Posted on 11/30/2004 5:25:06 PM PST by saquin
WHEN Chloe Riley, 14, arrived home from school to find her mother had walked out and left her to fend for herself, she set out to do just that. For a fortnight she carried on as normal, keeping up her schoolwork and telling no one that her mother, Stephanie, an IT teacher, had disappeared.
But when she returned home to find the locks changed, she had to accept that she had been abandoned. Her mother had cancelled the tenancy on the council house they had shared in the Wirral and moved in with her lover. For two months the girl had no contact with her mother, except a text message. She is now being cared for by a half sister, Lisa McLoughlin.
Merseyside Police and social workers from Wirral Council are investigating. A police spokesman said: “We received a report from Wirral social services that Chloe was abandoned by Stephanie. Officers from the family support unit have been holding joint strategic meetings with social workers. We want to talk to Mrs Riley and would appeal to anybody who knows her whereabouts — even Mrs Riley herself — to contact the family support unit.”
Chloe’s father, Robbie Riley, a well-known boxer on Merseyside, died in December, 2002, after a long illness. Friends and well-wishers raised thousands of pounds to meet the family’s expenses, pay for a headstone and Chloe’s travel costs from her home in Birkenhead to St Mary’s College, in Wallasey.
Relatives described how Mrs Riley, 39, changed after the death of her husband. She remodelled herself, with a new hair colour and slimmer figure, and is now said to be living with her 29-year-old lover in Haydock.
Social services staff said that Mrs Riley disappeared in early October. Chloe continued travelling to St Mary’s College, kept up with her homework and housework, but told no one, all the time hoping that her mother would return. When council workmen changed the locks, thinking the house was empty, Chloe tried to telephone her mother but the number had been changed.
Chloe was finally forced to accept her predicament and seek refuge with her half sister. Ms McLoughlin, 29, a care home worker, took her in with the few clothes and possessions she could salvage.
“Chloe has been distraught,” Ms McLoughlin said. “She thought her mum would come back and she didn’t want to bother me.
“Chloe had lost a lot of weight but she is with me now. She is happier and eating well, and doing her homework every night. I suppose that is all that matters. But I am not her mother and it must hurt.
“Every night I hear her crying for mum and dad. What child deserves that?” Ms McLoughlin said: “Chloe lost our dad. Then her mother ran off, and now we both feel abandoned by social services. I am a single parent with two kids under seven. I work three days a week because that is all the childcare I can afford.
“We only have each other and I would do anything for Chloe, but it is a struggle because I have got nothing to give her, except love.”
I find that statement ludicrous. The brain may go on "developing" with input stimulus and experiences which shape thought for a lifetime. Please do not confuse cellular development with lifelong learning.
I'm no fan of a Dickinsonian childhood, but it happens. Chances are this girl will be something entirely different as a result of her mother. She will be something much better. The mother is not mentally well. I've experienced it in my family.
"The hottest place in hell should be reserved for those who abuse or neglect a child."
"He had rather not been born who causes a child to stumble".
Agreed!!!
Yes ---not only did he end up buying his ex and her sleazy boyfriend a nice house to live in --- when his daughters moved in with him, he still had to pay child support and leave his apartment to get a place big enough for the three of them. He did end up with custody in the end and was able to cut off the support so it ended okay that way.
Do you remember when a lot of boys dropped out of school at the end of the sixth grade to start work?
The government has child labor laws that won't let most 14 year olds be self-reliant. Also in the past people were lucky to live till 40 so they were forced to grow up faster. And life was pretty rough for many back when children had to take care of themselves at age 13 - 14. Even if kids have to work they should still have family around that cares about them.
could not agree more whiny kids hell shes 14 at 14 i had to walk to and from school uphill both ways
Come again? I hope you are being sarcastic.
uphill both ways come big time sarcastic.
When my granddaughter was 5 her mother refused to let her come to her house or spend any time with her for 6 months because she was a "bad" girl. My son didn't tell her why she couldn't go see her mother and her brother got to go stay with her once a week. She finally asked me if I would talk to her father and see if he would let her go see her mother because she thought he wanted her to stay with him. I got him on the phone and told him what she'd told me and he told me the truth and later let me read the letter that his wife had written him. Needless to say, I was disgusted. I only wish she'd run off with a lover and not leave a number or address.
Gee, I think it must be the "Me me me, I'm worth it!"
mentality of a spoiled generation of people. We know two kids 13 and 15 whose mother left them and their dad to move in with a wealthy man in his mid to late 70's (she is about 35). Well, evidently after she burned her bridges, the old man didn't marry her and now she's living with a relative and threatening to kill herself. The kids are just trying to carry on normal lives and are tired of her jockeying and manipulating.
Agreed!
November 8, 2004 -- A 29-year-old Connecticut woman — accused of sexually assaulting an 8-year-old boy for months — says she considers the little neighbor her "boyfriend" and hopes to marry him someday, authorities said yesterday."I don't want anyone but you!" Tammy Imre allegedly wrote in a letter to the boy, who was a playmate of Imre's 7-year-old daughter.
True but these days it's difficult for a 14 year old to get a job to feed and cloth themselves. In fact it's illegal.
That's what you get for growing up in Escherville.
There is a special place in HELL for parents like this one.
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