A Canadian mother is upset after said she was investigated by child protection services for letting her children play alone in their fenced-in backyard.

Jacqui Kendrick, a stay-at-home mom in Winnipeg, said a worker with Child and Family Services showed up at her home earlier this month after receiving a complaint about unsupervised children in her yard, The Canadian Press reported.

Ms. Kendrick, whose children are ages 2, 5 and 10, said she often lets her children play in the yard after school while she keeps an eye on them from inside the house.

“We’ve taught both the [older] kids so far that you look after each other. That’s kind of the point. The older ones should be looking after the younger ones,” Ms. Kendrick explained to The Press. “My 10-year-old is very responsible. We’ve taught the older ones already the whole stranger danger, and they know what to do. When my 5-year-old’s out there, she knows she’s not supposed to go up to the fence.”

She said that because a file has been created, she’s worried any future complaints could jeopardize the custody of her children.

“[The worker was] asking me about if we’ve ever dealt with CFS before, what my childhood was like, how I punish my children,” she said. “She had to look to see where my kid slept. She had to see if we had enough food in the house.”

CFS officials did not respond to The Press’ requests for comment.

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