I Wouldn't Touch Your Kid With a 15-Foot Pole

Dirty House Referrals are the WORST.

Occasionally I receive an investigation on a family due to the poor living conditions of their home. This typically means one of the following: Excessive clutter (imagine Hoarders: Buried Alive), Reoccurring Bedbugs and/or head lice found in the home or on the children, or the home was found to be in "deplorable conditions" which typically is associated with a combination of piles of dirty clothes, dirty dishes, trash laying everywhere, animal feces in the home, etc. Oh and sometimes a investigation is taken due to a child coming to school daily with a terrible odor, dirty clothes or lice-infested hair.

You get the idea

Now, the response of most is something like "That is so pathetic" or "How hard is to keep your house clean" or maybe even "You don't have to have money to keep your kids clean."
And part of me agrees completely. I mean, come on, I don't want to have to walk through a stranger's house taking pictures of dog poop and bugs climbing on the walls and have to tell a perfectly capable adult..."Hey please clean up this crap so your kid can have a normal childhood and not get bullied at school for smelling like B.O." It's frustrating and kinda sad to say the least.

But then there are other times when I think about the standard we (Americans) have for our children... I start to think about millions of children around the world who sleep on dirt floors and will never have air conditioning and have to go to the bathroom by squatting over a hole in the ground. I hate to ruin your concept of "poor African orphans" but those kids probably smell terrible. However, those conditions are acceptable for those kids, right? That is all they know; no one is walking through their home asking their parents to clean up. Why? Because that is the culture of so many people around the world. It's not sad...it's not abuse...it is a unique part of their culture that no one even thinks twice about because, again, that is all they know.

Why are the same conditions appreciated as a part of one child's unique culture but to another, they are unacceptable, disgusting and negligent??? Let me guess...It is because we are in America...we know better...we have different standards. Am i right? When I start thinking in this mindset, it gets me in trouble because I lose focus on what policy tells me is and is not acceptable for American children. I'm not sure if I feel worse for "our" children or "their" children to be honest. So why the disparity? This is the kind of stuff that keeps me up at night.

Just a thought. I suppose I will just follow the rules...(For Now)!!!