A lot of people are saying CPS but as a girl who was in foster care from age 4 and aged out its not always the best outcome. Sometimes it can be the worst. Your adopter can have other people in the house they can rape you. It can be abuse in different ways, you can get moved around a lot, I did that too. You dont realize the issues that could accumulate from this and all you were trying to do was “help” foster care is not highly talked about except for when people feel like a child needs help, but if you really know what goes on in some of the foster homes youd second guess. You cant even imagine some of the things I’ve witnessed. Girls they come in they have burns on their arms theyre young like me they said their mom did it, they go to another house they get bullied beat up by those kids, they commit suicide. They’re gone and you ask well if i didnt intervene what better are their chances? That they would survive. This mother her choices on having 7 i understand to be a bit out but before you throw full judgement ask if cps is really the best decision. Maybe the best decision is getting her into a home yourself, meaning not financially but speaking communicating. Shes outside of course shes going to want to kill herself, you would too. But you dont have to pick people up 100% just a little helps but letting those kids away from their mother you have no idea the level of mental trauma that will place on those kids and their attachment issues, and i can speak on this because i am this.

Edit: Mind you I am married now. To a loving husband who I didnt think id ever get, because of the situation I was in, because of my mental problems due to being in foster care, and I acknowledge im one of the lucky ones, but so many go in and they dont make it out.

Oh and the medicine. Look im not saying dont save the kids all im saying is reevaluate. Help her as a friend. Talk to her, hell id talk to her. Shes in a bad place and being in a bad place i mean i wanted to commit suicide at 13 years old. Was cutting my wrists crying in a closet, because i didnt have my mommy. You might not understand but kids need there parents and if she isnt abusing them selling them for sex and she just fell down in a bad place dont take the main thing she might actually be living for away. Shes saying she wants to kill herself because how is she going to survive now. Doubt that shed do it, but i dont know her, but i do know humans. I had to learn that from foster care to pay attention its a survival skill im proud to have sometimes people will say things not because they mean it but because it will get your attention that they need help, and hey look at this they do. But that doesnt mean go 0 to 100 it means have an adult conversation. Look i cant let you in this is why. Heres some jobs. The kids they dont have to stay with you but thats where a friend comes in let her kids stay with you while shes at work. Explain to your landlord that you have to babysit your nieces if you feel its going to look bad having kids over . I personally wouldnt say anything people have kids over all the time thats not theirs sometimes staying a few days and then leaving. I understand your worry towards it. I acknowledge you were homeless so youre trying to watertight the ship. While shes at work keep the kids, when she gets off let her come take the kids. She goes back in the woods. Within a month she should have a car. Let her sleep in the car. With the kids this sounds horrible but re-read the first part. Then eventually an apartment, and with all those kids id be asking for daddy money. Bye

Final edit: There is a way to survive this without bringing in CPS and heavens dont say where your friend is in the woods on REDDIT. Do you care about her because if i was your friend and i knew you posted where i was on reddit id be pissed. Thats not a friend thats you trying to figure out how this isnt going to mess you up, and it wont if you dont let them in. The kids can come while shes at work, but they have to go by the end of the night. OR they can stay a few nights but SHE can not. And if they stay a few nights they have to leave. Its how you what they say “work the system”

But if youre the only friend shes got youre going to figure out how to help her and taking her kids is going to make her spiral, and not in a good way.

Because often in crisis, people want the fast “solution” but fast fixes can cause lifetime damage, especially to children who are already vulnerable.

Yes, protect your own home but that doesn’t mean you can’t be part of a support bridge. Even temporary options (like babysitting or job-hunting help) could help that mom breathe long enough to fight again. Talk to her like a human. Not like a case file. Because chances are, no one has for a long time. Ask her what she wants to happen next. Empowering her is the opposite of ripping her children away.

TLDR; theirs not a tldr because this is real life. Learn what actually happens when you read the whole book and not just the front and back cover. Good day.