Neighbor calls police, DCFS on Illinois mom, Corey Widen, for letting 8-year-old daughter walk dog in neighborhood by herself
Police were called and an Illinois mom was investigated for letting 8-year-old walk the family dog around the block…alone.
Corey Widen penned an op-ed for the USA Today chronicling the bizarre turn of events as the “anonymous caller” informed police of a “5-year-old was out by herself.”
“The cops checked in on my family and reported back to the neighbor that I had done nothing wrong and was not endangering my child for letting her walk her dog. Apparently wanting to see me hauled away in handcuffs in front of my kid, the same neighbor decided to call the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), which launched a weeks-long investigation for neglect.”
Corey Widen photo/ screenshot from interview
So the police investigate and that wasn’t enough….the mother was turned into children and families.
A DCFS spokeswoman told The Washington Post that someone called the agency’s hotline, reporting the girl appeared to be 5 years old or younger and the police had been called in the past when she was spotted playing alone in a parking lot.
“All because my daughter walked her dog.
“If this sounds crazy to you, that’s because it is. I would soon learn, however, that in America reporting mothers to the authorities because an onlooker disagrees with her parenting is shockingly common.”
Read the full column HERE
Widen, 48, mother from Wilmette, Ill., a Chicago suburb, told “Good Morning America” on Friday she thought it was important to start giving her young daughter, Dorothy, a little more independence.
“I’m an older mom, having my second child at 40 years old. I lived with a decade of infertility, lost a baby and I have health concerns,” she explained her in column. “I face every day acutely aware that my time with my children is limited, fleeting and so precious. My oldest turns 18 this week and I feel like I just brought him home. It really does go by so, so fast.
“Thus, the fact that our government, urged on by busybodies who think their parenting style is the only correct way to parent, takes away or ruins this tiny bit of precious time from mothers — particularly mothers of color — should be the shame of our nation.”
“Don’t judge a book by its cover,” she told “Good Morning America.” “You don’t know every situation, you don’t know every child. When you do things like this, you overwhelm an already overwhelmed system with nuisance calls like this, and kids and families who really need help don’t get it then.”
