r/AskReddit - CPS workers of reddit, what was the worst case you have seen? The first time I saw Eve she didn’t speak but had that telltale haunted look most of the girls had. Our judge was so ruthlessly efficient that he intimidated the lawyers and social workers assigned to our case to move as quickly as possible. I read the scary stories and the scary issues. He seemed highly suspicious of having new clothes bought especially for him. There are a lot of short stays with unfamiliar, unfit people trying to feed you as little as possible so they can maximize their earnings. No, that other child did not turn out okay. I remember being 18 and crying my eyes out because I thought I could be arrested for not being able to pay my electric bill or just bills in general. I live in horror every day. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. The one client I had was actually bad in the legal and moral sense of the word. I’ve tried talking to the social workers there, but they just didn’t take it seriously. We were treated inferior in every way. All in all, I don’t remember a ton from that two-month period, maybe because I don’t want to. I then went to the other girls’ rooms, told them what happened, and we decided to leave and look after her. I feel that’s important to note. I have an awesome best friend whose mom begs me to come for holidays, but I usually choose to work because it just feels weird. Granted, I was misbehaving at the time, but Jesus Christ, it took me years to get over that. Users of Adoption.com agree to the When I was in foster care both me and my little sister were beat up by other foster kids and biological children to the multiple foster parents we stayed under. One of the first homes was the worst one. I was only in foster care temporarily when I was three (I’m 17 now). Now I’m 19 and struggling hard with depression. They frequently reminded me that the dogs were better than me, and to this day, the stuff that’s happened to me haunts me at night. The scariest part was having a younger sibling when threats to harm her were the norm. We moved back to bio dad’s when I was 12. I remember being six and moving from my first ever foster home where I had lived for two years. Most are normal kids. The woman wasn’t always too nice to me though. I only chose to stay because if I left for another foster house, I wouldn’t be able to go to the same school, and while they were few, I made some really good friends I wasn’t willing to give up. Due to the lack of available foster homes and jails for kids, some genius decided it would be a great idea to house criminal children and foster children together because they’re all problem kids, right? Oftentimes, foster kids end up in homes that neglect their basic needs, deny them love, and reject their humanity. Florida ex-foster care child here, so strap in boys and girls. The barn was cleaned out days after we moved in (we were sleeping on couches in the lounge in the meantime). I was baptized against my will, and had a nursery rhyme book that was censored (the book described an old woman in a shoe who “whipped them all soundly and sent them to bed”, but “whipped” was crossed out and replaced with “kissed”). Thanks for watching ! She told me I would always be family and she would keep fighting to adopt me. Everything felt very impersonal and distant. He told me I would be much happier in a white family than with a black family. From what I remember though, the children were very nice. [Serious] Kids of reddit who were a part of the foster care system, what are some of your horror stories? 2) One Christmas, the family’s own son got the exact gifts I asked for. ©2021 Adoption.com LLC, a service of The Gladney Center for Adoption. I remember the foster parents told us they had a surprise for us for Christmas. As in, sitting in a bathtub with someone else you hardly knew. I’ve had mental health issues from all the hang-ups I’ve developed. The staff rang her an ambulance and I went upstairs cleaned up as best I could and went to bed. My sister accidentally got gum in her hair, and they completely cut off all her hair. My brother and I were put into Foster Care when we were 3 after my mom tried to hurt herself. Some I have bonded too and would love to take most of them home with me. The boys I was sleeping with every night scared me by telling me about ghosts and whatnot. Not knowing if I belonged or that anyone ever truly wanted me or loved me messed me up for the longest time, I would go as far as say even today. Child Protective Services in New York City strongly supported her gaining legal custody of me. I caught pneumonia twice in one month because my foster parents decided a new sports car was more important than heaters or thick winter coats. The bullying from other kids and at school was awful just because of my negative background. My foster dad was sexually inappropriate with me and made advances. My biological mother was autistic (very high-functioning) but also suffered from extreme depression. Also, being unsure about everything having an unstable mom didn’t really help either. I know of more horrible foster parents than horrible foster kids. From hitting me to calling me names; all that fun stuff. It was something about the phrasing that got to me. I lived with her and her three children until midway through kindergarten. And he was saying “nope”. She made me cry, excluded me from the other kids, and put me to bed way early. I adopted a little boy that had just turned 5. I was forced to do manual labor for them and hardly had time to do homework. Of course, the great state of Kansas put us in different homes. When you get married, you're technically marrying your spouse's family, too, and there's no guarantee you're in for a happily ever after with your new mother-in-law.She may be eccentric, meddlesome, or even a monster.. I discovered foster care when I was four. I instantly knew Eve was in harm, so I ran to the staff that worked there to see if she was ok. If the mother walked by and heard me crying, or if her kids heard me and told on me, then she’d knock on the door and tell me to come out to the living room. I was not allowed to go to school. It got to the point where it felt like my arm was going to fall off. It took learning new parenting skills and patience but it was definitely worth it. We threw up, of course. Terms of Service, However, some have been able to find the courage to open up about the worst of what they endured. The views and opinions expressed in the Real Stories are 5) I got lice at school and instead of the family spending money on lice remover, they used Lysol drain cleaner on my head. Most certainly all foster kids are not bad. That hasn't happened (knock wood) and I suppose if it does, I will cross that bridge when I get to it. I was three years old. They all were so nice to us, we didn’t stay there long. No one is saying the case proves that Pennsylvania relies too heavily on foster care. So, I decided to put up with the neglect. It seriously messed me up in the head and gave me anxiety. He had a lot of strange food things for a while – like finding it weird that all the kids in the house would just help themselves to food if they were hungry – even fruit, like ‘woah you’re just going to eat that apple?’. Everything of mine was stolen. We went without groceries for three weeks because of employee embezzlement, so I only ate free lunch from school and nothing on weekends. For an entire year, I wasn’t allowed to sit on the couch. We have a lock on our bedroom door. I can honestly say that out of the 10 or so kids I have fostered and the nearly 100 kids in a care I have represented as their attorney, one placement was "bad" and one client was "bad." I ended up jumping in between them and throwing my arms out in a T-shaped pose until staff eventually pulled the criminal girl away. Good times. I have endless stories, but these are just a few. They are certainly not monsters (with a few exceptions!). If I didn’t eat my food, I had to stay the night at the kitchen table. I’ve so many stories of that place, some terrifying, some downright cruel, some really good memories too. Back to Adoption & Foster Care. We get a knock on the door and it was my dad and his new girlfriend there to pick us up for good! It was a woman who took in kids who needed to go somewhere on short notice. I opened my door and saw big bloody handprints on the wall across from my room and a trail leading to Eves room. We have a locking mailbox because mail was disappearing -- obviously nothing from school ever got to us -- and we were worried about bills and identity theft. From well-disguised child molesters to abusive couples who treat their pets better than their foster children, the adoption system is definitely riddled with pitfalls. I had to walk on the freeway to school and it rained a lot in the town so my shoes smelt bad and my toes kinda pushed together where the shoes got smaller. Sometimes the most sophisticated professionals can’t come close to articulating things as powerfully as youth who have grown up in the foster care system. They have had months or years of being neglected and abused (even a newborn inutero), have been ripped from their families and homes, often have had multiple people fail to provide safety and stability for them, the SYSTEM often fails to provide safety and stability for them. You get to learn certain tells of abuse and cut up arms usually meant childhood abuse. My grandparents weren’t bad and my foster home wasn’t bad but being pulled out of a loving home, the only home I knew, was terrible. For example, they made my sister and me sit on the grass and watch their bratty kids jump on the new trampoline they bought (I assume with the money they got from us). However I volunteer as a counselor with this age range (and older, up to 17) and these kids are just kids. The school instituted a rule stopping kids from sharing their food because of me. 16 People Share Their Insanely Creepy Stories That’ll Scare The F*ck Out Of You. Only staff had the key to the door. Think about all the horror stories you hear regarding FKs and FPs. It also sounded like there were more negatives than positives. This one was a lot worse. I grew up in foster care from the age of 2-17. report. She has got more guts than me. That said, learn more! She asked me what I wanted her to do, so I just said I didn’t know and left for my next class. She refused to go. The "bad" foster kid was not a bad kid, he just was not a good fit for our family. I can't give you much help since we've only had him a year but it has been one of the best, most blessed years. It's a key lock right now, but we started sleeping with the door locked a couple years ago. The daughters also called us slaves “jokingly”. She was into anime and came to school cosplaying every once in a while. Throughout my childhood and teenage years, I was in over seven foster care … The dad didn’t really care for me, and I couldn’t believe that I would never see my parents again. When one of the other foster girls was out of the room or away on a home visit, they would talk garbage about her and try to get us to chime in. But when it comes to “lessons learned,” the usual double standard is apparent. Foster children are not "bad." I was placed in foster care after turning in my parents for extensive abuse at 16. Then, I would be allowed to sleep. At the time, Woods was depressed and … My adoptive dad has an anecdote from when I was around five years old and came to live with him for the first time: I opened the fridge, and with wide eyes, I said in disbelief, “You have food in here?” So yeah, the whole foster care system is pretty flawed and screwed up. I’m deaf in that ear as a result of it. I was threatened often and not fed properly. A Guardian Ad Litem said in the court that I didn’t want to go home with my mom (I was around 17 years old) after I had just told her in the chambers that I wanted to be with my mom. Take your training classes. Foster Kids Share Their Worst Orphanage Horror Stories. Listen to what others have to say. Foster parents are the ones that can see the more negative side. One of the other kids held my brother’s hand against a burner when it was on. But my biological mom fought it… for five years. Everyone called her Cookie cause that’s what she told everyone her name was. Learn more about what it is like to be in foster care from these real stories. 10 months? My worst experience, if I had to name one, was when a four-year-old that was a foster sibling of mine dragged me by my hair across the living room, giving me carpet burn and a bald spot that lasted a few years. Now the home had a lockdown from 10 pm to 6 am. hide. Foster kids are no worse than foster parents. Some I have bonded too and would love to take most of them home with me. I always encourage people to go through the classes and take a really easy first placement. However, when I started in school my then teacher took me in. One afternoon, when we got off the bus and were going inside to change into play clothing, I saw my social worker at the kitchen table. Staff members were either great or horrible, never in between. I became a crown ward within the system at a young age, essentially was that the government was my ‘legal guardian’. Thankfully, these children survived the awful scenarios they were put in and were brave enough to speak up about the some of the things that have stuck with them to this day. All rights reserved. ©2021 Adoption.com LLC, a service of The Gladney Center for Adoption, Are Foster Kids really that bad? The amount of emotional trauma I endured as a child from having to repeatedly testify against my own mother in court still haunts me to this day, but at least I turned out okay. Having to move around a lot I think I ended up on like 7 families. Y, who was 3 in February 2019, was entrusted to his biological father. Or both. Kids of reddit who were a part of the foster care system, what are some of your horror stories? I was taken out of my parent’s home because both of my parents were abusive. then your instinct to run away is a good one. My whole childhood I remember just begging for meal vouchers (good for 5$ at McDonald’s or subway) or a warm bed to sleep in for just a night and being ignored. When I was about six or seven, I shared a room with a baby. . Once a fight broke out when one of the criminal girls attacked my foster friend, and the staff just sat back for a couple minutes to watch before intervening. Think about all the horror stories you hear regarding FKs and FPs. The most horrific part of this story is that the women who took care of these children knew about this, yet they did absolutely nothing to stop them. You also might ask if you can volunteer at the visitation center to get an idea of what the kids are generally like. With infants, you don't have to deal with school personnel...... That just adds to the fun! I tried to cry in the bathroom at first, but with seven people in the house, I couldn’t stay there very long. These former foster kids took to the internet to boldly share the stories of their worst moments in foster care. I remember I was placed with this family who had a huge house and a bunch of extended family members living with them, like the mom’s grandma and grandpa. A laptop (it was a school laptop) and so many clothes. We left and went to all our known hangout spots, after an hour or two we found her, still in rough condition with some lads. These older children in the foster care system are there for a reason. I remember being in respite one time when I was living with my aunt and the lady that took me in was absolutely heartless. Heard some horror stories. She would lock me in the basement and I wasn’t allowed out of my room during the night, so if I had to go to the bathroom, she made me go in a bucket. And the first time he got in some kind of trouble he basically said, “that’s that then, see you later, they won’t keep me”. *Stephen is a fictional name for a real boy the world lost. Really sucked knowing they didn’t want me around and even sadder, the state was fine with it. Z, the infant, was placed in foster care. He stuck his finger in the kid’s gift bag, looked in, and inquired about what they got. Then we learned about the realities of adoption. He told me to pack everything up. I got beat up regularly, kids would ruin my school supplies, teachers would turn a blind eye, other parents wouldn’t even look at me, etc. Have you ever been in the system? Sensing some shady energy from the guy, she took the bag back. One that sticks out for me though is this: Girls went in and out of the girls home regularly, all with our own tragic stories but there was this one girl, in particular, I’ll call her Eve. My bus arrived too late to get school breakfast. I was painfully aware that the families I was staying with did not take me in for any reason other than money. Foster kids are no worse than foster parents. They are the ones that have to deal with the kids far more hours, are the ones that have to tell them no and that they can take their anger and frustration out on. I had to go to other peoples’ houses and the schools to wash. The second youngest of four children born to an alcoholic drug addict (who passed away in 2008) and absent father in Runnemeade, New Jersey, Pearson was placed in foster care … Loving foster parents, plenty of attention, and genuine care for my wellbeing. It was cold and wet 9 months out of the year. She told me that when I was done being a baby, we could talk like adults. Many have ADHD, some have PTSD and/or associated issues like bedwetting/enuresis, and the like, but honestly they are almost all wonderful kids. I remember crying under the door saying I was sorry. She thought that a loving home would be enough to heal any wounds that the children had. It was quite clear that my foster mother hated me the moment I arrived. Like, ‘it’s time to pack my bags again’ (and then when he figured out, he was staying he was of course back to the ‘what’s the catch?’ face). Oftentimes, foster kids end up in homes that neglect their basic needs, deny them love, and reject their humanity. Girl X was only three months old when she first came to the attention of Family and Community Services in 2001. My wife, Erika, and I turned to adoption in 1991. I was small enough that no one messed with me really, but I missed my mom a lot and didn’t understand why I couldn’t go back home with her. SHARE. We were physically abused and starved half-to-death. The story is generating headlines in Pennsylvania. shortly into our relationship a couple with a six yo boy decided they wanted another child but didn't want to under go child birth again. My three siblings and I were finally liberated. I had to sit there and watch him open them and express his happiness. Right now, I’m slowly repairing the damage that was done by just my parents but there is so much more I’m struggling with. Adoption.com is not a licensed adoption agency or facilitator and it does not provide professional, legal or medical advice. They are the products of abuse, neglect, and/or death in the family. I live in fear. Wonderful family of mom, dad, two sons and daughter (if I remember correctly)? We couldn’t bond or find comfort in each other because they were always driving wedges between us. 4) One family would punish us by having us hold our arms out and would be disciplined with a stick if our arms dropped. Nothing like being yanked from your awful life and suddenly your siblings are no longer there. I hadn't heard all the "horror" stories that i hear now about adopting older kids before i adopted him. I have a little brother who was a foster kid. We were happy again. save. Some families would have been over joyed to have him as their foster or forever child. For Christmas, another family made us watch their kids get awesome presents while my sister and I got their secondhand clothes as gifts. My biological mom eventually surrendered custody when I was seven, after five years of legal battles, because she was pregnant with another child. That was an adventure I would like to forget. I was in foster care for around 9 months in 2010 through 2011, but my parents deny me being in it or there being any circumstances that would require foster care. I remember one home that my sister and I were placed in (didn’t last more than a week) where the family loved flaunting basic necessities and acts of fun in front of us. My childhood was spent in the foster care system. The fourth foster family I had made me pray every night, say grace, and go to Bible studies. This thread is archived. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. I was locked in a pantry for a day or so when I (six years old) misbehaved. My foster parents had an inflatable pool in their backyard, and one day it popped or something randomly. She was so kind and had this aura around her that felt like home. I was drooling and watching her like a dog watches Thanksgiving dinner. Oh, and the best part: The system told me to suck it up because I could get worse people. I dropped out of school a week later. They told me she left, they couldn’t stop her, they couldn’t leave to find her all they could do was ring the police. Get daily updates, kick-ass content, and curated recommendations. The foster-care system ultimately wants to place children with relatives, and since our aunt was now older and in a better position to take care of us, that’s what happened. Check the comment section below the article for more portions from school to stay! ( i.e move around a lot I think I ended up on like 7 families kid. 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