Is a person being lazy? Or are they neglecting their child? This question has plagued teachers, if not mankind, for many years.
Part of me wants there to be a very visible, very “no-doubt-about-it” line. The kind of line that once crossed sends up flares and sets off sirens. The kind of line that leaves no question at to whether CPS should be called.
However, the more rational and sane part of me knows that a line like that can never exist. For without this lazy/neglect gray area, there would be parents who would walk right up to the line and even flirt with it without ever going over. So, as hard as it is for me to accept, this gray area may actually be protecting some children.
In the eleven years I’ve been a teacher, I’ve had to call CPS on two different occasions and it broke my heart both times. Both were cases where I suspected neglect. However, both cases, after being investigated by overworked CPS officials, were dismissed due to lack of evidence.
As a teacher, I’m required to file a report with CPS if I even suspect that there could be abuse happening in a child’s home. Abuse can be as obvious as physical abuse, or as hard to spot as neglect or emotional abuse. If, or when to call is a quandary I’m faced with every year.
So, I leave you with this question:
When does being lazy, on the part of a parent, cross the line and become neglect?
5 comments:
Parental laziness has only primary consequences.
Parental neglect has primary and sencondary consequences.
Casey,
I'm not sure what you mean by "primary" and "secondary" consequences.
If by primary, you mean consequences that only effect the person who is actually being lazy, and secondary consequences are ones that effect others as well, then yes, I agree.
However, how can I be sure that is happening?
Ok, I don't have a clue. All I know is that the kids coming to my church are hurt in multiple fashions. Some of them are put into situations that make me cringe! Like, the two girls (one is a sophopmore in high school, the other is a 7th grader), they have been left home alone at night for a number of years. Their daddy works nights, and their mom hasn't been in the picture...even after she got out of jail. I would say that the lack of supervision is a type of neglect, though I doubt that it would hold up in court. This is just a tough issue.
Tim
Exactly! On the one hand I want to say that leaving a minor at home alone is neglect. However, here's a dad who is working his butt off to put a roof over his kid's heads. Can I really call that neglect?
Like you said...it's a tough issue.
This last comment is the key. Laziness is just one form of neglect. I may neglect for "good" reasons as well as bad. Laziness is obviously a bad reason.
Laziness always causes neglect of something; if I have no children, then I am still neglecting my own need to take care of myself or whatever I am a steward of.
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