My family and I were coming home Sunday from vacation when our minivan (we just paid it off!) had an electrical fire and caused burns to me for covering it with my body until husband who was in third row evacuated our three kids. While checking them for wounds, a piece of shrapnel evidently hit the back of the second row seat and caught our luggage on fire. Both of my arms, legs, neck and face—pretty much everywhere that wasn’t covered by a tank top and shorts, as it was 99° that day.Its been so hectic that everyone was biting each other’s head off so I called an old friend, I’ll call Mary, and asked her if my 16 yr daughter, “Lucy”, who has babysat for her 6 yr old, can spend a night or two. Teenagers girl and dad don’t get alone to begin with. She snuck a call to a boy she is forbidden to see and was caught trying to sneak out to see him. No problem, she said, this is a nice quiet place for her to unwind. I asked to talk to her and waited.Thursday morning I send her a pic of a flyer for an Arts Fest. I told her that I was picking my kid up Saturday morning. She said no. She went on to say her arm hurts and needs help around the house. For the “favor” of my daughter staying the night, she wanted her to stay at least until Monday to redo the yard to get ready for fall, take down trampoline, inflatable pool, etc. and needs my daughter to get power equipment out of her garage and take it to the upstairs of the house where she rents the top half of house as an “apartment”. Then wants my teenager girl who was in a fire within the week to sand her wood floors and paint the walls. Oh, and her daughter “Melissa” is sleeping in her room and with Lucy there, she sleeps with her so she can get a goods night rest.People say jaw dropping and my mouth hit the floor. I said no, Saturday is two days away and if Lucy doesn’t mind helping our with dishes or laundry, that’s one thing, she is NOT to have my daughter work as a contractor nor use power equipment at 16! I had to pick my youngest of 3 to the doctor to replace glasses from fire, run a few errands and Mary text me nonstop and kept texting saying she’s begging me please, she needs her help.First of all, she never even asked my daughter, and while she has a diploma, she’s not enrolled in college until spring and needs to get a job. Not to mention the stuff we are going through because of fire. I sent all calls to voicemail, tried to ignore texts, but my middle kid was in school yesterday and I didn’t want to miss an emergency call. I’ve had them seeing therapists but I was worried he was handling everything so well. I saw texts and I marked them as “read” so it would stop vibrating. My phone was warning me space was full. Then I accidentally read a text. It said that I owed her for letting Lucy spend the night. Lucy who took care of her kid, weeded her flower bed and slept with the 6 yr old. I reminded her I took her kid to a water park for a few days and she didn’t have to spend a dime, I bought the majority of Melissa’s Christmas and birthday gifts and even went so far to pay her $100 for watching my kids overnight (including my 16 yr old who watched them all) and she has the nerve to say I owe her!I had enough as this was going on since the morning at at 2:38pm I text her saying I am picking my kid up and I will never ask her for anything again! 18 more text messages to my phone, not to mention the ones my mother, husband and my iPad. 25 phone calls to me alone. I tried to minimize what I saw on notifications (thank God I didn’t clear them, just wait). After what seemed like an hour of her begging and pleading that she’s single, has no education and lives with her Grandma to let my daughter stay, she tries a new approach. At 3pm she tried saying not to do this to Melissa she was looking forward to Lucy spending the night, and sent me pics of our DDs together. I replied that if her daughter is so upset, perhaps she should come wax my floors and replace the carpet? Wooosh she kept asking why I am throwing away our friendship by not letting my daughter be her plowhorse. I reminded her in the 3 o’clock hour that Lucy needs to have her belongings ready. DH was going to pick her up but Mary kept relentlessly calling me, him and my mom.To avoid conversation we opted to send a car from an app I use. My daughter has taken several times and knows the driver. Mary physically blocked my daughter from entering the car! I called the driver to ask why she wasn’t in, and to take her to her home address listed on her state ID card, he said a woman is preventing her entrance. Mary reached in and grabbed the driver’s phone! Wouldn’t let my daughter pass and wouldn’t put her on the phone saying “calm down let’s talk about this”. I told her to put the driver or my daughter on the phone and to put her in the car I paid for NOW! She wouldn’t listen. I hung up and called the Grandma and told her I don’t want to cause any trouble but to put my daughter on the phone or I am reporting her being held against her will aka kidnapping. Before I could finish, Mary grabbed her grandmas phone! I begged her to not have me call the police to have her escorted. I was shaking so bad, I couldn’t find the police number on google right away, and I, admitting stupidly, told her I was going to call the police and have her arrested. They told me they couldn’t because Mary called CPS and claimed my daughter was unsafe in my care. She took grandmas phone and called 911 saying DD had to stay there because she’s not safe with me. She admitted to blocking the door to taxi because she was worried about my daughters safety. Then she told police later, that if I would’ve picked her up myself and hear her out (in others words, try to talk me into paying her poor life choices or to talk me into having my daughter work for her free for a week. I was in contact with the police, who said I could pick my daughter up as Lucy said Mary blocked the cab and she doesn’t know what she’s talking about she’s always safe with me, although I’m overprotective and annoying sometimes (now I know that’s my kids saying I’m annoying) but I’d never hurt her and the only reason I took her there was for her to relax and cope with the tragedy until her psychologist appointment. Both of my boys have been seen, plus one lost glasses and suffered burns, then I am taking her next week.It was a different story after they talked to DD. They gave me a statement to fill out and asked for the call logs and texts to all my family members. She claimed she was concerned for safety but they said that she had notice all day and if we can show them the texts of her saying please I’m begging you I need help around here to Melissa will be sad is she’s not here, to I did you a favor to your daughter isn’t safe around you to “if she would just have talked to me officer I would have sent her home but I didn’t know the driver”. She had no concerns of my daughters safety until I told her she could work for her. They already have three contradictions. 1. She doesn’t think my kid is safe with me at home and 2. She was worried since she didn’t know the driver of the car so she blocked her from leaving and 3. I just wanted to talk this out had she came in her own car I would’ve let her go. (But wait—she told them my DD wouldn’t be safe with me, so which is it?I tried all day yesterday not to respond until I could cool down, but she never gave me a chance to do so. I was going to post here to ask if I was overreacting by picking her up early so she wasn’t a handyman for the holiday weekend? Now, unfortunately, it’s a much different and definitely worse problem. I have no interest with anyone who physically holds my child against their will and refuses her to speak to anyone. 20+ years of friendship, my dupa, that’s my only daughter!I asked the police what charges she is facing and a couple they said are possible are parental or custodial (?) interference, contributing to the delinquency of a minor. She kept my daughter against her will from leaving her grandmas property and took 3 different phones I tried talking to her on! For one, if it’s “delinquency of a minor” I don’t want DD in trouble as she was trying to leave and Mary wouldn’t let her. Obviously she told the police that the unsafe accusations are a lie or they wouldn’t have had me pick her up.Though all this I had to leave with my burn wounds exposed and if the fever/possible infection doesn’t clear up, I may be in the hospital—but who cares about that when there’s sanding and sparkling to be done! The police informed me about the call Mary made to CPS. All I wanted to do was try to help my family heal.I don’t know the terminology or charges, but I initially told the police she is physically blocking my daughter from leaving and she should be charged with kidnapping! I will be turning in my report to the station soon. It’s brief, mostly they just need the proof in addition to the 3 stories she told the officers. Any advice would be appreciated, if anyone’s been in a similar situation. I am NOT asking for legal advice, just wondering what “Mary” should be charged with for holding my daughter against her will. Am I wrong to press charges? Pursue no contact or protection order? What about filing a false report to the police? She told them a few versions of the story herself, wasting time and city resources and causing my daughter, and hers to be scared. All I want to do is rest and heal! But my kids always come first.Edit: I’m recovering from the tragedy fire and thus ^ ridiculous nonsense so I apologize for formatting, grammar,etc. I can’t stop shaking any time I think about it! via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2wsNKiO
