STACIE - CPS called

[Guest guest]



Oh, Stacie!! I am thinking of you. climbed out of our bedroom window once and I remember being outside in the back yard with Lizzy and looking up to see him standing on the very narrow window ledge of the second story. My heart stopped. I was a little unsure of what to do. Should I stand under the window and try to catch him? Should I race upstairs and pray he didn't fall in the time it took me to get to him? I opted for racing up the stairs and managed to get to him. Whew!! (Locks on the windows after that one!)

He also managed to climb up to the very top of our bookcase and get the keys to the front door when he was 4. He let himself out of the front door while I was in the kitchen making dinner. I walked out into the living room and saw the front door hanging open and flew into a panic. I started running around looking for him and realized I couldn't cover enough ground on my own so quickly knocked on a neighbor's door who helped and called in some other neighbors.

Fortunately, a woman who lived nearby looked out of the window and saw my son walking down the sidewalk by himself. She didn't see anyone walking with him and realized something wasn't right. (To make matters even worse, he was wearing a t-shirt, NO underwear, one of my husband's socks and another sock of his own - quite a sight!) She went out to him and he let her pick him up and then she just started wandering around the neighborhood looking for whoever he belonged to. My neighbor ran into her first and brought him back to us. I was shaking so badly and crying and feeling so stupid. I have never, ever been so relieved in all my life.

But, if someone used any of the above AGAINST me, it would be absolutely devastating. We did have some neighbors who lived on the other side of us who hated us and were quite open about it due to the noise from , etc. (No one in the neighborhood liked them anyway as they seemed to think they were above the rest of us. LOL) I had tried to work things out with them before by going over and talking to them about a sleep program we were trying and asking if there were any particular nights that were bad for them because it would probably be pretty noisy. The husband refused to speak to me and directed me to his wife who was pretty useless and said that was ok. A few nights after that the husband came over around midnight and started to give me an earful about why our kids weren't in bed and the amount of noise, blah, blah, blah. (He didn't realize that my husband was home at the time! teehee) So I just ignored him and directed him to my husband who went out and well.......let's just say it wasn't very pretty (no violence or anything!) but the language was embarrassing. Those particular neighbors never even looked in our direction again. LOLOL

To this day, I don't know why these particular neighbors never reported us (even though we were not neglecting/abusing our children) but maybe even they had standards.

Anyone who knows us knows that our lives are chaotic and what is capable of. I cannot imagine someone suggesting that any of it happened due to neglect or abuse. My heart really goes out to you. It sounds like the people you are dealing with are extremely unprofessional and have absolutely no clue about autism. It also sounds like you got a rotten apple with the teacher. My mom is a teacher and it is a shame because she is really fantastic and caring but the bad ones ruin it for the good ones.

By the way, I remember calling my dad in tears because I was worried they the neighbors might call social services on us. He said, "Steph, please don't worry about it. These people usually can walk into a situation and KNOW right away if something is up. You aren't doing anything wrong so don't make yourself sick over it." I've never had any dealings with what you are going through in that respect an I sure do hope he is right. It did make me feel better at the time, though. (Hope the last quote from my father didn't upset anyone ) )

I sure hope that things get better and I am sure nothing will come of any of this other than to make you aware (which I am sure you already know) that you have to be very careful about who you can trust with personal information. aaargh!!! It's such a shame that you can't take everyone at face value! ((

((((((((Extra Big Hugs to You and Merry Christmas)))))))

Steph

[Guest guest]

Well said Steph...

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To: AutismBehaviorProblems Sent: Friday, December 26, 2008 5:06:48 AMSubject: STACIE - CPS called

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