I like how social services are abbreviated to SW rather than the actual acronym.
have your children been on Childline recently?
can I have your bikes when you go 'away'
Someone wants you out of the picture so they can shack up with your wife and kids.
I come from a farming family, I think just about all my aunts and uncles have had to meet with a social worker at some point because their kids had collected bruises from falling off stacks of hay bales, dirt from picking up chickens and the houses are a mess because there's much everywhere, all the time.
My mum and dad were terrified about getting a visit when my 2 year old sister managed to break through the child gate at the top of the stairs the night after a dinner party and have a glass of left over wine for herself, then for teddy, then herself, then for teddy until she woke the house up banging her head against the radiator. The doctors understood though and said the main thing was that they must let her sleep as the hangover would be as unbearable for them as it was for her.
One piece of advice I would give is to Minute the conversation yourself, and get them to sign it, or follow up the conversation with a note saying "you expressed the following concerns, I answered as follows"
From bitter experience and having seen the notes myself, you would be amazed how social workers own recording of these meetings varies from your own recollection, and I found that the language used by them was horrifically biased when subsequently cut and pasted into a chronology a couple of years down the line (e.g. words like 'restrained' and 'chastisement' crept in from nowhere, and look far from innocuous when they are in a report that essentially seeks to blame your daughters behaviour on parenting rather than accepting she has autism)
My nephew aged about 4 or so got into the fridge and helped himself to lots of (forgot the name of the drink, but it's milky baileys type but not that strong) that his mum had unthinkingly put in there half opened. He polished off the bottle before she found him, so she phoned poison control in a panic (this is in the US). They advised her to feed him carbs but they were out of bread so she had to go to the supermarket with this now merrily pissed toddler. In the store she became increasingly paranoid that someone would call social services trying to cover up the fact he's inebriated. She told him not to talk to anyone, so he was just grinning and lolling around in the trolley singing drunkenly. Except the cashier engaged him in conversation, and he replied "I'm feeling SUPER confident right now!"
Slept it off after that. No-one called Social Services, and at least they know he's going to be a happy drunk when he's older.
This is great news. My son is due to start school in about three years. I already have a larger beard and will start not looking after it from now. I will then take my son to school in my pyjamas, dressing gown and slippers 'the dude' style. Can't wait to see how many complaints or phone calls are accrued as a result.
I knew it. There's no smoke that's all I'm saying.
And they missed that you're the kingpin in an international terrorist cell. Graham or should I say Ali Hassan aka the jack of clubs! Not to mention the grow you've got going on in the loft.
My in-laws had a visit from social services when their daughter (now my wife) was about eight. She'd gone to school with a black eye and when questioned had responded that she'd run into a door... Further questioning led to an admission that she was running away from her dad because he was angry.
She was very into karate at the time, and was showing her dad the new move she'd learnt, a high kick. Except what was a kick to the upper torso of her peers was a kick in the plums on her dad. He hit the deck screaming in agony, she panicked and fled, thinking she'd be in trouble. Straight into the edge of a door...
I like how social services are abbreviated to SW rather than the actual acronym
Seems a reasonable acronym for the department known as Social Work which is what they are called up here.
That OP is awfully defensive... 😉
Well in the end sounds like a sensible outcome, at some point a lot of stories of things that went wrong probably started like the OP's report. In this case it was nothing and everyone is happy, in other cases a lot more goes wrong and nobody thinks it's useful to ask/question/report.
House messy?
I'm going to tell Jnr to get the dishwasher loaded pronto, or I'll report him to Social Services.
I have to say I get worried by the neighbours reporting us and I'm a teacher. There was some rather fruity language coming from our garage last night after Jnr decided to attack me with a stepladder pretending it was a scene from WWE!
Douwe Egberts? It's still instant. No smoke without fire I say.
I will then take my son to school in my pyjamas, dressing gown and slippers
Quite normal in numerous parts of Teesside.
GrahamS. I think you are taking the best view possible.
First I heard about it was after the kids had gone to bed when she sat me down (with my pint of whisky) and quietly told me all about it (clearly worried she'd get a slap).
genuine guffawing
15 if I'm really hammered
and again
From bitter experience and having seen the notes myself, you would be amazed how social workers own recording of these meetings varies from your own recollection, and I found that the language used by them was horrifically biased
Do this.
A few years ago my daughter was having a massive tantrum on the way to school - when she arrived she threw herself on the floor. A little later one of the staff noticed a red mark on my daughters head/face and my daughter said "daddy hurt me". The school then referred it to Social Services but totally neglected to mention my daughter had thrown herself on the floor (This latter element may or may not have something to do with the fact that we don't always see eye-to-eye with the school...).
That evening we had a visit from the social workers who viewed the home and interviewed the children on their own and us too. As a result they had no issues with the house, our parenting approach and established that when my daughter said I had hurt her - she meant I had hurt her feelings by telling her off.
All well and good you would think. All but the fact that the report described my wife and I as self-reporting moderate social drinkers whereas my wife didn't and still does not drink and I had not had an alcoholic drink for a couple of years... Especially concerning as we did not discuss alcohol consumption at all! There were multiple other small inaccuracies too.
MrsMC is a front line CP social worker, and would like to know which local authority has so little work on that they can send someone round to "piss around" with a report like that!
Birmingham...
My friend who works in Birmingham as a mental health social worker specialising in working with children said at the time "WTF!"
As far as we know, we had not been previously reported for any concerns - and would not know why we would be....
Northumberland for me MC, but no personal visit, just a phone call. I think they were obliged to do some kind of follow up, so fair enough I think.
We are good friends with a couple of foster parents, an ex-social worker and a retired policeman, plus my wife is a consultant and sometimes has to refer people to SW/CP herself - so I've heard enough tales of genuine social care issues to appreciate what SW see and to have some perspective on what a "messy house" really is!
I'd be more ashamed of someone saying I had smelly breath than the rest of the stuff, to be honest.
The curse of the real ale drinker.
Well that and an enormous beer gut.
Does anyone have a hip flask I can borrow?
