Alone and intoxicated, the seventeen-year-old was thrust into a role far beyond her years, left to care for her young siblings without guidance or support. The weight of neglect pressed heavily, and the echoes of laughter from her siblings only deepened the sting of abandonment, marking a night she will never forget.
I [17F] just might have landed my mom [38F] some legal trouble and I feel terrible for it.
Long story short I fell in a sewer yesterday and swallowed sewer water (by accident) and in order to avoid getting sick my mom gave me alcohol and I got very VERY drunk
soon after my mom, dad [50M],my little sister R [15F] and little brother J [9M] all agreed that after dinner R & J would help me with the dishes while my dad would go out ang get desert.
But before my dad left I confronted my mom about how drunk I felt. I told her that it was hard for me to think straight and I felt wobbly as a bouncy ball. She dismissed me and told me to sit down.
Now at this point R and J can tell i’m drunk and think it’s HILARIOUS and won’t stop laughing. And it’s when I try to stand up again that I realize that my mom left along with my dad and I was left alone to take care of my little brother and (severely mentaly and physically disabled) sister, all by myself, completely wasted.
I have no idea how to handle myself in this state of mind let alone 2 emboldened little kids teasing me. It took me several attempts just to get off the couch because I kept falling down so much.
I tried to clean the kitchen but I couldn’t get much done on account of trying to deal with my drunk ass and J and R’s teasing. Suffice to say this was a very difficult experience.
30 mins later my parents arrived home and went up stairs. At this point I’m starting to sober up a bit and the first thing I do is start sobbing. How could my mom just leave me like that?
She expected me not only to deal with that on my own but to also be incharge of 2 minors while doing so. I felt so betrayed and alone.
My mom woke me up this morning and we were actually able to talk things out. I told her how bad that made me all feel and she just listened to me and took full responsibility for it.
However, just a few hours ago I had a therapy appointment and I thought it was appropriate to bring this up as I often feel like I am given responsibility I have no idea how to haddle.
But therapists are mandated reporters and what I told her she thought were grounds for child neglect. She reported the incident to CPS. I feel terrible that it went that far and my mom felt terrible for letting the incident happen in the first place.
But my dad thinks I have completely overblown this situation. He is blaming me for the possible legal damages I could be causing my mom. He even wants me to call back my therapist and tell her that I was lying!!!!!
I think I might be the asshole for putting my mom in legal jeopardy, but at the same time I don’t think I’m fully responsible for this.
So AITA for telling the truth to my therapist?
Conclusion
The original poster (OP) is experiencing significant emotional distress, feeling betrayed by their mother for being left alone while intoxicated and responsible for younger siblings, one of whom has significant disabilities. The central conflict lies between the OP’s need to process and report a potentially harmful situation to a professional (the therapist) and the father’s subsequent reaction, which pressures the OP to retract their truthful statement to protect the mother from external legal consequences.
Was the OP wrong to be truthful with their mandated reporter therapist about the incident where they were left severely intoxicated and in charge of minors, potentially leading to a child neglect report, or was seeking help and honesty the appropriate action regardless of the consequences for their mother?
Here’s how people reacted:
Child neglect is SO MUCH MORE than leaving your children unsupervised for 30-60 minutes. No one was dying. No one was left without food or shelter or clean clothes. You weren’t missing days out of school.
Your parents left a 17yr old, 15yr old and a 9yr old at home for a very short period of time. Your CPS worker should have no problem seeing that your home is completely acceptable (unless there’s something else going on we don’t know about).
Even with you being drunk, your 15yr old sibling is perfectly capable of making sure you and your 9yr old sibling doesn’t burn the house down while your parents were gone.
Your therapist overreacted, and it would be a good idea to talk over what “child neglect” looks like with both your parents and your therapist. It’ll also be educational for you in the future. This way, if you’re ever put in a position where you question calling CPS, you can make an informed decision.
Edit: I reread your post and realized that your sister was completely incapable of helping with your little brother, essentially leaving your 9yr old brother home “alone”. Even if he was mature for his age, this is not ok.
Your parents do deserve a slap on the wrist and a “never do that again” from CPS. Your therapist was not out of line calling CPS.
Why the hell did you get so upset with your mother? Your explanation is terrible, and it sounds to me like you probably have had an issue with your mother for a long time. From what I read, she did what she thought would work. I am not saying what she did was right, but nothing happened to you. The only really WRONG thing that happened is when you narked out your mom. You are 17 years old, do not try to tell me you have never been drunk. And I have questions, how much did she make you drink, what is your weight (yes, that’s a factor), and what was SO WRONG that you had to come here to moan your non-issues to millions of strangers? And what caused you to fall in the sewer? Is that also your mother’s fault? You sound embarrassed and ashamed that you literally ate shit in front of people and are trying to get the focus on someone else, even if it means you may ruin their life.
You are an adult, act like it.
As for the therapist, it might not have been the best choice but I don’t think you are in the wrong. Frankly, the whole situation your parents put you in was insane from a parenting perspective.
That said, the therapist will know in a second that you are lying about lying. It won’t change shit, except make things worse because they know you parents are trying to hinder the CPS’s work.
Talk to CPS, tell them the truth and tell them that this has never happened before and you very much doubt it will again (if you believe that, that is)
To the situation at hand: I as a teacher am a mandated reporter and your therapist did the right thing as well as you for telling them. You were in a dangerous situation with the sewer water, you weren’t taken to the hospital, you were given alcohol as a minor, you were left alone to care for other minors while inebriated, you were dismissed when you voiced your concern about your health. Several of those things alone would have caused me to call CPS.
Some of the Illnesses you can get from ingesting sewage water are
Campylobacteriosis
Diarrheagenic E. coli
Gastroenteritis
Giardiasis
Hepatitis A
Salmonellosis
Dysentery
Typhoid fever
If you were my kid the 1st thing I would have done was take you to get checked out to make sure you were ok and if needed get you medications to treat what you were exposed to. Not get you drunk and leave you to watch children while intoxicated.
Have you been checked out by a medical practitioner since this happened?
Also, if you give in to his demands, and tell your therapist “sorry, i was lying” – a good therapist will catch on and think “someone is pressuring this person” which could end up with even MORE issues for daddy dearest.
NTA
and – make notes . What he says, how (tone) and when. Just in case things do go pear shaped and he tries to blame you (again)
What they did was incredibly irresponsible. Part of life is facing consequences for your mistakes, even when you have taken responsibility for them.
You were in danger and so were your siblings. This is how the system is set up, to protect children. The fact that this is happening means the system is working.
If this is a stand alone incident, then your mum will get a slap on the wrist and nothing more. If similar things happen a lot, then you’ll be kept safe.
Hopefully there won’t be consequences that don’t match the actions, and your parents can understand it was your therapists choice to report, not yours.
Personally, I think only an asshole would ask you to not tell your therapist about your life. But that’s just me 🤷🏻
Why would getting very drunk stop you from being ill from taking in sewer water?