I’m (22f) a single mother to a 14-month-old, and I’m looking for honest outside perspectives because I’m worried that I may be overthinking a situation involving my son’s daycare.

My son has attended this daycare since August. I work full-time and pay $385 per month in tuition, plus a $350 enrollment fee. (This is not a super-cheap price in my area, it wasn’t the cheapest but the one with best reputation) I do my best to make sure he has everything he needs.

The daycare provides lunch, but I also pack three snacks each day, such as chopped fruits and vegetables, healthy homemade snacks, organic or sugar-free juice, water, and three bottles of milk. I also send extra hygiene/ personal care supplies when they request them, including creams, first aid items, or items that were not included on the original supply list.

Lately, I feel as though the staff frequently have concerns about something or ask me to bring additional supplies. For example, they told me my son needed diaper rash cream, even though I had already brought a container the previous month that I know they hadn’t been using. After I showed them a picture of the product, they realized that he actually had two new containers at the daycare. They also asked me to bring a bedding cover, even though I had previously sent one that they removed from his bag because they told me it was not needed.

They have also raised concerns about his persistent cough. He had COVID in August, and the cough has continued since then. I have taken him to his pediatrician multiple times and have regularly brought up my concerns, but the doctor keeps prescribing the same cough syrup. My son currently has no fever or obvious congestion, although the cough has not completely gone away. The daycare is now telling me that I need another doctor’s clearance before he can return.

Today, when I picked him up, a staff member told me they were concerned because they had noticed a mark on his forehead that looked like a wound. She showed me the mark and told me that it was important for me to inform the daycare about injuries or anything else that could explain a mark they notice on him.

A few nights ago, my son hit his head against the wooden crib at home. I checked him immediately and did not notice anything concerning at the time. The next day, I noticed a small mark on his forehead, but I forgot to mention the incident to the daycare. His hair usually covers that area, and I simply forgot during the morning rush.

When the staff member brought it up today, I explained exactly what had happened. I understand why the daycare needs to know about injuries, and I acknowledge that I should have told them. However, her tone was much more serious and strict than usual. That made me feel as though she was treating the situation as something more serious than a normal childhood accident.

Today’s conversation also included the concerns about his cough, the diaper rash cream, the bedding cover, and his feeding and supplies. Because all of these issues were discussed together, I felt as though I was being bombarded with complaints. I started wondering whether the daycare is documenting these things because they suspect neglect or are considering reporting me to CPS.

For context, my home is clean, although it is a small apartment, owned, not rented. My son has his own crib, clean bedding, toys, and a designated play area. We have plenty of food, I bathe him every night, and I make sure he has meals and snacks for daycare. I take him to his pediatrician when needed and try to follow medical advice. I also have a large, trained dog, but I always supervise my son’s interactions with him.

I’m not claiming to be a perfect mother. I work full-time, I’m often rushing in the mornings, and I occasionally forget things. However, I genuinely try to take care of my son and provide for him. The mark on his forehead was from an accidental injury at home, and I did not intentionally withhold that information from the daycare; I simply forgot to mention it.

I’m in Puerto Rico, so I’m especially interested in hearing from anyone familiar with how child protective services works there, as well as daycare workers or parents who have dealt with similar situations.

My questions are:

Could a daycare worker report a parent based on concerns like these?

Would a report automatically lead to a home visit or investigation?

Does forgetting to report a minor accidental head injury make a significant difference?

Is the daycare staff member’s serious tone likely just part of their responsibility, or could it indicate that they are documenting concerns about me?

Am I reading too much into the situation, or are there legitimate reasons for me to be concerned?

I’m not looking for people to tell me that I’m a perfect mother. I want honest, realistic perspectives on what might happen and whether I’m interpreting today’s events incorrectly. They had never spoken to me like they did today, and had always been nice and respectful about everything prior to today.

My frustration is basically that. In August, I found out my adoptive 12 (almost 13) year old son had been molesting my then 3 year old daughter. He admitted this to my husband (his bio dad) and I. He also admitted to harming my daughter and infant son, who was 3 months old at the time. The abuse included hitting the baby in the head, and pouring bleach on objects like bath rags in hopes it would burn his skin when I bathed him. He also admitted to getting cleaning chemicals, and purposely putting them on baby toys in hopes that the baby would ingest some and get sick when he put toys in his mouth. He also physically harmed his sister beyond the sexual encounters and terrorized her about things crawling out of vents to "tear her skin open and eat her" in the night. It was so bad that after he was placed in psychiatric care, the psychiatrist was worried about him ever having access to the fridge where I stored breastmilk for the baby.

My frustration is this; I received the CPS investigation findings via letter in the mail, and they "ruled out" all sexual and physical abuse by the perpetrator. On one hand, I am grateful because it has allowed us to keep my adoptive son in psychiatric care instead of just throwing him in juvie and not getting him help, but I cannot help but be baffled that they could conclude this, even with him detailing all of this to our case investigator. How is this possible? Is this even legal? It makes me wonder how many other cases of abuse have been swept under the rug. The caseworker guilt tripped us and the psychiatric staff that it sounded like we wanted to ruin my son's life and throw him away. He has been very uncooperative with all staff in facilities trying to help my son, and downright rude and threatening at times. I am just baffled that the protection is going to the perpetrator, and needed to rant about my mixed emotions.

Is this uncommon? Should I reach out to a supervisor? Or, should I just be grateful the state is staying out of it and we can get my adoptive son, who came from a troubled home, help that is not juvie or a group home?

So essentially I talked to my therapist today describing my family situation, a case worker showed up hours later. I knew she would have to report it and I also had to assume police also had a legal obligation to report it when it happened.

The incident she reported was from several days ago. My sons father punched a hole in the wall, and then as a bluff took a handful of pills before immediately spitting them out. Within seconds I was on the phone with 911 trying to get him psychiatric care immediately. We were having a disagreement and he just lost it. This incident happened out of our child's presence.

He told me over the phone from the hospital that he would be out in 3 days, well not even 2 days in he's discharged. At that point I intended to have help moving my things out that same day into storage and then myself and my son either in the aware shelter or with a friend.

My stay with him was already supposed to be temporary, we broke up about 6 months ago following a series of incidents where he was leaving for a 1-2 days at a time to drink and he also would cheat on me. But the house I was renting was sold, I had to move out, I was a stay at home mom up until 2 weeks ago when I resumed working. I had no income to verify as child support amount hasn't been determined yet and I had only just resumed working partime. So I've been at his apartment hoping I could continue to work partime and also wait for our child support hearing to determine my income when I Put in apartment application. Ive been here only a week.

My therapist promised me that she would ask that the case worker just call as I was afraid he would be agitated if he thought I contributed to the report, thats not what happened. She shows up, questions me in the other room where I dont know if he can hear me or not. I told her I have a friend's house I can stay at, I have a bag in my car for us to go and that I've made contact with multiple shelters.

I even had asked her if it is realistic for me to even be here, I know its not but in that moment I'm panicked that she doesn't think I'm being protective with me being here. Tomorrow I tend to apply at several low income apartments. I told her I'm monitoring him heavily and I will walk away or let him walk away if the situation even becomes slightly uncomfortable. I have a feeling thats not enough. I plan to stay with a friend starting tomorrow while he adjusts to new meds. He is complying with behavioral health.

He was sent home with a decent plan of care. Meds, therapy, coping skills. I told her he will not be watching our son at all. She gave him a protection plan as well. Our son did have a bruise on his forehead she had to document as well, we went to the Dr's hours later and the Dr deemed it typical of toddler play injuries for his age.

Tomorrow I will let her know of my plans to stay with a friend and he consented to me handing over his hospital documentation as well. She wanted to hear from my therapist as well but I would prefer she give a statement as opposed to the raw clinical notes. I do believe I'm competent and a good mother but post partom depression is present.

How worried should I be for how this will go if it becomes an open case ???( which it likely will)

Im in the state of Michigan.

I called in a report on my kids dad last week. My kids were interviewed the next day (last Friday) at school. I have not been reached out to, and I stayed home from work on Monday just in case they stopped by. I’d like to talk to the worker to explain that if he reaches out to dad while the kids are there for his parenting time this next week, there likely will be retaliation against the kids by him. Should I go to our local office and try to touch base?

My daughter is 9 almost 10 and has had to speak to a caseworker at least 5 times due to her dad. He’s been indicated in abuse/neglect 2 times against her and they’re currently involved again due to him physically fighting a girlfriend in front of her. I’ve called the police, I’ve called dcfs, I’ve gone to court but it cost me over $2000 for one court hearing to pay a lawyer. The dcfs caseworker told me yesterday the only thing they do is take custody from both parents and the child becomes a ward of the state and put in foster care because it’s my responsibility to keep her safe even from him even though we haven’t been together in 8 years. They said they don’t do mandated counseling, parenting classes, or take custody from one parent but not the other. She said I have to take him to court again or I risk losing custody. I can’t afford another lawyer, she said I could go without a lawyer but I don’t even know how to get a court date without one and what likelihood do I have at anything happening. My daughter is so tired of hearing/seeing the fights and having to talk to dcfs. Her father won’t take it serious and says nothing will happen and it’s all the women’s fault not his.

Sorry for any formatting or rambling, it's 2am (Scotland) and I'm on my phone.

My younger sister is a very rude person. She's 13. And by rude I mean she can be mean, stubborn and like a horrid person to be around. Currently she refuses to go to bed which is a massive thing because she tried to stay home when she couldn't (noone in the house). I am only 16, so I know I don't have a strong arm with this but everyone simultaneously expects me to do everything and do nothing. I have an email drafted to my guidance teacher to send but school is on Monday so a long way to go. I think I'm going insane.

The email is for talking to the social workers like a one on one but I'm iffy on sending it as I know I may get in trouble. But at the same time I do not care.

I would like to ask what further information should I have prepared. I've spoken to them before but shut down because they always spring it on me unprepared and my parents start talking abt how important family is to be together and that the "people here" don't understand a way of living.