In Amy Dickinson's column May 1, 2018, she published a letter from a grandparent who was concerned about her three year old grandchild living in the home with the parent's significant other.
She explained that current live-in spent a good deal of time with the grandchild. The grandpraent wrote of concerns based on the horror stories about abusive boyfriends and girlfriends and harm commited to children.
The grandchild had reported that the significant other wasn't nice and that that person spanked the child. The grandma told the parent who didn't believe the child.
Amy cited in her response that the parent should investigate rather than assume the child is l The correct response to this report is never to assume that the child is lying, but to investigate and discern what is behind these statements.
She went on to provide information from the Journal of American Academy of Pediatrics about children living in households with unrelated adults are nearly 50 times as likely to die from inflicted injuries as children living with biological parents.