If you know someone who is not treating their child like a loving parent should, would you get involved and call the authorities, or would you do nothing?
This 20-year-old girl has a job at your normal chain grocery store, and she has one 29-year-old coworker who is completely chaotic.
Her coworker is a single mom to three kids, and while she can be kind, she’s not reliable in the least. Her coworker constantly comes to work late, cries in their break room, and switches her shifts.
She’s done her best to refrain from judging her coworker, as she understands that we all have our own struggles in life, and she’s not exempt from that.
Several weeks ago, she spotted her coworker’s oldest son, who can’t be more than nine, hanging outside of their store a ton. He would literally sit on the bench outside alone for hours on end.
Occasionally, the boy would walk into the grocery store to find her coworker, who was in the back taking a smoke break while complaining about not being able to secure childcare for her kids.
“I told her it wasn’t safe for him to wait outside by himself, especially at night. She said, ‘He’s fine, he knows not to talk to strangers.’ That already made me uncomfortable, but whatever, I stayed out of it,” she explained.
“THEN one night, I’m leaving after closing, and the kid is literally asleep on the bench. Like knocked out, hoodie pulled over his face, shoes untied, whole body slumped.”
“It’s 11:40 pm. It’s cold. He’s alone. I went inside to tell her, and she’s LAUGHING with another coworker like nothing is wrong. I freaked a little, I’m not gonna lie.”
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“I wasn’t trying to get involved, but the kid looked so small and tired, and it was just… sad. Like sickening. So I called the non-emergency number and just said a kid was left unsupervised outside our store, and I didn’t know what to do.”
The number she called, by the way, was CPS. She didn’t tell the person over the phone the name of her coworker or anything like that; she gave very little information.
A week later, CPS dropped by her coworker’s apartment, and it did not go well. When her coworker came into work after that, she was hysterically crying about how someone reported her, and CPS is currently investigating her for neglecting her kids.
CPS temporarily removed her children from her home. Her coworker sobbed about how she’s a wonderful mom, but she’s just stressed out.
Her coworker went on about how she’s trying her best, but life is so expensive, and it’s impossible to find a babysitter for her kids while insisting she did not abandon her son, who was outside asleep on the bench in the cold that one night.
“I just stood there. I couldn’t even look her in the eye. I feel like I ruined her ENTIRE life. But also… the kid really wasn’t safe?? Like, actually not safe,” she said.
“And I keep thinking if something bad did happen to him that night, I’d blame myself forever. I don’t know if I did the right thing. I don’t know if I overreacted. I don’t know if I should feel guilty or relieved. I feel both and neither at the same time.”
“I haven’t told anyone it was me. IDK if I ever will.”
My heart breaks for her coworker’s son. It’s so cruel to do that to a child; leave him outside your place of work all on his own. He could have been kidnapped or gotten sick from exposure to the cold.
She can’t be the only reason her coworker’s kids were taken away from her; there had to be sufficient evidence that her coworker was not meeting their basic needs, and she clearly did these kids a favor.
Do you think she did the right thing?
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By Bre Avery Zacharski
Hi, I'm Bre, Chip Chick's CEO! I have a degree in Textile/Surface Design from The Fashion Institute of Technology, and... More about Bre Avery Zacharski
