Centering on practice within child welfare systems, this article focuses on four representative narratives derived from 32 in-depth qualitative interviews with women who experienced intimate partner violence and involvement with the child welfare system in Manitoba and British Columbia, Canada. Narrative analysis was used to explore the content of mothers’ stories to understand how they position themselves against their child welfare workers’ understanding of them as "failed" mothers. This article concludes with recommendations to enhance practice with mothers who are involved with child welfare systems