The SWM looked at the garden in the way a loss adjuster looks at your car before declaring it a write off, and said things like "well, it's a lot more open plan than I thought it would be," and "this is really designed for adults, this garden, if I'm honest. It's not really a children's garden."
I spoke about all the ways in which we could manage the "risks" of sharing a garden. And to be honest, I could tell it was falling on deaf ears. He's gone away to think about it. But I know that they are most likely to say that we can't proceed if we don't put a fence up.
I feel utterly powerless. If we had kids, and for their wellbeing we needed to put a fence up, we'd do it. Of course we would. But this isn't going to benefit anybody at all. Quite the opposite. But there doesn't seem to be any way of having a logical, reasonable, conversation with them about it. It's about making social services feel more comfortably about their box-ticking exercise.
I feel angry, upset and powerless.
This is unbelievable. The things that "professionals" allow to stand between children and their future families is just criminal! I hope this takes a turn for the better soon. Any action that you take to try to change their minds can work or it can work against you. You never know. This seems to be something that calls for the pressure of a little publicity, but that can backfire in a huge way. So, powerless sums it up. Best of luck to you.
ReplyDeleteThanks S!
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