Reply to Leaving a tween alone at night + up to 8 hrs, multiple xs per week-- Maryland

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[quote=Anonymous]My sister's STBX (MoCo) has decided he simply must pursue his hobby and has been leaving their kid alone at night until 11 pm++ on school nights, about 2-3x/week, almost every week. He also leaves the kid alone for most of the day on Saturday and/or Sunday. Child is 10. They have been splitting time 50/50, every other week.

He got a gig doing this for a couple of months. (Technically he does get paid for this hobby, but very little, like min wage or lower.) Meanwhile he's stayed unemployed since they first separated 2 years ago. I told her he's trying to get out of paying her child support, bc he used to make 3x what she makes. She's on food stamps by herself. But anyway.

He told her she could watch their kid when he was out, but she declined since she thought that would force him to figure out childcare. To be fair?? even though he was terrible to my sister, we all thought he was a great dad, and he stepped up in the past.

Well, I guess that's over now that they're definitely divorcing. No babysitter, no neighbors, just leaving the kid home alone. Now that the first gig is over, he's starting another gig. Same thing. He left the kid sick in bed and alone all day Saturday (week before last). When my sister took her for her week, she was sick enough she had to miss 3 days of school. She said kid only got 6-7 hours of sleep most of STBX's week.

Sister said she'd had enough and told her attorney. Lawyer recommended she take her kid when her STBX was at his gig from now on, on top of her own weeks, but that they should wait and see if he gets a THIRD gig before they ask for more than 50/50 custody.

This seems crazy to me. I say she should call CPS. I have a friend who's a mandatory reporter who said she would.

I know MD law says it's okay if she's 8 years old, but then I read where CPS says "not for long periods." He's leaving her 6-8 hours at a time, 3x a week or even more. Should [i]I[/i] call CPS? Why isn't the lawyer more concerned?

I could understand if he needed to do this to put food on the table, but he's broke and instead of looking for a regular day job making $75/hr like he used to, he's basically getting paid $5/hr to neglect his kid.

The kid is responsible for her age, but this seems crazy inappropriate to me. Maybe neglect is a little strong-- I'm not worried she's going to die and I know we latchkey kids all survived the 80s. But what would you do?[/quote]

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