Family Feuds·
THE KINSHIP DECISION
A sister recounts alleged verbal cruelty toward a child, sparking a CPS investigation and a high-stakes kinship decision that tests family loyalties and care.
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Jimmy's school made a call to CPS, and by nightfall his mother was yelling in a car that if his other mom wanted to take him, "his a$$ would be on the next plane."
The poster, a 33-year-old woman, says that was the moment everything came to a head in her sister Michala's home. Michala, 30, had married Brad, 35, three years earlier. Brad already had a 6-year-old son, Jimmy, and the family had taken him in as one of their own because his "eggdonor" had not been around since he was a baby.
But the poster says Michala never really wanted kids around. According to her, once children could talk back, Michala got sharp. She says she witnessed more than one instance of verbal cruelty aimed at Jimmy from both Michala and Brad, and that it got worse after Michala had her own child, 2-year-old Sam.
Yesterday, Michala phoned the poster in a panic after hearing from Jimmy's school that he had said something about how he was being treated at home. That statement had triggered a CPS report. In the middle of the argument, Michala was allegedly yelling at Jimmy in the car, furious about what he had said, and threatening that if his mother wanted him, he would be sent away.
The poster says she offered an immediate solution: she could take Jimmy in, get him into a school near her, and push for family therapy for the adults. Michala snapped back that the poster was calling her a bad parent and trying to "upshine" her.
That sent the poster one step further. She called the regional CPS office where Michala and Brad live and told them what she had personally seen. She described Jimmy's personality and his ADHD. She also volunteered for kinship placement for both Jimmy and Sam if needed, saying that what she had seen of Michala and Brad's treatment of Jimmy was "the tip of the iceberg."
In the update, the poster says CPS moved quickly. Jimmy and Sam were both removed from Michala and Brad's home. Sam is now in the poster's parents' custody. Jimmy is in a foster care facility for the moment, and later he is expected to move into the poster's home while the court process plays out. Sam may also be moved there eventually, depending on what the courts decide.
The poster says she did not act sooner because she lived far away and only saw fragments of the relationship. She says she never saw a physical altercation or evidence of one, and Jimmy never told her about any. Still, she says family members who know the full situation support placing the children with her side of the family. She also added one more warning about the other side: "Brad's family... well let's just say there are reasons why a kinship placement with them isn't a good idea."