The Case Plan Extrapolation

Case planning was this week.  Leonard and Penny's mom had hers Thursday afternoon and their dad had his Friday morning.  I got the report from Gloria at the end of the day on Friday.  One of them went well and had no issues.  The other was less than well and was not exactly what "case planning" was meant to be.  You can judge for yourself which is which, as reported from my talk with Gloria.

Mom

1. Her lawyer is always courteous and very nice

2. Discussed moving toward unsupervised visits

3. Discussed implementing parental management training

Dad

1. His lawyer is usually resistant to anything and everything, but is suddenly on board with the plan

2. He (dad) wants to know if we are following through on his (ridiculous) requests, including, but not limited to: a request on December 21st to see a specific Santa Claus (which we took pictures of and sent to him); giving them vitamins that look and taste like gummi bears so the kids don't know they're taking vitamins when asked; questioning the use of lack of use of diaper cream on the potty trained child

3. He wants to know how Penny's egg allergy has been lately and would like her to be tested by a doctor to see if she still has the allergy

4. Conversation held at the meeting
             Dad:  "The kids always say they want to go home at the end of visits."
             Gloria:  "Yeah.  They don't mean your house.  They call the other (our) house their home."
             Needless to say, Gloria's comment was not well received

So there's what I got from my conversation with Gloria.  I had a few responses to the things that the kids' dad said, so I told Gloria.  The diaper cream is only needed when Leonard has accidents that don't get cleaned up fast enough.  Those accidents are generally at daycare and he deosnt' ever tell anyone when it has happened, so there's a good chance that he is wearing dirty underwear and/or pants for a few minutes at least.  Gloria took it upon herself to explain that to their dad, so that was super nice of her to take care of before she had to ask us.  Then we talked about the supposed egg allergy.  I told her that the kids have both had eggs in all forms and neither of them have had any reaction.  Ever.  I told her that we would be more than happy to schedule a doctor's appointment and take Penny to be tested.  I also told her that I would like to request that she speak to their dad and inform him of the process (and pain) of allergy testing.  If this is his attempt at trying to be a parent, he needs to know what his daughter will be going through for it.  It's no Lyme's Disease test... you know... the blood test that he requested back in September.

I also learned that the judge in the case still believes that the kids can go back to whichever house that Gloria and the agency deem best for the situation.  Gloria thinks that, at this point, she cannot recommend either home.  The parenting training that will begin this coming week is supposed to help with her final determination.

We can only hope, for the kids' sake.