My 3 year old grandson saw his mother using drugs, what should I do?

You must get involved!!! These situations are not 'easy' - but your GS must be protected!

I am raising my 3 yr old grandchild because of drug usage by the parents.

If your GS's father is willing, let him get legal advise for gaining full custody - and only allowing supervised visitation for the mother. If he is not - then are YOU?

We must help these children. There are more and more that have to live in unsafe homes....and they are in danger.

Don't let him suffer any more. He is only 3....help him!!

BTW - do not get CPS involved. Anyone in the legal system will tell you that. You would be placing your GS's life in the hands of people who do not care....and do not do their job. (of course, there could be exceptions....but do you want to take that chance?)

You have two options -- Call Child Protective Services and report this. They will investigate, but may find nothing. However many druggies are poor parents and at least this will get him in the system to be watched. Also keep an eye on him so you can tell if there are problems and tell your son.

Other option - confront the mom. You are assuming that she was snorting drugs. Children immitate things differently than they see them. If you don't have reason to believe she would use drugs (especially in front of her son) then ask her. He may be immitating her "snorting" nasal spray, or something harmless (not likely, but you never know. ) If you have a good relationship with her -- this may help her realize the damage she is causing.

A 3-year old child would never do what you just described if he had not seen it himself. I'm not saying he actually did see his mom doing drugs, he could have seen it in a movie that his mom was watching and just got confused about who did what. Talk to his mom. Tell her what he did and what he said to you. You might be able to tell from her reaction to what you're saying whether or not she's actually done something. I'm afraid you'll have to take it from there. If you feel there are drugs being snorted in the house your grandson lives in, you should absolutely say something to someone. Try starting with the child's dad. I don't want to get anyone in trouble since I'm not there and I don't truly know what's going on, but the police &/or child protective services may have to get involved...for the sake of your grandchild. The best of luck to you, your grandson, and especially his mother...it sounds like she might need the help.

Talk to him about it. Don't punish him, but discuss the drugs. Is he still living with her or seeing her? If he lives with her, you need to let your son know right away so that can file for full custody, his son is not in a safe place if mommy is doing drugs with him there. Talk to your grandson about how mommy acts after she does that. Does she act wierd? As hard as it is to talk about drugs at such a young age, you're going to need to address it, talk about why drugs are not good, but try to do it in a way that won't make him feel like his mom is bad. Perhaps talk about it as choices people make and some of the aren't good choices. It's easier for a child to think mommy made a bad choice or mommy is sick than mommy is bad.

I'm guessing that he's still around her, if that is the case, call Child protective services and ask their advice on how to proceed. They'll file a complaint and check it out. If dad can just fight for full custody sighting that as the issue, he'd probably win, if he can show that she's doing drugs around her son (he doesn't even need to prove the boy is seing it, just that she's on drugs when she's to be caring for him). If dad does drugs too or is for some other reason unable to care for him, then you should report it or put in a custody suit.

Good luck

Children are incredibly resilient creatures.

You may not be able to unteach him what he has seen, but you can be the one spot in his life that he goes to to learn better things.

Kids tend to forget what they don't repeatedly see.

the best plan you can come up with (and I say this because he will probably see it again,) is to counteract the evil with all of the good you know about.

He wil eventually come to a fork in the road, and with your input, he will have good choices.

In the mean time, I think I would be contacting someone and get her out of his life for a while, make her sober up.

Snorting in front of your child is such a cry for help, and a pretty strong statement that she really doesn't care about the little guy the way he needs to be cared about.

You however, do care and you know better, so I guess that puts the ball in your court, doesn't it?

I would go to Child Protective Services and tell them what he did and said. The least they can do is investigate. If you really wanted to make sure your grandson is safe, you could file for custody. I wouldn't tell the mother that you think shes using drugs, that way she wont expect a drug test when court day comes.

I'd talk to your son first and explain your concerns. Then, if he doesn't want to do anything, then call up social services. You have a right to protect your grandchild. It is putting him in harm if he is around drugs and observing his mommy take them... if he ingests any of it or tries snorting it like she does, he will probably die or be a vegetable for the rest of his life.

Tell the daddy. Call CPS and your local police department. If she tests positive for drugs she could temporarily lose her visitation rights. Don't encourage the child to say any more to you either as they can say you guys put him up to it. Just tell him that you are proud of him and want him to always tell the truth. Whatever you do don't talk to her about it. She'll only deny it and run with the kid.

Obviously you know what your daughter is doing. Minimize how much your grandson knows and try to get help for your daughter.

Look at getting temporary custody untill at least she can control herself infront of her children.

Obviously you know your daughter is going threw something she cant control anymore (addiction) if she is doing this in front of her own son.

I feel for you and all you can do is protect your grandson and try to help your daughter (she an adult) by even going to the lengths of turning her into authorities and going and requesting temporary custody untill she has all her mind back.

There is alot of support programs out their to help grandparents bringing up grand children drug dependant parents. Please google it.

Just do what you know is right to protect him please. Then your doing the right thing.

the question is do u love your grandson because if u do u would not want him in that situation....u never know what can happen she could be gone for days at a time on a drug binge and your grandson is left there to fend for himself...if u love him the right thing to do is to call child services...that's the smart thing to do.....better safe than sorry!!!!!