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» THE CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICE DILEMMA

By China at 9:32 PM

Being a long distance parent, it can be difficult to tell when your child is in trouble. Lately, I have seen signs in my daughter on visits with me and heard some things that are really troubling me. I don't really have the money to pursue a child custody case or to hire a private investigator to follow her around and catch her doing stuff, but I know that her mom is out partying all night sometimes on school nights while my daughter who is 14 is allowed to run the streets and hang with her friends. She has been in trouble with the law several times that I know of and I am wondering if they have brought in a child protective services attorney yet. I have honestly thought about contacting child protective services in Florida, which is where she lives, but even though they will tell you it is anonymous I am afraid that she will find out it is me and then she will deny me visits with my kid. I really am concerned about her well being and I am not sure what I can do to take action without having it come back and bite me. I have always felt that she should stay with her mother, I never felt it was right to try and take her away, but her mother has some serious problems. I think that she might be schizophrenic and I am pretty sure that she is an alcoholic, but I can't really prove any of this, these are just the things that I have kind of figured out on my own. My daughter very much keeps secrets, which is an indication that she might be the child of an alcoholic which can make it difficult to figure out what is really going on. She also lies, and I have caught her in a few of them, but I realize that this is what her mother expects her to do and so I don't ride her too hard. Contacting a child protective services lawyer is something I should probably do, but I am really afraid that if I push too hard on this woman then I will never see my kid again. I figure for now it is probably better to have her in my life, then not to see her at all. That would probably be worse for the kid.