Hey, so.. I may be in this situation soon, and I may just be in over my head here, but I'm a sucker who really couldn't say no to this.
This kid took care of his grandmother as she deteriorated and finally died. He was there when it happened. She had a degenerative disease and the kid's mom left him with her so she could "babysit" him, when in reality, this kid was the only one looking after her. His parent is a working single mom, so it's really not her fault, but, like.. damn.
The kid is 8 years old.
Kid's dad is just gone. Disappeared. Has been since he was tiny.
He sometimes is watched over by his aunt, but she & the nieces just literally ignore him. He says that he just sat quietly on the couch for days. They fed him and whatever, but that family has their own batshit fuckery going on. Not mentally stable, tbh. The aunt is very hostile and I think he is scared of her.
He's one of my in-law's kids (whom I don't even know well), but, like.. holy shit. He and his mom now live in the deceased grandmother's house, but she now has no one to watch over him. He has been going to work with her and being told to sit quietly and do not much else. They're now almost an hour away from his school, so he may lose that part of his stability, too.
Again.. he's 8. And holy shit, kid barely talks. He's so well-behaved and meek, it actually alarms me greatly. He used to hang out with my brother's kids, but my brother moved out of state. He came back this week and was asked to watch over the kid while he and his kids were in town. This is when I've most recently reconnected with the kid, but I've met him before when my brother was still in town.
I have room in my home. I'm a single parent, too, but I'm fortunate to work from home and have a kid who's 12 who could hang out, play video games with him, take him to the park, and whatever. I'm close to his school. I don't have much right now, but, like.. fuck, I want to give this kid a good, loving space, stability, and get him into therapy, for fucks sake.
I don't give a shit about what your opinion of the mom is. I met her like twice. I also don't plan to adopt this kid or anything (unless it really comes to that but that's not a thing right now since he obviously has a parent), but I just need advice on how I should navigate this.
Medical needs? Can I get him into therapy without trouble? Will I need the parent's permission? What should I ask her for? I'm not sure she'd be okay giving me his documents if this is temporary, but FUCK there's a lot to do. I want to do something right for this kid.
Help? Please?
My folks used to have a shop located inside of a mall. They worked hard to make it pleasant for the people who stopped in, and part of that was putting out a small fridge near the front desk and telling guests that they were free to choose from an array of sodas while they waited. It was a nice gesture.
Patrons of the mall apparently caught onto this, and my folks started getting people who was stroll in, open the fridge, take a soda, then just leave, ignoring anyone who even said hello to them. It was becoming a more and more frequent occurrence.
The last straw was when one of the staff saw a lady pointing to the store and whispering to her young kid. The kid then strolled into the store, ignored the greeting from the staff, opened the fridge, took both arms full sodas, then turned and thing without a word. Several adults came in within the next few days and did the same thing: grabbed both arms full of sodas and left.
The staff then removed the refrigerator from the lobby and kept it in the back. After that, there were large amount of people would confidently saunter in, falter when they didn't see the fridge anymore, search around a bit, and then leave, never to return again.
Some even demanded to know where the "free drinks" went, one even going so far as to ask the staff "could you go get a few for me?"
People suck.
@SharkEatingBreakfast
@sh.itjust.works