

The Call to Authority and the Aftermath

“So, I did call, as in that moment it truly felt like she was deliberately provoking me,” the OP wrote. The call to Child Services was an act of profound self-protection and, more importantly, an act of protection for the six young children who had been abandoned for an indefinite period. After making the call, the OP sent a final text message confirming that the authorities had been notified.

The mother’s reaction was immediate, violent, and highly revealing. “She immediately called me back and screamed that she was halfway to Blackpool and that she would murder me if the call was true.” This confirmed the mother’s location far out of town, the severity of her commitment to her abandonment, and the shocking volatility of her character.

The events that followed underscore the seriousness of the situation. The OP sent her final proof: a video confirming that Child Services personnel came to pick them up. The police were also present since, as they explained, “they frequently accompany staff when collecting abandoned children in case any criminal activity has occurred,” and they asked the OP many detailed questions about the mother’s sudden departure. The presence of law enforcement validated the severity of the abandonment—it was a police matter, not a simple babysitting disagreement.

The Husband’s Fierce Accusation

Now safe, but reeling from the emotional confrontation, the OP faced a profound new challenge: the intense condemnation of her husband. Her husband, who had himself been in foster care during his childhood, was absolutely furious with her actions. His perspective, colored by his own traumatic history in the system, provided a painful, yet biased, counter-narrative.

He vehemently accused her of intentionally separating a mother from her children and insisted she hadn’t given the mother nearly enough time to arrange for the children’s retrieval before she notified the authorities. He argued that she never should have allowed the children inside her house in the first place, but should have put them back in the taxi or dropped them off at Jennifer’s home, as their mother had cruelly instructed.

The weight of his experience was a powerful emotional weapon against the OP: “He told me that anything bad that happens to those children in the care system is entirely my fault and then went on to share stories of his own experiences and what he knew others in care had gone through.”

The Verdict: Necessity Over Sentiment

The OP’s final state was one of profound guilt and confusion: “I haven’t been able to sleep well at all, and my husband left for work this morning without saying a word to me. I’m now wondering if I should contact Child Services again and say I completely overreacted or that there was a misunderstanding, and find a way to make amends to the children and get them removed from the system. I genuinely had no idea foster care could be so terrible.”

Why the OP’s Decision Was Right

The consensus, though difficult, leans heavily toward validating the OP’s decision. The facts of the case meet the criteria for child neglect and abandonment:

Indefinite Abandonment: The mother left six children, including an infant, for an indefinite period (until Sunday) without supplies, contact information, or mutual consent.
Lack of Plan: The mother had no fallback plan and actively refused to return within the required timeframe.
Endangerment: The mother attempted to pawn the children onto an elderly, infirm neighbor (Jennifer, 68), demonstrating a profound willingness to place the burden of care on an unsuitable, ill-equipped person, thereby endangering the children.
Threat and Refusal of Agency: The mother confirmed her distance, threatened the OP’s life, and actively refused to engage with the ultimatum, proving her priority was her trip, not her children’s safety.

The OP had a duty to ensure the children were safe. She was not equipped to care for six children, including an infant, for four days, and was under no legal or moral obligation to assume that immense burden. Her call to Child Services was a necessary act to formalize the situation and place the children under the protection of the only authority mandated to ensure their safety and track down their legal guardian.

Addressing the Husband’s Trauma

The husband’s reaction, while rooted in genuine, painful trauma from his own experience in foster care, is an emotional projection that unfairly burdens his wife. His past does not negate the mother’s abandonment.

The Problem is the Mother, Not the OP: The husband is confusing the OP’s decision to report the crime with the mother’s decision to commit neglect. Anything bad that happens to those children in the system is the fault of the mother who abandoned them, and potentially the system itself, not the neighbor who refused to enable neglect.
The Danger of Enabling: Had the OP allowed the situation to continue, she would have been an enabler of neglect. The mother would have returned on Sunday, confident that she could repeat the behavior, placing the children in perpetual, escalating danger.

The OP cannot “overreact” to a documented case of child abandonment confirmed by police and CPS intervention. Her first responsibility was to the six young, vulnerable lives placed in her care without consent. She saved those children from a dangerous, unstable environment and protected an elderly neighbor from an impossible burden. She should find peace in the fact that she made the hardest, but most morally correct, call.

What steps do you think the OP can take now to help her husband process his understandable feelings about the foster care system while recognizing the necessity of her actions?

The Hardest Call: I Called Children Services Hours After My Neighbor Left Her 6 Kids in My Care

The Calculated Act of Abandonment

The Escalation and the Final Ultimatum