There isn’t much tougher on a kid than losing her home and her parents.
It’s a sad reality for thousands of kids, and it can be tough for the adults around them to accept that the love they have for their parent often endures.
This woman was a former foster child with a mom who struggled with addiction, so she gets her sister- and brother-in-law’s foster daughter.
My SIL (husband’s older sister) and her husband (my husband’s BIL) are foster parents.
From November of last year to February of this year they had a foster daughter “Mae”.
Mae was in foster care because her mother was addicted to drugs and was deemed unfit and unsafe for Mae to continue living with her.
Mae is 13. She was removed from her mom at the age of 10 and does still have visits with her mom. Mae loves her mom. This was clear from day one of her moving into SIL’s house.
SIL and her husband were not understanding of Mae loving her mom. They would actively discourage her from wanting more access to her mom.
Mae was writing letters to her mom and they read those and asked her why she would give up any stable home to go back to a dangerous life.
It was so difficult for Mae and she reported SIL and her husband to the case worker but the case worker didn’t trust what Mae was saying.
SIL and her husband would say these things around my husband, myself and their extended family.
I am also a former foster child and a child of an addict and I 10000% understand Mae.
They, however, do not get her and are doing more damage.
So I attempted to explain to SIL and her husband that they were not helping Mae by disparaging her mom and that many foster kids love and miss and want their parents and being an addict doesn’t change that.
SIL told me it was none of my business and they did not want me to interfere again.
Mae heard me speak to them and she opened up about how unhappy she was with my SIL and her husband and how frequent their disparaging comments about her mom or discouragement of her loving her mom happened.
She was feeling so desperate and said they didn’t get it.
My husband told SIL she should be more open to hearing my experiences as a foster child but she told him I was not Mae and she did not want her kids loving awful parents.
CPS wouldn’t believe the girl, so the poster and her husband reported what was going on.
My husband and I spoke about what happened and he encouraged me in reaching out to the case worker and explaining what was happening.
This led to Mae being removed from SIL and her husband’s care. SIL knew it had been me/us immediately.
My husband attempted to take all the blame but SIL said she knew it was me.
She told me I had taken away Mae’s stability again and how dare I interfere when I was told to stay out of it.
The girl was removed and her in-laws are upset with her for interfering.
The rest of my husband’s family said we should have kept out of it and it really wasn’t any of our business.
My husband told them it was wrong what his sister and her husband were doing to Mae.
But they all believe I was too close to the background to understand it was not my place.
AITA?
Does Reddit think she was wrong?
The top comment says they did the right thing stepping up for the child.
They say the child confirmed her feelings, so she wasn’t making things up.
The kiddo absolutely needed another advocate.
The point of foster care is not alienating children from their parents.
Good foster parents know.
It’s never wrong to intervene on behalf of a child.
I hope this kiddo gets the support she needs in a new home.
If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.