Child Abuse - My Granddaughter Left on the Street at Night

by Donna F
(Montana, USA)

Left in the street at 10pm at 10 years old: 
My daughter and granddaughter were driving home and were having a disagreement in the car. My daughter said she got fed up with her "10" year old daughter so she pulled to the side of the street, got out, went to the other side of the car got her daughter out of the car and said to her her "I hope you can find your way home". My daughter got back in the car and left her daughter standing there in the middle of the street, 10pm, dark, 2 miles from home, alone.

My granddaughter had remembered a friend lived nearby so she went there and called me and I went and picked her up and brought her to my house. I had made an agreement with my daughter that when things went wrong and my granddaughter called me I would call her parents but I was so appalled at this situation I wasn't thinking straight.

My granddaughter was so frightened and so was I. Her dad called to talk to her and I told him not to be angry with her and he got really mad and I didn't care I was so mad at what happened.

Well the parents came to my house with the police and got my granddaughter. They took her and left the officer to threaten me with jail and or prison for interfering with parental discipline even though a 10 year old was left in the middle of the street alone at 10 pm. The officer said she was old enough to find her way home. I let it go that night.

The next day, since I had turned my daughter in for child abuse before but she works within the system in my city so they have been protecting her and attacking her and not believing my granddaughter, I went to the police station and asked to talk to a seasoned officer.

I told him what happened and he said he did not know where the officer of the night before had gotten information or training but he was wrong. What happened was called "child endangerment" and it didn't matter who you were or who you worked for. But since he was not the officer on call there was nothing he could do. ANOTHER BRICK WALL1 My usual story.

My granddaughter has been denied me four years now. Just recently I have become financially stable and can finally afford an Attorney to look into grandparent visitation and my rights to visit my granddaughter. I will spend every penny trying to see her unless she has been pressured to deny me which is something I feel her mother will do; make her home life miserable if she wants to see me in which case I will let it go. I will leave it to her but I won't give up until she says to. I love and miss her very much. I have already lost my grandsons.