I couldn’t take it anymore, and had to come to my bedroom/office and get away from them…. My 6yr old has two friends here in the trailer park. Both little blonde girls. I think one is older and one is younger than my daughter. This is the 3rd day almost in a row that she or they have asked if they can eat something here or stay for dinner because they have no food at their house. One of the girls even said, “My grandpa knows how to make noodles, but we don’t even have any noodles.” So that day I gave them both a ham sandwich. The next day 6 told DH the girls had no food and could she take them something from our fridge. And now 6 and the girls were standing in my kitchen and all had the puppydog/orphan faces and asked if they could stay for dinner “because they have no food at their house.” I had to tell them I was sorry but no, we barely had enough for the 6 of us, and I couldn’t feed 8 people, (because if I start feeding them now, then I get the feeling I will be buying groceries for 8 people forever.)
I don’t know what to do. I’ve asked my other girls about their family, and the little girls have an older brother (who used to date 16 actually), their grandpa who they say isn’t all there in the head, and their mom who seems to never be home. My kids even said the mom was gone the other night because she’d gone to some concert. So, it sounds like she’s the stereotypical real white trash loser neglectful single whorish mother who notoriously inhabit trailer parks of the American South. So, do I start feeding her kids? Do I decide they’re lying and manipulative (probably taking after their mother)? Do I just keep turning away these little hungry faces? Do I tell child services? Don’t even tell me to confront the mother. I am NOT the confrontational type. I do however know I don’t want them to run me off to my room anymore. That bugs me. Did I mentioned I don’t get along with other people well and I don’t like other’s peoples’ kids as a rule?
UPDATE: Yeah.. I gave in and let them stay for dinner. We had spaghetti. There’s tons of it. They sound very excited. Maybe they are really hungry. I get the feeling I need to make a note of when those kids say these things and when I feed them.
2 Comments
April 6, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Hello. I’m still enjoying reading your blog. I hope things work out for you regarding the old home. I used to be a social worker (here in California) assigned to the Children’s Protective Services. I think your idea to keep notes on what the children say and when you feed them is a good idea. The family may need some sort of social assistance, but you can’t be expected to feed their children on a regular basis. You have enough worries of your own. Have any of your children been in the hungry children’s home recently? Maybe they can tell you whether or not they have seen food in the home. Good luck…Clarissa
April 7, 2009 at 4:35 am
Hey Clarissa, thanks for the comment! Actually, the girls were over the day before yesterday and brought a big bag of juice boxes, pre-packaged sealed bowls of dry cereal, and some other snacks I didn’t get a look at. There were juice boxes from them in my fridge the next day. I commented to DH that the kids must not be starving if they don’t care to let the dry cereal spill all over my front porch. argh. They never did ask to eat here or give the sob story again. We’ve had lean times too, that week before a paycheck or at least the last couple days can be rough when you live check to check. Maybe that’s all that was going on. Hope they get it together and not let it get that bad again (if it ever really was). Thanks again for the advice!