Children Not Removed from a Filthy Home

I've seen people who live just like that. It doesn't look photo shopped to me.

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Quoting mmmagique

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I've seen people who live just like that. It doesn't look photo shopped to me.

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I do too, but go look at the pics again. Some of them really do look staged/photo shopped to me.

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Quoting Alamar

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It does not fall on the children to take the role of the parent and do all the cleaning, cooking, etc.

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Actually yes, it sometimes does become necessary. Just one of those "real life sometimes sucks" things.

You are free to have your own opinion of course, but these photos are exactly as I recieved them from my 14-year old. I have not photo-shpped or staged anything. As far as just picking up the kids and going, I have no idea what legal issues or laws are in place as far as what I can or cannot do. I have never gone through anything like this before, so I am completely out of my depth as to what action/steps to take to move forward. The CYS worker told me I cannot take the kids without a judge allowing it because of the involvement of the CYA services, and i cannot file for custody until they close their investigation. It doen't sound right to me, but again, I am not a lawyer or familiar with family and child laws.

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Quoting llworking

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I do too, but go look at the pics again. Some of them really do look staged/photo shopped to me.

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What pictures are you questioning, I don't see anything in those that indicate to me they had been photo shopped. I suppose they could be staged, but I have a hard time believing that a 14 year old found that much crap somewhere, brought it into the house, and took pictures to send to Dad, if they wanted to fabricate a reason to get out of the house they could have come up with something involving less effort.

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Quoting Disagreeable

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It also appears obvious they have no interest in trying to clean it.

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Oh come on, there is clearly a bigger issue here then an 11 and 14 year old who don't want to clean. Saying that the kids should just clean it is absolutely foolish.

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Quoting Alamar

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You are free to have your own opinion of course, but these photos are exactly as I recieved them from my 14-year old. I have not photo-shpped or staged anything. As far as just picking up the kids and going, I have no idea what legal issues or laws are in place as far as what I can or cannot do. I have never gone through anything like this before, so I am completely out of my depth as to what action/steps to take to move forward. The CYS worker told me I cannot take the kids without a judge allowing it because of the involvement of the CYA services, and i cannot file for custody until they close their investigation. It doen't sound right to me, but again, I am not a lawyer or familiar with family and child laws.

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Not knowing what is going on with CYS we cannot tell you what you can and can't do either. You really need a lawyer who can review the specifics and advise you. If you can share what part of PA you are in (County or City) then we may be able to help you find resources to assist you.

Have you filed your motion for modification of custody yet?

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Quoting Alamar

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You are free to have your own opinion of course, but these photos are exactly as I recieved them from my 14-year old. I have not photo-shpped or staged anything. As far as just picking up the kids and going, I have no idea what legal issues or laws are in place as far as what I can or cannot do. I have never gone through anything like this before, so I am completely out of my depth as to what action/steps to take to move forward. The CYS worker told me I cannot take the kids without a judge allowing it because of the involvement of the CYA services, and i cannot file for custody until they close their investigation. It doen't sound right to me, but again, I am not a lawyer or familiar with family and child laws.

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I didn't think that you had photo shopped or staged them, but are you absolutely certain that your 14 year old did not?

There is an incredible gulf between "doing nothing" and "removing the kids" CYS very well may be taking steps they will not tell you what they are doing. Nothing in those photos jumped out as an imminent threat (feces, fire hazard, hard drugs, etc)

Filthy living conditions is not generally sufficient to justify the removal of children from a home. If it were, we'd have to get a lot more foster homes. The conditions need to pose an immediate risk of harm (disease or danger) not merely be cluttered to the rafters. Now, if we had rats attacking people, kids with flea bites, bedbugs, and lice - different issue. But, clutter alone is no more likely to bring about a removal than would living in a car.

And, as mentioned, CYS might very well have given mom some marching orders - and time to get something done. Maybe not. But, if they have already looked into the matter, then relying on them to take the children clearly is not going to work. YOU need to file for custody and, perhaps, cite their living conditions with mom as a reason to obtain custody. Of course, this presupposes that mom doesn't have some dirt she can throw back your way. If you live in a glass house, then be careful how you tread here.

It would be interesting to know what code enforcement office thinks too. While the inside of the home generally isn't their business, if yards in my county looked like that with crap everywhere, the fines would be accumulating by the day and they'd be getting regular visits from a code enforcement officer.