Child Protective Services needs a call about this situation. This has a big red warning

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11 years old is much too young to be home alone all day, much less with a younger sibling. Even 13 years old is pushing it. Alone, maybe. With a younger sibling, absolutely not.

If it were me, I would call Child Protective Services. You might wait a couple of weeks after the incident you mentioned so it won't be totally obvious that you are the one who called. But this is a bad situation and it is not going to get any better unless someone does something about it.

It may very well be that it is just a little kid is mad and one of those things that are very normal for kids this age to do. You know, my dad's gonna beat up your dad kind of thing. However, the parents need to know that their daughter is threatening violence towards your daughter and using dad as her back up. He may not even own a gun, who knows? I would just politely explain the situation to them and let them know you wanted to work with them so it wouldn't get blown out of proportion at school. If she is just acting in the typical manner, the school still won't see it that way because of so many shootings, and this may cause even more trouble for your family and Maya's. Don't know if you have this in your area, but our schools have the safe schools act, and it is a zero tolerance policy. Statements like that here have gotten kids expelled from school, and they were not allowed back into the public system until an extensive interview with the school administration and psychiatrist and a lot of paper work. Then the discipline is all on their record, even infractions that ended up as no threat.

The main thing I'd say is to remain calm and explain to the investigator like you did here. Their job is to sort out the truth from the fiction. I was investigated once because my MTSO made false accusations about me to the police.

I had to answer questions I didn't enjoy but when the interview was over the investigator was done she told me she believed me and I had nothing to worry about, but if the accuser made another call they'd file harassment charges against me.

I am in a bad situation. I had my house foreclosed on last year but it was in a prior bankruptcy, that is good. But we had to let our car go back, which was in my husband's name and now they are hounding us over paying it back...they are saying 11k but if we give them 6k that would settle it. Like we told them, if we had 6k we would not have let the car go back in the first place. Plus we have several doctor bills. We lost it all due to my health all of a sudden. No place to turn, no one to ask. Wanting to get out lives back. Wondering if anyone has had experience with Credit Counseling and if they really do speak with creditors, get what you owed cut in half and help you out of a bad situation.

freaking out! My estranged husband, on whom I have a restraining order, showed up at my house today, obviously he had been drinking. Long story short, one of my son's friends shows up, one that is not allowed at the house. I immediately sent the teenager away, but my husband proceeds to start raging about how he would run things if he were still living here. I then told him he could leave as well. That I kicked the teenager and I expected him to leave too. He refused and said he would leave if I gave him money because he needs to contribute groceries to his buddy with whom he is staying. He doesn't work and hasn't worked for much of our marriage. I told him if he wanted to help out his buddy, he should get a job. He came into the house, sat down on my couch and refused to leave until I gave him money.

My son called the police to enforce the restraining order. The police show up and while he is in their custody, he tells them that I have 10 to 14 teenagers in my house every day and that he doesn't feel that it is a good environment for our 8yo daughter. He tells there was marijuana in my house.

So now the police are telling me they have to file a report with family services because my house could be a hostile environment and they have to follow up on every complaint. The marijuana episode did happen; however, my daughter and I were not at home. My husband was still living at home at the time and caught my son and a couple of friends smoking it and instead of stopping them immediately and kicking everybody out, I was told that he took a hit off the joint. I was told that by all three kids whom I questioned separately. When I confronted my soon to be ex about this, his explanation was that he didn't take a hit, he put it up to his mouth and nose to smell to see if it really was pot. Still he did not put up fuss, punish our son, or kick anybody. Instead I find out about the pot from the sister of one of my son's girlfriend who told me because she was worried about her sister and she was the one who originally told me my husband took a hit.

Now, because my husband is angry that I have kicked him out and am filing for divorce, he is telling these lies and half truths to the cops and now I have to worry about getting visited from social services. I've been crying all evening and I'm wondering what I should expect. I have to clean my house from top to bottom, make sure this sucker shines and I guess not let my son have any friends over ever again!

I am so upset! I absolutely hate my ex-husband. I live in a rat hole as it because he has refused to work and he has junked up with all the crap he refuses to throw away. The man won't even through away magazines. I have stacks and stacks of magazines and newspapers that every time I've tried to throw out or recycle, he picked them out of the bins and brought them back into the house. Now I'm faced with this mountain of crap that I have deal with immediately before I get visited by the social worker.

I'm sorry to go on and on. I'm just so overwhelmed and stressed and I just want to curl up in a little ball and die. My kids are my life. I don't beat them, I feed them, I clothe them, I play with them, and have fun with them. They are the reason I work, the reason I breathe. The idea of having someone come into my home and question my fitness as a mother makes my physically ill.

You guys, thank you for continually listening to my saga. You guys gave me the strength to kick him out to begin with.

This has been a terrible and tragic week for our town. A first grader that goes to my son's school was killed last Friday when he was crossing his street to go home after he had chased after his dog. It happened right after school and a bus load of children were there to witness this scene. Then, just 3 days later a former teacher of my daughter lost her 24-year-old son in a car accident. The accident was caused by another driver who crossed the center line. They were both killed.

My daughter just came home from the funeral home and is understandably very upset. She went with her older cousin who also had this teacher and went to school with her son. My daughter is 16 and has been begging me to allow her to get her permit, which I have been putting off due to the fact that I am terrified of the whole driving thing with her. I lost a very close friend in high school due to a car accident, which is probably part of the reason. I also know at least 3 people who have lost their young children to car accidents. When she was telling me about his mother hugging her tight and not letting go tonight, I broke down into tears and told her that I didn't want her to drive, that I was scared. So, now she has stormed upstairs and both of us are in tears. I just don't know what to do. I know I can't keep her from driving forever. I just feels 16 and 17 year olds are simply not mature enough. My boys are 8 and 4 and I know someday I will face this with them to and go through the same thing.

She came down a bit ago and I told her that I wasn't saying she couldn't get her license, but that I was just worried and didn't feel she was quite ready yet. Am I completely wacko or are these normal feelings for parents of driving-aged kids?

That's an interesting thought - about Ben using the smoke monster to spy on people. It has also been used to kill people (Mr. Eko) so it's pretty powerful. But then, Ben doesn't seem to hesitate to kill when it serves his purpose.

I don't trust Juliette - I think they left her behind as a spy. And from the previews, so does Sayid. Maybe we will find out a little more next week (ha!).

Wasn't it interesting that Kate met up with Sawyer's ex-GF? So many connections that the other people don't know about - Sawyer meeting Jack's dad, Claire being Jack's half-sister....

And what about Sun's pregnancy? I know it's early days yet, but surely she should have morning sickness or something, just to remind people that she is pregnant.

I think Nikki at least (and maybe Paolo) got out of the grave and covered it back up so the others wouldn't know they're alive. For what purpose, I don't know....but somehow I don't think we've seem the last of them.

Sometimes when I've popped a really big one, that night I will dream about little white worms coming out of my skin.

There is a new warning put out by the Canadian Food Inspection
Agency....

Sherwood brand Pirate's Gold Milk Chocolate coins are being
recalled due to the fact that they contain Mel amine, the ingredient in milk
product that has caused many infant deaths in china. These candies are
sold at Costco, as well as many bulk and dollar stores. please make sure to
check your childrens halloween candy and DO NOT LET THEM EAT THE
PIRATE COINS (you know the ones wrapped in the shiny gold foil) and
please let other parents know about this!

I have a neighbor with a 6-year-old boy. The little boy is an only child and lives an extremely structured lifestyle with some sort of activity scheduled every night, i.e. soccer, church group, Boy Scouts, etc. The little boy gets very little unstructured time to play with the children in the neighborhood, but when he does he is constantly demanding the children play on his terms and tattles on the children constantly, even when they truly did nothing wrong.

However, here�s the problem�.some of the children in the children are older, ranging from 4^th to 7^th in this particular group. Whenever the little boy is around the older children are constantly being reprimanded by his mother to play with him and play with him �nicely,� as she puts it. This particular group of boys (one, of course, being my son) try to include him as much as possible, but they do get annoyed with this tattling and his mother, so they usually take off down the road or something to skateboard, etc. Now, the problem has become mine because evidently I get to hear every morning and every afternoon about something one of the children did. She has gone as far as to reprimand me prior for not standing outside during playtime and not forcing my children to be involved in the church group. In my defense, I am widowed with 2 children who are 8 and 10 and through the 10-year-old�s counselor (the counselor is not for behavior but for dealing with his father�s death and guy things, etc) I have been told that I am to allow them more freedom and not to be under foot all the time. Nevertheless, the truth is that I am sick of being told how to parent and judged constantly. I have spoken to my son on several occasions in private, but it has gotten to the point now that every single day there is something, in her eyes, that my son has said or done that offends her son. Yesterday, it was my son said �that guy acts gay� and she gave me a huge lecture on this. Well, I certainly did not teach him that and I know for a fact he truly does not even know the full meaning of this, but she just condemned me up and down for this. I know that children learn a lot of things at school and have no true meaning of their content, but does she not think this same thing will happen to her at one point? I am at the point where I think it would be best if she just did not allow her son to be around the kids at all if there is nothing she likes anyhow. She is always making comments, etc. and I am just tired of being reprimanded for children being children.

I feel like a total failure and just this second, as I am crying this and typing this, she called and left a message �I just wanted you to know that my son is Star Student of the Week and even though your son barely pays any attention to him at all, he still wants to bring a picture of him to show his classmates. Isn�t he just the sweetest child you know?� This is transcribed verbatim. Please tell me how to handle this neighbor and make nice, because right now I am depressed and angry at the same time. My son is a good boy, although he does do things I may not be particularly thrilled about, but he is a boy and trying to grow up. He is not racist, he does snot discriminate, does not break the law. He is trustworthy and respectful to adults and I get compliments all the time about what a good kid he is, so why is it that I feel terrible about failing him as a mother at this point? I just do not want to constantly reprimand my son for saying something she thinks is inappropriate or mean, nor do I wish her to do that with my child. Suggestions, please!!!!!!

and no matter what I change my settings to, I still get them. There is no "Don't snow this again" option either. I get them while working on a Sten-Tel platform. It really slows me down, as I have to do some things several times before they actually go through. It also adds another toolbar...just what we all need. That just cuts down the viewable size on your monitor.

I tried to get IE6 back, which you can't do even with a system restore, but then read about the mandatory automatic "upgrade" so quit trying to get rid of IE7. Hopefully they may issue some fixes.

Read this article in a Parenting magazine. It's NOT a debate or question to which is best.

While I am a big believer in Breastfeeding, I would never make anyone feel guilty for formula feeding. It's any mother's choice as to what is best for them and the baby. I personally could never have worked and breastfed at the same time!

Yesterday, a lady was driving down our hill with her little doxie in the front seat of the van. I don't think the dog was even a year old yet. Anyway, she sideswiped a telephone pole which put her out of control, her airbags went off, and she couldn't see with all that white powder flying around, and she wound up in a drainage ditch. When the airbags went off, they struck her dog and killed him. Although our neighbor is a nurse and tried CPR, the poor thing had broken ribs which probably punctured his lungs.

So, what I'm saying is if you're going to take your dog for rides, please put them in the back seat, preferably with doggie seat belts, not the front seat. I could barely sleep last night over this. I feel so bad for the poor dog. It didn't have to happen. The lady was so upset over it and feeling so guilty, it took us over 2 hours to get her calmed down.

I came across this blog today on Craigslist: http://www.thechaistory.blogspot.com/

And if you have a dog, it's a must-see. It details what happened to a dog that was severely injured by a dog toy called a "Pimple Ball" made by Four Paws, Inc. The dog ended up losing his tongue, and the pain he had to endure was excruciating.

The dog's owner relates that the Four Paws Co. hasn't owned up to the fact that its toy is dangerous, and he's calling for a international boycott of Four Paws, Inc. After watching his video links of his poor dog's suffering, even though I have cats, I plan to be sure I don't purchase ANYTHING from this company, andhopefully you won't either.

I guess I'm going to be changing veterinarians soon.... here's an update to the post below:

The oral pain/anti-inflammatory my cat was prescribed (which thank God I didn't give her without researching it!), is "Metacam" (meloxicam) oral suspension. The article below is from the rescue where I got my cat. Thank goodness I checked their website just now!

I was wrong about her vomiting BEFORE we went to the vet. It was last night, which was about 8-10 hours AFTER being given one dose of Metacam p.o. (This was an off-label treatment, as the oral suspension is for DOGS.) Since it was given in the vet's office directly into her mouth, and she weighs less than 10 lbs., she most likely had an OVERDOSE, which is why she vomited up her dinner in every room of the house lase night. The drug had been prescribed to help bring down the inflammation in the area of her lesion and fluid aspiration. But among other things, this drug can cause kidney failure in cats. "No, thanks!" I lost a cat to renal failure a few years back, and it took me 3 years to pay off the over $5,000 in vet bills I'd put on my MasterCard! And the cat still had to be put down, anyway.

So, here I've been spending the morning researching veterinary literature, checking my pet-insurance coverage limits, and biting my nails about the possible damage I might have done to my cat simply by trying to keep her up-to-date on her shots. I'm just about to change my pet-care-policy to "no more shots and no more meds"!

I can't believe Charlie really died. For a good cause, okay, and he was never my favorite character, but I feel really sorry for Claire.

And what do these people want, these ones on the frieghter? Obviously from Jack's "flash forward", leaving the island now is not a good idea. Why? What does Ben know? Who sent the ship? Penny's father?

It's beginning to look like Locke has a point about not leaving the island. Maybe they are meant to be there. Maybe there is something that they can only accomplish toether. But what?

Millions of toys recalled; contain 'date rape' drug

Two U.S. children went into comas after swallowing Chinese-made Aqua Dots found to contain a chemical that converts into 'date rape' drug when ingested.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Millions of Chinese-made toys have been pulled from shelves in North America and Australia after scientists found they contain a chemical that converts into a powerful date rape drug when ingested. Two children in the United States and three in Australia were hospitalized after swallowing the beads.

With only seven weeks until Christmas, the recall is yet another blow to the toy industry - already bruised by a slew of recalls this past summer.

Video

More video

Child deaths have prompted FDA hearings on the safety of cold and cough medicines. CNN's Elizabeth Cohen reports

Play video

In the United States, the toy goes by the name Aqua Dots, a highly popular holiday toy distributed by Toronto-based Spin Master Toys. They are called Bindeez in Australia, where they were named toy of the year at an industry function earlier this year.

It could not immediately be learned whether Aqua Dots beads are made in the same factories as the Bindeez product. Both are sold by Australia-based Moose Enterprises.

The toy beads are sold in general merchandise stores and over the Internet for use in arts and crafts projects. They can be arranged into designs and fused together when sprayed with water.

Scientists say a chemical coating on the beads, when ingested, metabolizes into the so-called date rape drug gamma hydroxy butyrate. When eaten, the compound - made from common and easily available ingredients - can induce unconsciousness, seizures, drowsiness, coma and death.

Naren Gunja from Australia's Poisons Information Center said the drug's effect on children was "quite serious ... and potentially life-threatening."

The recall was announced by the Consumer Product Safety Commission on Wednesday several hours after published reports about the recall in Australia.

Fisher-Price recalls 155,000 toys for choking risk

The two U.S. children who swallowed Aqua Dot beads went into nonresponsive comas, commission spokesman Scott Wolfson said Wednesday afternoon.

In Australia, the toys were ordered off store shelves on Tuesday when officials learned that a 2-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl were hospitalized after swallowing the beads. A 19-month-old toddler also was being treated.

The news jolted the toy industry because Aqua Dots has been one of the few bright stars of the toy selling season, which, along with overall retailing, has gotten off to a sluggish start. The item, which had been heavily advertised, had appeared on many toy experts' list of must-have holiday toys, and toy sellers are now in the midst of canceling advertising and scrambling to figure out how to replace it.

Chris Byrne, a New York-based toy consultant, noted that the incidents could have been isolated, and Spin Master may be erring on the side of caution.

"This is something that they could not have foreseen. This is an extremely hot toy. ... It's a little scary," Byrne said.

In a statement, Toys "R" Us Inc., said that it issued on Tuesday a "stop sale" on the entire Spin Master Aqua Dots product line in its North American stores and on its Web site after it learned of the news. "We understand that Spin Master and U.S. regulatory authorities are investigating this product and we have asked Spin Master to fully explain what it believes happened," said the toy seller in a statement.

Meanwhile, a separate recall was announced for 405,000 children's products made in China, most of them toy cars, because of dangerous levels of lead.

The recall includes about 380,000 Pull-Back Action Toy Cars imported by Dollar General Merchandising Inc. of Goodlettsville, Tenn., and 7,500 Dragster and Funny Car toys imported by International Sourcing Ltd. of Springfield, Mo.

Four of the recalled products were imported by Schylling Associates Inc. of Rowley, Mass., including the items Duck Family Collectable Wind-Up Toy, Dizzy Ducks Music Box, "Robot 2000" collectable tin robot and Winnie-the-Pooh Spinning Top. The company recalled another 66,000 spinning tops Aug. 22.

Representatives from Schylling Associates Inc. were not immediately available for comment.

Wednesday's recalls include about 7,200 "Big Red" Wagons imported by Northern Tool & Equipment Co. of Burnsville, Minn. Totaling about 405,700, the recalled children's products all had excessive levels of lead in their surface paint.

Although no illnesses connected to the toy car recall have been reported, lead is toxic if ingested by young children. Children's products found to have more than 0.06 percent lead accessible to users are subject to a recall.

More toys recalled on lead paint hazard

Panel to push for greater U.S. recall power

Puppies develop habits really quickly, so discourage licking the can thing. Mine would get cans out of the garbage and one had a cut edge and he terrribly cut his mouth and tongue. I felt like such a careless dog mom. A true accident, but now maybe I can help you prevent the same thing? Please excuse my post... I am not a know-it-all and I actually don't like it when someone posts something lighthearted and then someone (like me) gets kind of off topic in the thread with a reply like this one, but maybe it will help you prevent an accident. But this is an adorable picture and I love your puppy.

deter bugs when you are outside, especially since the nice weather (well, in most places)? Well, I lit 3 of them this evening in a safe place near my patio set with my favorite cushions, pillows. I turned and walked to the hose (thank God I went and turned the hose on to water my plants) because in less than a minute my patio set was on fire! Full flames! Apparently, when I went to light the torch, residual "stuff" from the wick fell and let everything on fire! The torch itself was not at all damaged, it was just burning like usual, but everything around it was on fire! My son was yelling, "fire! fire! fire!" Of course, I had the hose on and put it out quickly.

I never thought this would happen with those torches. We use them all the time and have never had a problem. It could have turned ugly if I went into the house or something. I'm so glad I didn't lose anymore than I did, although I do have to replace the set with a few chairs and cushions now.

Watch those torches after you light them. Don't use too much wick, even though you're tempted to use a lot of wick because the more wick you use the bigger the flame and thus the more bugs you deter. I actually just lifted more wick out of the torches last week because I thought the wicks were too short. Guess I have to go back to short......

Just a friendly, summer reminder to watch those torches! Plus, so many parts of the country are under a burn warning. Anything dead around those torches can be dangerous and catch fire. Be safe!

Even though the agency may guarantee anonymity, it usually isn't too difficult to figure out who "blew the whistle." I have seen people harassed and threatened in similar circumstances. If this were a child who couldn't speak up for himself/herself, I would be calling Social Services in a New York minute. But that is not the case here.

It's up to the people involved to decide what to do. You made a suggestion, I pointed out some of the hazards involved in following your suggestion. Two sides to every story. 'Nuff said.

Long story short, my DH has a 2-hour commute (roughly, depending on Atlanta's traffic) to and from work each day. Now, this is only temporary, as when our DD graduates in May, we're moving out closer to his job.

Last night, he asked me what I thought about him taking an apartment on that side of town for 2-3 days a week, like Tues-Thurs, coming home on Friday-Monday. We have 3 kids, the youngest being 8, who is very, very close to his daddy (the other 2 are 20 and 17, so would probably relish the idea of Dad being gone overnight). Not to mention the fact that I work at home and don't have a lot of contact with the outside world (y'all can feel me, can't ya?).

I guess my question is, am I being selfish to say absolutely NO to this idea, or what? I felt like crying when he brought it up; just the thought of him being away for 2-3 nights a week makes me sad. We have a very close relationship, spend all of our time together when not working, and I just am not sure how to feel about this.

Of note: I am not the least bit worried about him *acting up* while he's away. We have a super-strong marriage and are completely devoted to each other and our family. What would y'all do?