What is the name of your state?Florida
Hi to everyone.
This issue has been resolved but I wanted some opinions in case it comes back to haunt me.
I agreed to babysit two kids age nine and twelve for a couple of weeks, mostly staying at their house. Father works on shrimp boat and mother is out of town. I was in phone contact with the mother who was not sure of the day of the father's return to town.
After making plans for the 1st - 4th of July, I was informed the afternoon of the 1st that the father would be home in a couple of hours. After scrambling to rearrange plans and with some discomfort to everyone, me and the kids made it back to their house because father did not have a key to front door.
Father comes home and tells me he will be there till Tuesday. I explain difficulties I have had with kids, he says "Don't worry, I will talk to kids and wife". I leave, thinking the kids are now in the custody of their father and expecting a phone call from him before he leaves for work again.
Here's the problem. Monday morning I had arranged with the mother to take kids to a four day camp. Since I had not been telephoned by father and did not recieve answer when I telephoned, I thought they were dissatisfied with my services because of the issues with the children (they were bored and did not want to stay at my house while I did yard and housework) and were handling things by themselves. Although the father does not have a license, he has driven his car to do errands and was capable of taking the kids to camp.
Turns out the father left Sunday night, the kids were all alone on Monday. The mother thought I would be there Monday morning to take the kids to camp. They called her crying that they were alone, so some of her church members picked up the kids, took them to camp and brought them back home. Meanwhile, mother had to fly home from Washington D.C. at some expense.
During this whole time I recieved no phone calls from the kids, members of the church or the father and no one answered my calls, I had no key to the house to gain access to the mother or father's work numbers.
My question is: Could the parents file some kind of charges against me for not picking up the children? Abandonment/neglect etc?
Thanks for your help
Hi to everyone.
This issue has been resolved but I wanted some opinions in case it comes back to haunt me.
I agreed to babysit two kids age nine and twelve for a couple of weeks, mostly staying at their house. Father works on shrimp boat and mother is out of town. I was in phone contact with the mother who was not sure of the day of the father's return to town.
After making plans for the 1st - 4th of July, I was informed the afternoon of the 1st that the father would be home in a couple of hours. After scrambling to rearrange plans and with some discomfort to everyone, me and the kids made it back to their house because father did not have a key to front door.
Father comes home and tells me he will be there till Tuesday. I explain difficulties I have had with kids, he says "Don't worry, I will talk to kids and wife". I leave, thinking the kids are now in the custody of their father and expecting a phone call from him before he leaves for work again.
Here's the problem. Monday morning I had arranged with the mother to take kids to a four day camp. Since I had not been telephoned by father and did not recieve answer when I telephoned, I thought they were dissatisfied with my services because of the issues with the children (they were bored and did not want to stay at my house while I did yard and housework) and were handling things by themselves. Although the father does not have a license, he has driven his car to do errands and was capable of taking the kids to camp.
Turns out the father left Sunday night, the kids were all alone on Monday. The mother thought I would be there Monday morning to take the kids to camp. They called her crying that they were alone, so some of her church members picked up the kids, took them to camp and brought them back home. Meanwhile, mother had to fly home from Washington D.C. at some expense.
During this whole time I recieved no phone calls from the kids, members of the church or the father and no one answered my calls, I had no key to the house to gain access to the mother or father's work numbers.
My question is: Could the parents file some kind of charges against me for not picking up the children? Abandonment/neglect etc?
Thanks for your help
