What should a parent do if they suspect the other spouse of child abuse/molesting our child

Take your child to the doctor right away and have him/her examined. Tell them of your suspicions so that they can investigate. If they believe that your child has been or is being molested, they will report it to the police. As a parent, you must protect your child. From a legal standpoint, if this turns out to be true, you can lose your child if you have failed to protect him/her. I sincerely hope that you are wrong, but you need to be safe. Good Luck

David C. Beyersdorf

In an ideal world, the authorities would quickly investigate and come to a correct conclusion and either quickly try a true claim or quickly dismiss a false claim. Unfortunately, the real world is often not ideal.

Medical providers are mandatory reporters of child abuse. If you take your child to the doctor, the doctor, to protect his/her own interest, likely will make a report whether or not the doctor believes there is abuse.

If it is true that your husband is molesting your child, taking the child to the doctor will turn out to be a good move.

But what if your suspicion turns out to be invalid (that is, no one has been molesting your child)? DSHS may find something else is wrong in your household and start proceeding to take your child. Or, your household will just be continually investigated for the next few years. Or, your husband's reputation is destroyed and becomes unemployable.

This is a hard call.

If there is abuse, you would not want to delay. On the other hand, if there has been no abuse, bringing the authorities into your life may just result in bad things.

To answer the question that you asked, you can file a report with the police, Child Protective Service, or take the child to the doctor.