Think about it: the police are at their door suspecting domestic abuse, child services might have got involved and took the child into care as a precaution because of the 'violence'. They have to live in that neighbourhood with everyone thinking they're child abusers or domestic abusers...even if the police cleared them there might still be people who think they did it and ostracise them. Although the neighbours had the best of intentions I can understand why the op might be upset about it. Not angry at them for calling but just upset at what could have happened.

A friend of mine's out-of-town boyfriend had a key to her place, and one evening while she was out he came over for a visit, driving a new motorcycle instead of his familiar truck. My friend got home to find several police cars at her house, her boyfriend in the yard with several police officers facing him down warily and with his ID and other items from his pockets (including her house keys) carefully laid out around him on the ground, and an officer who screamed at her to get away. The police were very on edge, and ran her ID twice before they'd believe it was her house. Apparently a neighbor had called to say that a stranger had come by and abducted her, though he did think it odd that he saw her "kidnapper" through the back room's window folding laundry. The friend decided not to be angry with the neighbor, on the theory that if anything awful *was* happening to her, she would just as soon he report it.

Because while they might truly stem from genuine care (though sometimes it's from being nosy), when someone overreacts and calls the cops it can have serious consequences (children being taken away, innocent person arrested, people getting hurt, etc). And people do overreact. I once had a neighbor call the cops on us because he saw our camera's flash as we were taking pictures for my little bro's birthday. Apparently flash=gun shot, despite the fact that we live in a country with strict gun laws, and we therefore were having a huge gun-fight. No one got hurt, but you should have seen the faces of the mothers as they came to pick up their 10-year-old boys and the house was surrounded by cop cars. Another time people called child services on my parents (who then had to go through this huge investigation) because my older brother asked for "exotic fruit juice" as a snack, and apparently (according to them) "exotic fruit juice" is a euphemism for "I want sex, and my parents abuse me all the time." Again, it ended well, but it was very stressful for my parents and then even after there was malicious gossip going around.

36, I don't think it's an overreaction to call the cops when you hear what sounds like a woman screaming in pain for 45 minutes straight. In a situation like that, a false positive is much better than doing nothing when something bad really is happening. The neighbors made the right decision.

I agree, I don't think they overreacted at all, for all they know it could've been me. I'm having mixed feelings about this, really. Glad they called because it does make me feel safe, pissed that they called because of the aftermath.

#68 good point. I was responding more to the original comment (which was talking about FMLs in general). You're right that in this case it seems pretty normal (although I find it easy to tell the difference between "happy baby screams" and "sad baby screams," but I suppose it depends on the baby and person listening), but I was thinking more of the FMLs where police get called for really stupid reasons (since as I said, the original comment was talking more about similar FMLs in general)

So the CPS is wasting their time with good parents like you while there are still parents out there using their kids for welfare checks and abusing/starving them? Wow... CPS needs to get their priorities straight.

@39 - CPS can't win. If they are strict and investigate everyone they get hassle for investigating innocent parents. If they give people the benefit of the doubt they get hassle when a child inevitably slips through the net. I think a lot of people forget that CPS employees are not psychic, they can't tell just by looking at someone if they're a bad person so they have to investigate every complaint however as they're so over stretched there will always be a delay between a report and an investigation unfortunately. :( That being said: OP what you're going through sounds horrendous. I hope everything gets resolved for the best as soon as possible.

Well I hope everything works out for you two:) and I feel like I have to say, it's in a child's nature to run around and bump their heads or something, I personally feel, about this case, cps and the police are overreacting. You guys seem like good parents from what I've read.

I always hear about good families children being taken away while obvious bad parents are given their children. Are all like that? No but they have work to do on the system.

61 - That's not true at all. And plus if you looked, this was in the Netherlands. Not the U.S.

Child protective services can be annoying. I was a rowdy kid and I was always getting into shit. I played sports as well. One of the neighbors was convinced that I was being beaten because I always had scrapes and bruises. I was the kid who jumped out of a tree and broke their foot and was always doing stunts. We had to deal with CPS for months.

When does CPS not waste their time?

@42 The problem is that they both harass good parents AND leave kids with horrible ones.

She is on a sleep schedule. Just not on the normal times as we work at night and haven't found new jobs yet. Also, I'll thank you for not telling me how to raise my kid. Most parents don't take kindly to know it alls when it comes to caring for their own children.

I wouldn't be too offended OP, like 90% of commenters here as dumb as bricks, including that shitwagon

Mind your own damn business.

some babies also take longer than others to get on sleep schedules, and if a baby doesn't want to sleep you really can't make it do so

Yea.. What everybody else is said

I applaud your use of the term "shitwagon"

Thanks! I'm also found of "douchecanoe" and "cockrocket" when it comes to vehicular insults.

If you can't think of a comment that doesn't reiterate what everyone else said, why bother commenting?

The baby is 6 MONTHS... Most babies don't have a very set schedule by then. And if Said babies have parents with night jobs, which OP has said they do, the baby might. It's just a Daytime sleep schedule.

Joke or not, don't say that shit about a child.

That's creepy, don't joke like that about a child.