“Beep, beep, beep, beep…”

The sound of a truck backing up startled the couple out of sleep.  It was early morning and the sun was just coming up.  What was that?  Out of the bed they flew; almost falling down the stairs as they shouted for the kids.

Why all the commotion?  It dawned on them it was the trash truck coming down their street.  They had forgotten to put out the rubbish.  The reason for the upset was that the truck comes once every two weeks.  For a house with 2 adults and 3 children that can lead to a major backup if they miss it.

Now they are rushing around the house filling garbage bags as they go.  Their daughter stands strategically holding a bag open and Mom tosses bottles and cans from across the room into it.  She picks up an empty beer bottle and flips it into the air just as the youngest boy is crossing between them.  He gets hit on the arm, “Ow!”

Everyone stops to make sure he is okay before finishing up the job and rushing out the door.  They stare in horror as the truck passes their house without slowing down.  They never made it to the curb.

But it doesn’t stop there.  The young boy goes to school after bandaging up an arm that wasn’t even scratched.  Later on in the day his parents get a frantic call from the principal to get there as soon as possible.  They each leave work and arrive only to find two policeman hovering around their son preventing them from even getting near him.

Most families don’t come across an issue where a teacher has to report an incident like this but it happens all the time.  In a lot of states teachers, social workers, doctors, dentists, or anyone else who comes in regular contact with children and who has reason to believe one has been abused must call child protective services.  In Massachusetts they are called “mandatory reporters“.

It is a good thing but in cases such as the one depicted in the television show it can have a harrowing effect on innocent parents.  My wife and I went through that when our son Max was 4; he is 9 years old now.  He had been playing all day in the back yard.  When he got into the bath that night he started to scream.  He had a massive blister on the top of his right foot.  We had never seen anything like it and didn’t know how to treat it.  We made a “quick” trip to the emergency room.

After 6 hours we were told how to take care of it but in the mean time the doctor had called child services.  He believed we had actually burned Max’s foot and the blister was the result of second degree burns.  He allowed us to take our son home but he treated us like evil people.  He also warned us that we would be visited by a case worker.

Now we are worried.  Are we going to lose our son?  We called everyone we knew for help.  On the day the caseworker arrived we were a bundle of nerves.  What will they do?  Are they going to find out something that even we don’t know about?

The woman came in and sat at our table and talked to us.  She wanted to know what shoes Max was wearing that day.  She inspected them and we determined that they weren’t quite big enough for him.  How was it we didn’t notice?  Our anxiety levels rose even more.  She suggested the blister came from the stitching in the shoe after comparing it to his foot.

She then talked to Max.  Had he ever been burned?  He said yes.  Uh oh, when was this?  We didn’t know about that.  She asked him to show her how it happened.  Instead of taking her to the kitchen stove he brought her down into the basement.  Here he had a plastic toy stove that didn’t even have knobs to twist.  This is where he got burned.  She laughed and came back upstairs.

She informed us that she was closing the case because she was able to determine that there was no abuse.  But…it would stay active for a year and if there were any other reports it would be reopened.  Needless to say that was a long year for us.

Just like us we watched the family in the TV show become very anxious as they waited for their case worker.  The questions put them on edge because she asked each of them separately and, as it turned out, they all gave different answers.  Later after she left it got worse as they waited for her report.  When it was completed they found that they had been exonerated and could finally breathe easier.

Having a system like this is great for our kids.  The problem, as my wife mentioned to the caseworker, is that the families that are being dragged in are the good ones.  The others know how to hide the abuse.  This is not entirely true.  There are over 28,237 known abused children in Massachusetts alone.

None of us wants to see our kids hurt and this is one way to combat the problem.  Even if it means causing ulcers in some of us that have always tried to do the right thing.