What to expect in a home visit?

[lauraliz76]

I am a mother of two young boys. My oldest is 6 years old and youngest is 2 years old. I was never married to their father, they have the same dad. About 2 years ago their father left me about 2 weeks before my youngest was born. We tried and tried to work things out for the kids, but they just didn't work out. Very bad past 2 year with their dad and I. Their father could just never get over the fact I wasn't coming back. I being a single mother of two young boys working full-time in a medical office I slipt custody with their father even thought I have sole custody throught the courts. Well about 4 months ago I got married to another man. My child are now with my full-time expect every other weekend with their father. Their father just couldn't get use to the fact my new husband was helping rasie the boys. So over a week ago my the kids father called the police on myself and my husband saying that we abuse the kids. My oldest son has many problems and is on medication and goes through therapy. My oldest likes to hurt himself when he doesn't get what he wants (bite, pinch, hit himself, etc). Well my husband had spanked my oldest son 2 days prior to the kids going to their dad's. My son was very much out of control and was hitting me. I guess their was lite brusing on the butt from spanking with just his open hand over the pants. Police came to our house the night I left the kids with their dad. Just asking questions about what happened the night my oldest got spanked. CPS got involved, but I don't have any information cause my lawyers won't allow me to talk to them. So now CPS wants to have a home visit here at our house. I do have a lawyer that will be here as well if CPS comes. What should I expect at these visits? What are they looking for? And just another note, I have not gotten my kids back for their father yet. I still have full-custody of the kids and I guess CPS told him to keep the kids and break a court order that I have full-custody of the kids. There is no court order that CPS has filed to take my kids away. It is a very big mess. But I guess CPS just wants to do a home visit tomorrow and Thursday of this week and close out the investagtion. Just need to know how to prepare for this?

[good dad]

Hi lauraliz

Well, here is a basic example of what to do.
http://fightcps.com/2010/04/09/what-to- ... ating-you/

You don't have to let them in your home without a warrant. Anytime you let them in your home, they are fishing for information to use against you because if they already had enough info, they would have filed a case against you. They don't need visits on 2 separate days to close a case... I know you just want to let them in so all this goes away, but it may not.

Typically, the first day they ask you questions, go back and meet with supervisors, develop a game plan and come back asking sort of twisted questions to your answers, twisting what you said. Recording will discourage this.

If you do let them in, have a very clean house... No dirty laundry, no dirty dishes... They may want to look in closets...

Take pictures of everything while she is there, get him/her in a number of the pictures so if it goes farther she can't lie and say the home was in any different order than the pictures show.. Audio tape record them so there is a record of what they ask and your answers, again so they can't stray or embellish what was actually said..

They may try to fight recording the interview, nicely say " I'm inviting you into my home for this interview but it will be done by my rules" If you start out with an upper hand over them, they probably won't comeback the second day....



Above all, don't get angry..

Good luck,
Tim

p.s. Your lawyer may feel you don't need to record, remember it's your kids involved not his.. Be safe, not sorry

[Eljay]

This sounds like the beginning of so many cases that go horribly wrong. Be prepared for the worst. Glad you've got a lawyer involved and I hope he's CPS wary. Read this and consider sending it to your ex:

http://www.fathersmanifesto.net/armin.htm

[Daruma]

If you choose not to let them in--which is your right, if they have no warrant--you can use a digital camera to show them pictures of your home instead. If your caseworker says, "I need to see that there's food in the kitchen," you go take a picture of the food. If she says, "I need to make sure the boys have a place to sleep," you take a picture of their beds. "I need to see if the kids are alive and breathing." You bring the kids to the window. Etc.

If you've decided to let them in, be June Cleaver for a day. Clean house thoroughly. Make sure there's nothing she can fault you on, even a few crumbs or a couple of dirty dishes in the sink.

Make sure there's nothing that could be considered a hazard, such as a frayed electrical cord. Put baby-proof fasteners on the cupboards. Make sure all medicines are securely stored. If you have prescription narcotics, consider discarding them if you don't need them any more, or else storing them somewhere totally inaccessible.

If you have a lot of clutter, box it up and store it in the attic, the garage, or a rental unit.

Expect her to look in your fridge or cupboards. Make sure you have good wholesome stuff in there. She may want to verify that the boys have beds and sheets as well as age-appropriate toys and books. (You may be thinking, "Of course my boys have beds and sheets!" That's because you're a normal human being who takes that kind of thing for granted. Caseworkers, to give them the benefit of the doubt, probably see homes where kids don't have the bare necessities. Don't assume that they will take anything for granted.)

If you have pets, give the yard and/or house a last-minute walkthrough to check for animal accidents before she gets there.

When the visit is over, you might consider asking her if she noted any problems. Wouldn't it be wonderful if you could get her on record saying that everything looked good?

[good dad]

Good points Daruma !!

[monkette31]

Did you hear about this?, ask them exactly what they are alleging. They are only on a fishing expedition and they are looking for a reason to remove your children, at the very least have your family in for their services. They are probably counting on you to detail your ex's past dastardly deeds so they have an excuse to take them from there too and keep your child in their care and you and the father jumping hoops to get them back.

Right now, they are looking for any way to get you under their services. They're probably going to want you to sign a safety plan that drags this out for months before you know it, it will be four months later and you might get a visit or two a week. I wouldn't sign anything and don't mention any family ghosts of abuse, they might even ask you to drug test for them. THey are going to come at you very screwy sideways and they are counting on you to be scared and ignorant. Be careful of signing anything, signing a service plan I believe admits that you agree that you failed to protect your child, anything they allege.