‘I want to go to the police... I think my daughter’s best friend is being abused’

“I knew something was wrong when she got a broken arm and then a black eye and said she 'fell',” the worried mum reveals.

When our kids become friends, we naturally become close to the parents.

You end up standing together inhaling all the cheese and crackers at birthday party food tables year after year, you rely on each other to confirm mufti days at school, complain about homework content, you commiserate over how the principal isn’t doing anything about the class bully.

Sometimes you end up best friends, with as close of a relationship as your kids have.

But sometimes you end up in an incredibly awkward position, like when your friend’s kid becomes your kid’s tormentor, or even worse, you start to suspect the parent, the person you’ve made a strong bond with, is being abusive.

Sarah is facing just such a problem.

Her 14-year-old daughter and her daughter's friend have been besties since kindy. “I have known her and her father her entire life,” she said in a Reddit post.

“In less than a week, my daughter’s friend has both broken her arm and gotten a black eye with no detailed explanation as to what has happened,” she said.

She felt it was serious enough to call the authorities, but she was also scared about the fallout if she was wrong.

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Sarah was worried something was wrong at her daughter's friend's home. Photo: iStock

Mum wants to call child protection authorities on daughter’s friend’s dad

Sarah felt the girl’s excuses were flimsy.

“The broken arm, she said she fell, and my daughter overheard her friend tell another child at school she got the black eye in a fight, but is telling everyone else she hit it on a dresser.”

The girl slept over at Sarah’s house recently and the she observed the girl was “quiet, jumpy and exhausted”.

“She says no one else has been at home, just her and her dad, and when asked she has pushed that everything is ok. My daughter is distraught and keeps whispering to me and texting me that something is wrong, and I have to agree with her.

“I have known this girl most of her life and she has never been accident prone.”

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Reddit community supports mum

Sarah wanted to know what to do. She was worried about the consequences if she was wrong, but didn’t want her daughter’s friend in danger.

Most commenters thought that calling the authorities would do no harm if nothing was wrong.

“As someone who has had child protective services called on them – just do it,” one person said. “If nothing is wrong, it might be stressful for the girl’s parents, but nothing will happen.”

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“A friend of mine had this happen,” said another person. "She was getting her child ready for the bath and found blood in her panties. She had to take her to emergency and had no explanation as to what happened, so social services had to be involved.

“Nursery told her she had ‘fallen and was upset’ at pick-up, but it turned out she fell on a sharp corner of furniture when they watched the footage.”

Originally published as ‘I want to go to the police... I think my daughter’s best friend is being abused’