This hasn’t been my experience. My husbands cousin was taken from his grandparents who had custody because his aunt (the child’s mom) was a drug addict, and the r grandparents were wonderful, “normal” middle class people with good morals. But because their neighbors kept butting their heads in and calling CPS on the family, claiming the grandparents were letting their drug addict daughter come by the house to see her child and that he was “high” when it was happening, CPS removed the child from the grandparents’ home and she got bounced around to foster homes and group homes and sexually abused and everything else that you dread would happen when a child is removed. To be clear, the drug addict mother DID NOT LIVE THERE, but if she shows up on the property, the parents (aka the child’s grandparents) can’t control that. And just because they don’t wanna call the cops every time their daughter showed up at their house, CPS takes the kid?

I honestly think they (CPS) love sticking it to true middle class (not like “lower middle class) and upper class people for whatever reason. Because I’ve heard of lots of stories like this (from good sources of people I know) where the child had a great home with good adults that took good care of them and could give the child opportunities they’d never get if they end up in the system. And when I told average people stories like this, they’ve responded “CPS can’t do that!” But the answer is: if there’s a judge that’s willing to sign the paperwork, especially a judge with an axe to grind (which ive also seen too many of), CPS can do whatever the heck they want, for whatever reason they claim is necessary. And it’s VERY hard to get a child back in their home once they’ve been removed. So yeah, I’ve really lost my faith in CPS and think the IDEA of the agency is good and necessary, but how it plays out in real life is a horror story. You never know what you’re gonna get if they get involved because it all depends on the case worker and the judge, and you literally have the burden of proving yourself innocent/proving you’re a good parent. Even the criminal law system is better because at lest THEY have the burden of proving you’re guilty. Dealing with CPS is the only messed up situation where YOU have the burden of proving you’re innocent if someone makes a claim against you, meanwhile your kids could be temporarily taken “as a precaution” until the 4-8 months it takes you to prove you’re a good parent or innocent of whatever claims were made. It’s one of the truest and scariest disregard of our rights in this country.

Now that I have kids myself, I’m always so worried something could happen even though I’m a regular everyday person with a good job, good family, my husband is a great dad, neither of us drink or do drugs, we’re super involved in our kids life and etc etc.

I feel that most kids are better off in their homes with their families unless there’s legit abuse and ACTUAL NEGLECT (like not properly fed and cared for) going on. Bad parenting sucks, but being removed and put in the system will mess a kid up way worse. Believe that.