To ring social services on my neighbour?

[EllieRosesMammy]

So basically, I've lived next to my neighbour for 4 years now who has 2 young kids (5 & 4 I believe). She's a nice enough person but every single day she's sat out the front of her house smoking weed and drinking lager, and I don't mean just a can I'm talking about a whole crate and then off to the shop for more. I can count on one hand how many times I've seen her bring a food shop home over the years, yet the daily trips to the shop for lager are constant. The kids are left at home to roam in and out of the house while she goes off on her booze runs too. And if she's gone for a long period of time for anything I'm pretty sure that when she doesn't leave them with some teenagers (not sure who they are) they're actually left completely alone in that house. Her children (and others from the street) are also allowed to roam around on the road outside, which constantly has cars traveling up and down - the other day one of them, who must of been about 3 years old, ran out infront of my mams car and nearly ended up squished! When my mum confronted my neighbour and said "excuse me but one of your little ones just nearly ended up under my car" she replied without a care "oh yeah that's our Charlie, he's got adhd"?!?! Didn't bother to bring him in, or seem remotely fussed he nearly ended up dead. Also her house absolutely stinks of drugs & animal faeces, so bad so that if she has her door open I have to close my windows because the smell bellows in. I've glanced in to her house a few times as I've walked past and I've honestly seen better looking smack dens. Another thing is she will frequently have angry, drugged up men banging at her door during the night. She's had her windows put through 3 times and just the other day there was a man stood at her door, snorting either ketamine or cocaine off the wall, threatening to head butt her.

AIBU to report her to the social? Surely this isn't an acceptable way to be bringing up children, and I'm concerned that one of these days something really bad is going to happen to them.

You need to contact social immediately. If it’s as you describe here I would say those children are at risk of immediate harm.

Report her - worst that will happen is they will come out, clear her and she won’t know who reported her. Best scenario is that you actually save those kids from a date worse than death. I know some people say not to meddle but, honestly, I’d rather stick my nose in and make sure those children don’t end up abused / addicted / dead (I work for adult mental health and honestly nothing surprises me when it comes to people anymore!). Just ring social services, tell them what you’ve seen / heard and ask they look into it.

Of course YANBU. Report her immediately.

Yes asap

Call anyone who will listen and fast. That sounds like a risk of immediate harm, just from the animal faeces smell alone.

What? Is this a joke or a film reference? If not why are you even asking and allowed it to go on for so long? Of course you should report.

Wow absolutely yes, these children need help

I'm concered that you even think this is a question you need to ask. What would be the reasons not to report, why haven't you done it already?

You absolutely must call social services this is no way on earth acceptable call them immediately

Would have reported that a long time ago!!

Report her. And then report her every single time an incident happens. If someone snorts drugs off her wall, if her windows get put in, the children are left alone. Ring them every day if you need to. Those poor kids and poor you having that neighbour!

Please report ASAP- those poor children, my heart aches for them

Yes you need to call social services.

YANBU. Get it reported 👍

You would be unreasonable not to.

However if you think a child is home alone at that age you should in the first instance call the Police.

Yes absolutely as a matter of urgency! I say that as an adopter of a boy who was removed from a similar environment. The risk to those children is huge. How will you feel if you don’t act but know you had concerns.

It's only recently I've noticed how bad it's gotten, before now I've always worked full time so I'm hardly at home myself to see what's going on. But since putting up cctv outside my house and actually being at home on maternity leave I've noticed how frequently it happens, before now I mostly assumed that it wasn't an every day thing. Plus it's one of those areas where pretty much every household has social services involved already, I'm pretty sure it's only myself and my neighbours on the other side who have no involvement with the social whatsoever.

Nope, just the reality of living in Middlesbrough. I didn't realise how bad it was till recently, what with working full time and having 2 children of my own, and also since as pretty much every family round here is like that it's going to look fairly obvious who has reported her, so I wasn't fond of bringing trouble to my door.

So next time if she leaves the children home along to go out, ring the Police.

yy to ss but if she leaves them at home unattended also call 999.

Yes.

Look up baby P.

The survival of some children rests on women like you reporting what you see.

I’d call the police when the children are alone. They’ll call in SS.
And keep any evidence that’s on your cctv.

This is such a slam dunk - obviously you need to report, I'm struggling to understand why you've written a post?

I agree with calling police if children are left alone, also if there’s someone banging on door. I’m a social worker and this will protect you somewhat from accusations because then social workers can say the police contact them. Somehow it’s easier on the neighbours.