She Was Adopted As An Infant, And When She Was 13, Her Parents Returned Her To Foster Care

Most people think of malls as places to shop for new clothes, grab pretzels, or waste time with friends as teenagers. But for some kids, malls are much more serious. They are a safe place to exist when nowhere else feels stable.

TikToker @housecatchronicles was adopted as an infant, and when she was 13 years old, her parents decided to return her to the foster care system. At that time, there were no available foster homes for her to go to, so she was sent to a receiving home.

"The difference between a receiving home and a foster home is that the parent gets paid for the bed as opposed to being paid for the child," she explained. "I ended up in a notorious receiving home on Beacon Hill. It was an absolute nightmare."

The woman at the receiving home would lock the kids in the basement at night. She did not care whether they lived or died. TikToker @housecatchronicles didn't last long there. She begged her caseworker to be placed somewhere else.

The only other option was a youth shelter. The shelter was only available to youth at night. There was a limited number of beds, so you had to get in line by 8 p.m. to secure a place to sleep.

The kids had to be out of the shelter by 8 a.m., so they needed to find some way to spend their days.

She formed a group with other kids who were homeless or in receiving homes. She didn't want to go back to school because she was ashamed of her situation.

Sometimes, she went to the library, but most of the time, she and the other kids hung out at the mall. The mall was a good resource for them. It was somewhere safe to go.

"There used to be benches on the different levels where you could sit," she said. "Sometimes, we would manage to scrounge together some money and get something to eat at the food court that we would all share."

Viktoriya - stock.adobe.com - illustrative purposes only, not the actual person

Sign up for Chip Chick's newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.

In the comments section, some people admitted that they had never realized places like malls often function as lifelines for homeless youth. Others shared similar stories of adopted children being "returned" by families.

"This is heartbreaking. I can't imagine what you went through. I never realized malls were a resource for displaced kids," commented one user.

"Girl, you have an amazing story. Thank you for sharing this with us as outsiders. My husband was a homeless teenager, too. He rode the trains all day and night sometimes and went to the airport a lot," shared another.

"I babysat an adopted boy for six years. Went off to college and came back the next summer to find that his parents also sent him back. I think about him a lot. I'm so sorry this happened to you," added someone else.