Well, today we took the children to speak with the CPS investigator. We brought along our faithful tape recorder, and the children played together in a room while the investigator interviewed them.

One point I would like to make (briefly) that came up from a question in the course of interview (which our five year old handled FAMOUSLY...more on that later), is that I am fat and my wife and children are slender. My wife has always been slender, and we've educated our children on good eating habits so that hopefully they overcome any genetic predisposition towards obesity. This leads certain less-than-kind individuals to assume that I'm eating all the food while the wife and kids starve (ignoring the fact that I have LOST over 100 pounds and kept it off for about two years). This is a form of legal discrimination, and frankly, it is INCREDIBLY hurtful.

The reason this point is relevant is that the investigator asked all the children whether they had enough to eat (fair enough). With my five year old, who was the most chatty, she followed up with "who eats the MOST?" (a loaded question with a pretty obvious answer, if the absolute truth were told). My five year old smiles and answered "I do". Score one for the good guys!

But what made me REALLY proud of her was when the investigator answered whether she was afraid of anyone, child or adult. When she said "yes", I held my breath. When the investigator asked WHO she was afraid of, she answered "the person who called CPS on us. We didn't do anything wrong".

Because this answer didn't come out of the oldest two, it was obviously NOT a coached answer. Now, while it COULD come back to haunt us, I doubt it. She didnt say she was afraid of CPS, but of "the person who CALLED CPS on us". I'd say that's as good a grounds as any to pursue a false allegation charge against our accusers, personally.

We don't know what will come of the interview, but we cannot be accused of noncompliance. We are gaining ground slowly but surely in our fight against the unconstitutional acts often employed by CPS. The best proof of that is the fact that once again, a home visit was NOT requested (although many parents are instructed that it is "mandatory")